During high speed deployments, most anchors can descend with a trajectory other than vertical. In this video, I tested this "flying" ability with 5 different anchors.
So, I will chime in on anchoring technique, which IMHO is vastly more important than the anchoring gear. Good technique can overcome less than great gear, and bad technique can defeat the best equipment. In any case, on my 38-foot boat I never just let the 45-lb anchor drop. It is always lowered to the bottom by hand. When the bottom is felt we pause to make sure the boat is headed backwards or downwind. Then the chain is gradually let out by hand, with an occasional snub to make sure it is not piling up and the anchor is straightening out. This avoids the pile of chain on the anchor, possibly fouling it, and also usually means the shank will already be pulled around into proper anchoring position before any strain is put on it. Using this simple technique gives most anchors their best chance to dig in properly. OTOH you can make a Fortress or Danforth fly out front quite a bit, especially if on mostly or all nylon. This can sometimes be used to put the anchor right into a sandy patch in shallow water, and or get it further from the boat when using it as a stern or secondary anchor.
While I certainly advocate for careful setting of the anchor as you describe, I have a fantastically large amount of data (video footage of many many hundreds of haphazard sets) that indicates that setting technique has almost no effect on the outcome for seabeds here in the PNW. Other areas with seabeds like your "Chesapeake goo" are almost certainly different because anchors probably have a very hard time self righting. So far, I have yet to find any seabed like that here in the PNW. I am slowly coming to the conclusion that almost ANY discussion about anchoring MUST be prefaced with a declaration of global location and/or seabed type. I believe this might alleviate/explain countless instances where one person's anchoring experience is in opposition of another's.
Your anchor tests do reveal many instances where anchors that perform well on ultimate holding power need to flip and flop and drag for a bit to get oriented before digging in properly. Sometimes they don't. If you set the anchor carefully you can minimize this problem. Many places I anchor you do not have the luxury of being able to keep backing down until the anchor is properly set or else you will be on top of someone else or out of your preferred depth. One place I have anchored for more than 40 years is a perfect example of this on a daily basis. I have observed numerous boats with modern anchors on all-chain rode drop the hook in a hurry then proceed to back it down across the harbor. After several attempts they get hooked up and are fine, but with a little care they could get it right in the first place. Other boats with the exact same anchor drop carefully and see success on the first try.@@flygoodwin
Now will have to check as well. New acquisition real Bruce. Flying anchor: 2' water, throw 10' = truth in advertising. New idea: what is a good grapnel design? Doing some retrieval search soon.
Interesting tests and observations, but not very useful in the real world where (ideally) the boat is drifting downwind and/or down-current while the anchor is lowered. A more significant factor is whether the anchor is oriented with the point in the direction of boat drift and desired anchor set, assuming boat is backing down in relation to the current.
As always, thanks for the work you do. Interesting test. Would love you to do it with more anchors. Very interesting the Bruce floated well and also outpaced the chain. That seems inconsistent.
Not related much to this video (which is of your usual highly-informative quality, so thank you), but I’m curious, Steve, whether you have seen the roll bar Rocna Mk II announcement and Peter Smith’s video about it. I don’t care much about the claims Smith makes about the original Rocna or about the Mk II, and I trust your testing results much more, so I’m hoping that you can get your hands on one or more of these new anchors soon and that you are as interested in seeing how it does in your test as I am.
Cool video! It was fun to think of anchors in a functional but totally different way than something that keeps you stuck to the ground!I wonder if I’d actually prefer a vertical drop so that I know exactly where the anchor lands in otherwise busy anchorages.
@Paul Holm I would question anything coming out of this dealer. Generally we are dropping anchor not trolling it at full throttle looking for a Megladon.
Steve, just curious... Have you ever tested the load on the anchor while in real life conditions? What the load would be on Panope while anchored in 30 kts of wind for example?
Check out this video where I measured the load in 20 kt wind at about 300 lbs. Because the FORCE of the wind increases by the square of the windspeed, we can estimate the load at 30 kts to be about 675 lbs. (Panope is 34 feet long and weighs about 7.5 tons). czcams.com/video/yyelkzylBFg/video.html
There were so many trials of the flying anchor that you had a wardrobe change. That was funny! Thank you Steve!
At last!!! The Bruce for a win. :)
Always good to see a new post. Thanks. Bob in Nevada
Thank you for the test of the Flook! I've been curious about these since I first saw them advertised.
So, I will chime in on anchoring technique, which IMHO is vastly more important than the anchoring gear. Good technique can overcome less than great gear, and bad technique can defeat the best equipment. In any case, on my 38-foot boat I never just let the 45-lb anchor drop. It is always lowered to the bottom by hand. When the bottom is felt we pause to make sure the boat is headed backwards or downwind. Then the chain is gradually let out by hand, with an occasional snub to make sure it is not piling up and the anchor is straightening out. This avoids the pile of chain on the anchor, possibly fouling it, and also usually means the shank will already be pulled around into proper anchoring position before any strain is put on it. Using this simple technique gives most anchors their best chance to dig in properly. OTOH you can make a Fortress or Danforth fly out front quite a bit, especially if on mostly or all nylon. This can sometimes be used to put the anchor right into a sandy patch in shallow water, and or get it further from the boat when using it as a stern or secondary anchor.
While I certainly advocate for careful setting of the anchor as you describe, I have a fantastically large amount of data (video footage of many many hundreds of haphazard sets) that indicates that setting technique has almost no effect on the outcome for seabeds here in the PNW. Other areas with seabeds like your "Chesapeake goo" are almost certainly different because anchors probably have a very hard time self righting. So far, I have yet to find any seabed like that here in the PNW.
I am slowly coming to the conclusion that almost ANY discussion about anchoring MUST be prefaced with a declaration of global location and/or seabed type. I believe this might alleviate/explain countless instances where one person's anchoring experience is in opposition of another's.
Same here, I don't let the chain or anchor fly, I let it out under control in stages like yourself with a Rocna.
Best wishes from Scotland
Your anchor tests do reveal many instances where anchors that perform well on ultimate holding power need to flip and flop and drag for a bit to get oriented before digging in properly. Sometimes they don't. If you set the anchor carefully you can minimize this problem. Many places I anchor you do not have the luxury of being able to keep backing down until the anchor is properly set or else you will be on top of someone else or out of your preferred depth. One place I have anchored for more than 40 years is a perfect example of this on a daily basis. I have observed numerous boats with modern anchors on all-chain rode drop the hook in a hurry then proceed to back it down across the harbor. After several attempts they get hooked up and are fine, but with a little care they could get it right in the first place. Other boats with the exact same anchor drop carefully and see success on the first try.@@flygoodwin
Now will have to check as well. New acquisition real Bruce.
Flying anchor: 2' water, throw 10' = truth in advertising.
New idea: what is a good grapnel design? Doing some retrieval search soon.
Interesting tests and observations, but not very useful in the real world where (ideally) the boat is drifting downwind and/or down-current while the anchor is lowered. A more significant factor is whether the anchor is oriented with the point in the direction of boat drift and desired anchor set, assuming boat is backing down in relation to the current.
As always, thanks for the work you do. Interesting test. Would love you to do it with more anchors. Very interesting the Bruce floated well and also outpaced the chain. That seems inconsistent.
Not related much to this video (which is of your usual highly-informative quality, so thank you), but I’m curious, Steve, whether you have seen the roll bar Rocna Mk II announcement and Peter Smith’s video about it. I don’t care much about the claims Smith makes about the original Rocna or about the Mk II, and I trust your testing results much more, so I’m hoping that you can get your hands on one or more of these new anchors soon and that you are as interested in seeing how it does in your test as I am.
Heh, should have watched to the end before commenting.
Cool video! It was fun to think of anchors in a functional but totally different way than something that keeps you stuck to the ground!I wonder if I’d actually prefer a vertical drop so that I know exactly where the anchor lands in otherwise busy anchorages.
Would have like to see the Fortress. I have heard in a current situation that it will not reach the bottom.
I would like to know the parameters that could make this possible. Possible to far fetched😅
I was told by a commercial marine dealer that in enough of a currant they float n don’t go down.
@Paul Holm I would question anything coming out of this dealer.
Generally we are dropping anchor not trolling it at full throttle looking for a Megladon.
Steve, just curious... Have you ever tested the load on the anchor while in real life conditions? What the load would be on Panope while anchored in 30 kts of wind for example?
Check out this video where I measured the load in 20 kt wind at about 300 lbs. Because the FORCE of the wind increases by the square of the windspeed, we can estimate the load at 30 kts to be about 675 lbs. (Panope is 34 feet long and weighs about 7.5 tons). czcams.com/video/yyelkzylBFg/video.html
An aspect of anchoring I'd never witnessed having always used a CQR
Steve, I want that baby Bruce you are holding 😊
If only they grew up to be big Bruce's.