Living With an Oversized Anchor

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

So you feel less old and weak. You owe me a beer!

I'll gladly buy the beer, but I got to thinking, there is no 44Kg Rocna, only a 40 Kg.
40Kg is 88 lbs, so the 88 was correct, just the 44 wasn't.
Back to being weak.

[Dougtiff]

Many boat's have undersized anchor'e AND chain, remember reading a article about 2 boat's anchored down in terra Del Fugio ? one kept dragging, turns out they both had the same size and type anchor, but the non dragging boat had larger size chain, both boats had the same length of chain out. On my 15 ton Gaff rigger, i run 1/2" chain and a 75 pound ABI plow, never drag, if push comes to shove, i have a 175 pound Fisherman.

[sailorboy1]

The only real problem I've had with my oversized Manson Supreme is that the shank is so long that it hits the bottom of the headsail furled as it comes up. This makes it bounce once it clears and causes the chain to go slack and jump out of the windlass and then down it drops. I "fixed" this by leaving a rope tried to the roll bar and that I can and then hook and then hold on to so if the chain jumps the anchor stays on the roller (it only takes a little to hold it up). I could come up with a fancy fix, but it isn't a problem.

[a64pilot]

In order to try to keep the weight in check, I elected to be over anchored and under chained, by that I mean that 5/16 chain is much smaller than recommended for the 40 Kg anchor, but I believe it to be strong enough for my weight and windage, and 300' of 1/2" would be way more weight in the locker.
It was a conscious decision and I hope the right one, come replacement day for the chain and I will go to G70 chain, I thought that was what I ordered, but apparently ordered 43 instead

[kmacdonald]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

In order to try to keep the weight in check, I elected to be over anchored and under chained, by that I mean that 5/16 chain is much smaller than recommended for the 40 Kg anchor, but I believe it to be strong enough for my weight and windage, and 300' of 1/2" would be way more weight in the locker.
It was a conscious decision and I hope the right one, come replacement day for the chain and I will go to G70 chain, I thought that was what I ordered, but apparently ordered 43 instead

You are correct, it's best to have the weight in the anchor instead of the chain.

[knockabout]

sounds like we need to throw modern design anchors away and seek out older designed anchors that hold the boat efficiently on the bottom terrain they are designed for / if you have to go 1 or 2 sizes larger all the time it shows the inefficiency of the ground tackle / also will burn out your winch and your back

[UNCIVILIZED]

Originally Posted by knockabout

sounds like we need to throw modern design anchors away and seek out older designed anchors that hold the boat efficiently on the bottom terrain they are designed for / if you have to go 1 or 2 sizes larger all the time it shows the inefficiency of the ground tackle / also will burn out your winch and your back

How on earth is an extra 20lbs on an anchor going to hurt a windlass? You can quite easily pull up more weight in mud than the anchor alone weighs. And you might do something like catch a boulder in a Bruce & lift it along with heaps of mud. And snagging rocks which fit into their claw perfectly isn't super uncommon BTW.

How many times have you had your windlass motor rewound? And did it's breaker not trip when overloaded? That or the motor likely would have slowed when loaded really heavily, non?

Rant endeth (almost)

And, yep, I'm a fan of using the right anchor for the bottom. If you know with certainty what it is. Meaning the bottom that one's anchor will encounter for all of it's travels in locale X... Which may become locale Y if you have to re-anchor, or the anchor drags, hits a different patch of bottom than planned, etc.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by knockabout

sounds like we need to throw modern design anchors away and seek out older designed anchors that hold the boat efficiently on the bottom terrain they are designed for / if you have to go 1 or 2 sizes larger all the time it shows the inefficiency of the ground tackle / also will burn out your winch and your back

Maybe it just shows that anchor manufacturers specify the minimum sized anchor.

[a64pilot]

No I don't believe I needed such a large anchor, but other than the money spent, I couldn't figure out a downside, and one day I believe I will have to ride out an Armageddon storm and then I believe I may need an oversized anchor. That is why I bought the thing, for the way less than .1% of the time that I may need it.

[hpeer]

For me it's not the 0.1% I need it, it's the 10.0% when I hose up.

[Cheechako]

Good that you are satisfied with it. You would have had the same report with the appropriate size anchor too though.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Good that you are satisfied with it. You would have had the same report with the appropriate size anchor too though.

I have a Rocna 25 on the boat, sitting right beside of the 40, I had it first for a year or two, it is sized correct for the boat. It works fine, that is not the concern, concern was for a rare storm event.
However I have been using the 40 exclusively to see how well it worked and if there were any short comings, like inability to properly set because it's just too big etc.
My conclusion is I don't need the 25, the 40 works just as well for normal everyday anchoring, overkill, certainly, but I don't see a downside of using an oversized anchor

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

My conclusion is I don't need the 25, the 40 works just as well for normal everyday anchoring, overkill, certainly, but I don't see a downside of using an oversized anchor

of course

[Elie]

Originally Posted by pcmm

I think the biggest issue with an oversized anchor is your ability to lift it either with a windlass or by hand. As long as you can get it to set, then really who cares if its a bit oversized! YOu'll sleep better on the hook that way. Personally I still love the Bruce anchor ( genuine only. the geometry is different then most of the copies. personally I'd love to find a 50kg model for my OI 41 but That may be too large and I'll have to hunt down a 30kg model!

In my case I use a fairly large(55#) Spade anchor for my 47 ft(12.5 tons) Gibsea sloop. I have on board a 75 pound French made FOB anchor(sort of Danforth type). All chain(12 mm) rode. Once when huricane Came in our area(Lake Champlain) I used both anchor attached on the same rode ( the FOB in front attached with a rope rode of 30 ft).I was well anchored but the wind direction changed during the night. Significant breaking waves part of the dirty night did not affect my security. The only problem was when I tryed to lift my anchors. The Spade came along easy, but the FOB was another mather.It took me one hour of labor to see it. The rode was all mudded ... Most have sunk to China!.
To answer your question, having two large enough anchors seems a good alternative to a very very large single anchor.

[Pauls]

On a 30,000 lb boat, is being concerned about an extra 20, 50 or 100 lbs of anchor weight realistic? On a race boat, yes of course. And many boats have space/clearance issues that make it difficult to carry a larger anchor. On a long distance cruiser, if the boat can carry it and one is heading out into the wild blue with the need to deal with whatever Nature throws at you, why on earth not carry an extra large anchor? It could save your boat.

I've seen so many anchor discussions where sailors say they've used some type of anchor of some small size successfully. Great, so have I, I've anchored hundreds of times with light weight anchors. The point is that an anchor large enough for 99% of your anchoring situations will still fail 3-4 times a year. There are a lot of variables out there in the world. A bigger anchor increases the odds that it will work in an untypical, bad situation. And that is a good thing.