ksanders
Moderator Emeritus
With all the anchor talk lately I decided since I'm sitting at home healing up frm a hip replacement with Nothing to do, I'd look into this anchor issue.
I went to several anchor manufactirers web sites, IE Mantus, Ronca, and several I don't remember and brought away some concepts that I think people are missing. These tests are in my opinion "rigged" to benefit the brand of anchor they are testing. Here's how.
First, the anchor tests are done for the most part using light anchors. This in my opinion is not relavant, at least to many cruisers because since our boats are by nature fairly large, so our our anchors. Why does this matter??? Well the sand, or mud, or whatever is a certain consistancy and heavier anchors set better. Some anchor designs like the bruce for example are known not to be effective at all below certain weights.
Second, many of the anchor tests are using a 3:1 scope, and all line rodes. This is very unrealistic because 3:1 is the very minimum I've exer heard recommended. Myself I will only use 3:1 as a lunch anchor, or a fishing anchor. When I anchoor and expect to stay there I use 5:1 minimum. The use of all line rodes is also misleading. Having a chain section causes the weight of the chain to be applied as pulling force on the anchor as it goes tight. This helps to increase what I'll call the "aparant scope" or what the anchor sees as the scope during the setting process. This is especially important when you consider that most large crusing "trawlers" use an all chain rode.
When I finally bought a subscription to Practical Sailor and after spending hours on their site found an archive that tested actual heavy anchors (in this case 110 lb units) I was amazed that they all seemed to perform pretty well. Some admittidly a bit better than others in certain sea beds, but they all did pretty darn well!
So, being a guy that was pretty open minded, and was actually willing to buy a new fangled anchor today, I found that the manufacturers websites to be in my opinion intentially misleading to benefit their design. Oh, thats why its called
avertising.
BTW, I received my Mantus chain grab today and was VERY impressed with the quality annd ingenious design. I made my all chain rode anchor snubber out of two rubber snubbers, two ddock lines, and the Mantus chain grab. I sized this to be a length so that when deployed with a slack rode it would be just above the water line.
I went to several anchor manufactirers web sites, IE Mantus, Ronca, and several I don't remember and brought away some concepts that I think people are missing. These tests are in my opinion "rigged" to benefit the brand of anchor they are testing. Here's how.
First, the anchor tests are done for the most part using light anchors. This in my opinion is not relavant, at least to many cruisers because since our boats are by nature fairly large, so our our anchors. Why does this matter??? Well the sand, or mud, or whatever is a certain consistancy and heavier anchors set better. Some anchor designs like the bruce for example are known not to be effective at all below certain weights.
Second, many of the anchor tests are using a 3:1 scope, and all line rodes. This is very unrealistic because 3:1 is the very minimum I've exer heard recommended. Myself I will only use 3:1 as a lunch anchor, or a fishing anchor. When I anchoor and expect to stay there I use 5:1 minimum. The use of all line rodes is also misleading. Having a chain section causes the weight of the chain to be applied as pulling force on the anchor as it goes tight. This helps to increase what I'll call the "aparant scope" or what the anchor sees as the scope during the setting process. This is especially important when you consider that most large crusing "trawlers" use an all chain rode.
When I finally bought a subscription to Practical Sailor and after spending hours on their site found an archive that tested actual heavy anchors (in this case 110 lb units) I was amazed that they all seemed to perform pretty well. Some admittidly a bit better than others in certain sea beds, but they all did pretty darn well!
So, being a guy that was pretty open minded, and was actually willing to buy a new fangled anchor today, I found that the manufacturers websites to be in my opinion intentially misleading to benefit their design. Oh, thats why its called
avertising.
BTW, I received my Mantus chain grab today and was VERY impressed with the quality annd ingenious design. I made my all chain rode anchor snubber out of two rubber snubbers, two ddock lines, and the Mantus chain grab. I sized this to be a length so that when deployed with a slack rode it would be just above the water line.
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