Photos of Anchors Setting

[micah719]

Thanks.....in other words, know thine anchor.

[noelex 77]

This was an articulated plow (CQR copy).

It was dropped in shallow water close to the beach where the sand is soft in 4m @ 6:1.

Despite the softer sand the anchor was doing a very poor job. It has a long shallow drag mark with very little penetration.

Ken would you like to come and give this one a try . Great pictures and comparison BTW.

[Muckle Flugga]

Originally Posted by jongleur

noelex: Do you get the same impression I do
that over 50% of the drops documented here
are bad? Seems like a huge majority of them
are bad. I haven't tallied them, but it's astounding
how many are bad. Certainly most.

I have the same impression. Many of these anchors are simply sitting on the surface or half dug into weed or whatever. This is indicative of poor anchoring technique and a failure adequately to back down on the anchor for proper bedding and strain testing. I always back down HARD on any anchor set at least twice before satisfied, and dive them almost always in the tropics, though admittedly rarely in high latitudes!

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by Muckle Flugga

I have the same impression. Many of these anchors are simply sitting on the surface or half dug into weed or whatever. This is indicative of poor anchoring technique and a failure adequately to back down

I have shown some photos where no force has been put on the anchor, so you need to take this into account when looking at the images.

However, boats like the plow anchor shown above in post #1757 did back down. I watched them do this and it can also be seen from the long, long, drag mark. The anchor just failed to dig in.

I am sure Ken knows how to anchor and could not do any better in his example.

Originally Posted by Muckle Flugga

and dive them almost always in the tropics,

You need to ask Santa for an underwater camera . I would love to see more photos.

[Muckle Flugga]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

I have shown some photos where no force has been put on the anchor, so you need to take this into account when looking at the images.

However, boats like the plow anchor shown above in post #1757 did back down. I watched them do this and it can also be seen from the long, long, drag mark. The anchor just failed to dig in.

Ken knows how to anchor and could not do any better in his example.



You need to ask Santa for an underwater camera . I would love to see more photos.

Never really thought much about taking the shots. Will do so in the coming season and post.

WRT the plow… can't have shown an adequate "bite", though, and springback to an aftwards location at each point. For me no hard "bite" no dice.

[Muckle Flugga]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

I have shown some photos where no force has been put on the anchor, so you need to take this into account when looking at the images.

However, boats like the plow anchor shown above in post #1757 did back down. I watched them do this and it can also be seen from the long, long, drag mark. The anchor just failed to dig in.

I am sure Ken knows how to anchor and could not do any better in his example.



You need to ask Santa for an underwater camera . I would love to see more photos.

And thanks for the photos. Only really just started looking at this immense thread, and lots of fascinating stuff.

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by Muckle Flugga

Never really thought much about taking the shots. Will do so in the coming season and post.

Photos would be great. After all the deep cold water wreck dives you have done you should find anchors an easy subject .

[noelex 77]

This was a convex plow anchor.

I always do my best to try and identify the anchor design as accurately as I can. This one had me stumped. It has wrong shank shape to be a Delta. You can see the semicircular cut out in the shank.

The Excel has a similar cut out, but this anchor did not have the holes cut in the fluke and other details were wrong.

There are a multitude of convex plow anchors. It is easy to mistakingly assume anchors like the one shown in the photo are a Delta because of the overall very similar shape. If you look closely there is usually some detail that identifies an anchor, but particularly when half buried it can be challenge separating the different convex plow designs.

Does anyone know? Also, if you think I have misidentified any anchors in previous photos please let me know.

In terms of performance the anchor was dropped in the transition between weed and sand, which is always tough to evaluate. The weed prevents getting a good photo of how much of fluke was buried. The best way is check by feel and on this occasion the tip had only just penetrated, but on the other hand the anchor had not had much force so it does not tell us much about its performance:

[noelex 77]

This was a Delta in medium weed.

One of the troubles with assessing an anchor in weed is that normally I rely on feel to determine how much of the fluke is buried. It is very difficult to photograph.

No such problems when the anchor is upside down .

We really need to see the anchor after more force is applied to gauge the performance properly.

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

This is the Guardian again from post # 1713. The yacht stayed overnight, so there was an opportunity for more photos.

It is amazing to me that people are prepared to go to sleep on anchors looking like this.

In the morning the wind switched 180°. It was only very light still. The anchor had pivoted on the long stock. It was now facing the opposite direction, but still with a very high list and minimal bury of the flukes.

It had dragged back several feet towards the direction it had started:

So I use two Danforths, bow and stern (Where I cruise I'd never set just one, of any brand) and I have seen my anchors set like this at first, at this kind of angle. It seems to be fine and only continues to dig in, but have others found theirs to have problems like this? Since I am never pivoting around on the anchor I have been confident about them and have never dragged... but all these great photos you are showing us are a great Anchor 101 class!

[hoppy]

I had a backing down failure yesterday with the Vulcan. I was on my way towards rounding Cape Maleas and decided to do a quick stop at Nisos Elafonisos to see if the water was as clear as the book said it was. It also said the holding was bad in parts of the bay.

I wanted to drop where I could dive so I went close to shore and dropped in 6m and just let out 3:1. Backing down at 2000rpm was fine, but when I gave it a burst of 2500 at the end, all hell broke loose with the boat swaying and helm spinning like crazy. I was very close to shore by now, but still 4m.

It was only planned as a quick swim stop but did the short scope and hard reversing to have something to photograph

The water was stunning clear so it was worth the checking out. Just glad I was not planning to overnight there.

[hoppy]

At the town quay at Monemvasia. I did not dive until the next morning. It was a good thing because I might not have slept so well otherwise.

When reversing into the quay I stopped the windlass to let the anchor dig in but I never felt an abrupt stop. I assumed (or hoped) that because it was shallow I had let out the chain too fast. Once tied up I used the windlass to tension up the chain and it pulled it very tight before it could not pull anymore. I assumed it was well set.

Instead my Roccy found a rock a a friend to cuddle. Thankfully Roccy did not try to bring it's new friend home.

I could not see any drag marks, so maybe I dropped straight onto the rock?


A Delta just laying around


Another delta, I think


Tonights anchoring at another quay is interesting. The water is deep so I just took the Gopro but as we were in shade from a mountain, the photos failed.

I have 50m of chain in the water and my Rocna is only dug in with the tip but is holding on so far. The forecast is for not much wind so I'm living with it.

A MY owner was yelling at a yacht as it came in about its chain location. The yacht then decided to come to my end of the quay after that. When I went for a swim, I followed the MY chain. At about the same distance out as my anchor, I found a CQR from the next sailboat laying on it's side with the chain just crossed over the MY's chain. I then continued following the chain and found it going around a very large rock or something and then heading off at 30 degrees. After a lot more swimming I finally found the anchor. It had a float connected to it which was also wrapped around a rock. The anchor had to be 100m from the MY WTF. When you look at the buoy, there is no way that anyone would associate it with that MY. There are other buoys in the area.

[Kenomac]

Hey Mr. Spock,

Is that Vulcan seabed similar to where I'm at here on Sardinia? Hard sand with a heavy underlying root bed. Lots of dragging going on around here when the wind increases. Many if not most anchors just lying on their sides.

Ken

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by Kenomac

Hey Mr. Spock,

Is that Vulcan seabed similar to where I'm at here on Sardinia? Hard sand with a heavy underlying root bed. Lots of dragging going on around here when the wind increases. Many if not most anchors just lying on their sides.

Ken

Haha

If you are talking my quick stop, I think so. The book said that the south of the bay had good holding but there was a super yacht with a jetski making a racket, so I chose the poor holding section I should have anchored right by them because that's what they did to me the night before.

[Kenomac]

We can get our Ultra to dig in deep, but I think it's due to anchoring here multiple times, knowing the bottom... and practice. Diving on ones anchor on a regular basis is an eye opening experience.

We've actually begun using a different technique than last season, where we now let down the anchor using the windlass motor until we see it hit bottom, the anchor gives off a bright reflection, then backing up slowly as we let out the rode. Pull back gently as it digs in, then slowly increase revs to 2000. No more releasing the windlass brake and free fall. So far this season, no need for second tries. Because the anchor reflects so brightly when it reaches the bottom, from the bow I can actually see it dig in when the reflection disappears.