Kingston Anchors ?

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Spade Anchor

I see what your saying Kingston. Our Design is nothing like Rockna. Rockna is a plow a convex surface with little holding power on the fluke. A Spade Anchor is concave with all of the holding power on the fluke. Spade Anchor is the modern Patented anchor not a plow anchor.

Geez, I open up CF and see that it has become a time machine and we are back to the Craig Smith and Alain Poiraud show.

Spade Anchor, I believe you need to register as a vendor regardless of your username - check the site rules (I think that is what Almond is referring to - I couldn't care less about that).

I also believe you have never seen a Rocna anchor before. That should be a source of embarrassment for you as an anchor manufacturer/supplier - something you may want to rectify before casting around in anchor threads.

Mark

[colemj]

We have both a Rocna and a Spade, so are quite comfortable with our own experiences.

Do you still believe the Rocna is a "plow, a convex surface with little holding power on the fluke"?

BTW, it is spelled "Rocna", not "Rockna". You wouldn't want others referring to your anchor as a "Spayed", would you?

Just another tip about what is expected from an anchor manufacturer/supplier...

Mark

[colemj]

Dude, I'm trying to help you here. It is pretty obvious you have not experienced the past anchor threads with manufacturers involved. You would do your own personal cause a lot of good by learning some lessons from that past.

Bad mouthing competitors anchors without supplying any evidence, spamming threads with Polyanna descriptions, cherry-picked testimonials, going after those who are trying to help, etc - yeah, that's the way to sell anchors here.

BTW, did I mention that we own a Spade? I'm not running it, or you, down - again, I'm trying to help you before you get into too much trouble here and lose sales or credibility in the process.

Some of the best holding in our life has been while connected firmly to a rock...

Mark

[ReMetau]

Originally Posted by Spade Anchor

This thread is about a captain trying to find the best options for their vessel.

Actually the OP wanted this thread to be about Kingston anchors and not a discussion of anchor alternatives.

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

Let's try to keep this thread on the topic and not a general discussion of anchor alternatives.

[colemj]

Originally Posted by Spade Anchor

Thank you for purchasing a Spade Anchor! I am sure that you agree with us that it is by far the best when it comes to bad weather, wind changes and current changes.

Actually, no, I don't. The Spade is our secondary anchor because we find the Rocna better as an all-around primary. This is through 6+ years of full-time use in a variety of seabeds and conditions. The Spade is a very close second, though.

What we find better about the Rocna is the narrower penetrating cross-section. We have found the thick wedge of the Spade to be detrimental in some bottoms.

I know of two others in these forums who have switched their primaries from Spade to Rocna for similar reasons.

However, one cannot go wrong with either as a primary (or the Supreme, or Mantus). I do like the Spade, but obviously not as much as you.

Question: how much time have you spent anchoring with both, and in what seabeds/conditions?

You are WAY over-selling the qualities of your anchor. Something other vendors have learned the hard way in these threads. You REALLY might want to do some searching on this…

Mark

[cabo_sailor]

Originally Posted by Kettlewell

My personal thought on when it is "too big" is when you can't haul the anchor and chain up using muscle power, for when the windlass is broken, which it will be some day and inevitably when you are far from civilization, it is blowing a gale, and it is 2 AM. At least that is when everything critical breaks for me. I have found that I can haul up a 45-lb. anchor and 5/16 chain from close to 50-foot depths, but it is a workout if you have to do it more than once. That's a vertical load of around 100 lbs. when you're over the anchor. We've run into some cruisers on a big trawler who lost their windlass and they were in big trouble because of it. They were about 200 miles from any possible marine repair, and there were no marinas to tie up in. They needed help to haul the anchor and chain up and then they just had to go towards civilization non-stop, hoping they wouldn't have to anchor on the way because they only had one shot at it.

The loss of the windlass, at least on a sailboat, does not necessarily require raising the anchor by hand. One can revert to method similar to that used on the old square riggers. Take a spare line and attach it to the chain using a rolling hitch or chain hook and lead it back to a winch. Wind it in as far as possible and use the chain stopper (I hope you have one). Take your line, reattach to chain and repeat.

The old timers used a continuous line around a capstan and had the ship's boys attach what they called nips to the anchor rode to make the retrieval continuous. Hence the term for young boys being called "little nippers"

If you wish to be prepared, you can set up a line that reaches from the bow back the primary winches with a chain hook on one end. Kind of a long chain snubber.

[colemj]

Are there windlasses made that do not have a manual operation mode? We have had two of them of different brands, and both operate just fine as single gear manual windlasses by sticking a handle in them and cranking back and forth.

I could understand the windlass gears or other parts breaking, but that would be the same on a manual one.

Mark