Photos of Anchors Setting

[double u]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

This was a FOB Rock. 9m @ 3:1.

FOB are a very respected French anchor manufacturer that unfortunately have had little sales success in other countries.

They produce a range of anchors mostly based on a Brittany design. These include anchors with adjustable fluke angles (32° and 45°) produced in aluminium (they even use some titanium parts).

The FOB Rock is quite different and is their attempt to produce a convex plow anchor. Most convex plow anchors are close in design to the Delta, but the FOB Rock is an attempt to produce something quite different. It has a much flatter blade. No one would mistake this anchor for a Delta even from a distance, which is not the case for most of the other convex plow designs.

In my view, it is a better performer than most, if not all, of the other convex plow anchors.

The combination lead ballast (which is much denser than the steel used on most convex plow anchors) the skids, a thin light shank and a thin toe, together with a broad fluke combine to lift its performance. The only qualification I would make is that I have not seen a great many examples. The other problem is the tip is quite thin over the last few millimetres. This helps the performance significantly but the danger is that It does not take much to deform this sort of tip design if it hits rock. As you have seen, it is not unusual for the whole anchoring force to be only on the last tiny bit of the tip.

Unfortunately, this owner put no reverse force on the anchor at all and it is just sitting on the bottom, even the chain is slack. The anchor has not even fallen over onto its setting position. Many people imagine their anchor setting from this upright position but unless it is a very soft substrate, most designs of anchor (there are exceptions such as the Danforth) need to fall onto their side to set.

There was no drag mark. The anchor has not moved.

So unfortunately this tells us nothing about the anchor's performance. A pity, because from the previous examples I have seen, it seems to be a very good anchor.

...their's is exactly the type of "anchoring expertise" that I recall with dread from our cruises....

[Palarran]

We are on Alonnisos in a smallish bay Milia. Six boats spent the night here and were pretty well spaced out. It was an interesting swim around looking at anchors. I didn't take photos of them at the time but found a nice Discovery 50 with a stainless delta that was perfectly upside down. All the others were marginally set, including mine. I was surprised because we backed down on the anchor at 1200 rpm's for up to a minute while checking the AIS Watchmate to see if it was dragging. My only takeaway is that it's going to take a whole lot of reverse to get this 55 kilo Rocna to bury to the roll bar. I'm not sure if I care to bury it that far as long as the set has started.

[noelex 77]

This was an Ultra in 9m @ 3 or 4:1. (there were no chain marks and we did not do a timed swim hence the uncertainty about the scope)

This Ultra was dropped by a private cat in the area of easy soft sand near us.

The result is reasonably secure, but I found it a little disappointing from an expensive anchor. This should be a very easy softish substrate where even anchors like the Delta have been managing well. The Ultra has taken a reasonably long distance to set and most of the setting mark is the same depth, suggesting with more force or distance the anchor might continue to look the same rather than diving deeper. A lot of the underside of the fluke is still exposed.

On the plus side there is not much heaping up and the anchor is nice and level.

It is possible there is a problem with the substrate here such as rock under the soft sand. The sand looked identical to the areas where other anchors were doing well but this does not guarantee it is the same. Normally when an anchor is performing below par I have a good poke around under the substrate, but we were getting tired by this stage and the anchor was in reasonably deep water so no tests were done.

[noelex 77]

[Pete7]

That Ultra looks really good but is it designed to secure a yacht or secure a purchase by a yachtie? Does the slippery-ness of stainless steel reduce the holding power compared to galvanised steel?

Pete

[noelex 77]

Originally Posted by Pete7

That Ultra looks really good but is it designed to secure a yacht or secure a purchase by a yachtie? Does the slippery-ness of stainless steel reduce the holding power compared to galvanised steel?

Pete

It is a good point you raise Pete.

Manufacturers would have us believe that galvanised and stainless steel models will perform the same. This of course is a sensible sales pitch, but I am not sure this is always the case.

Stainless steel has the advantage that lead ballast can be used without any concern about future regalvanising problems. The extra cost of lead is not much of a factor given the eye watering price the stainless steel option commands.

A few manufacturers take advantage of this and use lead in their stainless models. Unfortunately, sometimes they keep the ballast chamber the same size as the steel version. Making the ballast chamber smaller has a lot of advantages in making penetration easier, particularly in weedy or hard substrates, but it changes the "look" of the anchor and I suspect the marketing department wants the stainless model to look like the galvanised model, only shiny.

Another potential advantage of stainless steel is that the leading edges can be made sharper without any worry about corrosion (galvanising does not last as long on a sharp edge) although this has the potential to create bending problems. Once again rather than take advantage of this manufacturers tend to make the stainless model identical to the galvanised model.

A drawback of Stainless steel is that 316 is weaker than high tensile steels. So manufacturers who use high tensile steels for their shank need to make the stainless steel shank thicker (which is very bad for performance) or you get a weaker shank. Some models use duplex stainless steels for the shank, potentially fixing this weakness, but often they do not specify the grade stainless is used which makes comparison difficult.

The slipperiness of stainless steel is a slight advantage when it comes to cleaning off mud but as you point out it must also affect performance. It has been suggested that it may be an advantage in allowing the anchor to dive more. But ultimately anchors are drag producing devices and I wonder, like you, if the slipperiness of stainless degrades performance.

The bottom line is manufacturers try to simplify their marketing message: "Big and small anchors will behave in the same way as do galvanised, stainless steel and aluminium models."

Most anchors I see come from cruising yachts so I see very few stainless steel models. The "bling factor" does not tend to be important. Having said that, I am not sure stainless is a bad option for cruising boats. Anchoring full time as we do in hard substrates means that the galvanising on steel models has a short life. Our New Zealand made Rocna needed regalvanising after three years. The Mantus is holding up better than the Rocna at the same stage, but regalvanising is not easy to arrange and is expensive in out of the way places. Unfortunately, manufacturers charge an enormous premium for stainless steel that seems out of proportion to the extra material and production costs.

The Ultra anchor is only produced in stainless. This means it can be designed from the ground up to make best use of this material. For example, it has a fabricated shank to mitigate the lower strength of 316 (compared with HT steels) and lead ballast. I think this is great approach. It it is a very expensive anchor, although I have heard of some substantial discounts especially for those able to purchase in Turkey where the anchor is manufactured.

[noelex 77]

This is a FOB HP anchor. Really it is a well made Brittany design. The Brittany anchor is a fluke anchor similar to the Danforth design. It has thinner, more tapered flukes than the Danforth so is more versatile, managing to penetrate hard and weedy substrates much better than the Danforth, but it does not have the fluke area so misses out on the outstanding holding power the Danforth has in soft substrates.

Some of the other FOB anchors based on the Brittany design are more interesting. The FOB Light is in aluminium and titanium with features such as an adjustable fluke angle that can be altered in a few seconds. It does not have the long stock of the Danforth, which makes it much easier to stow. However, personally I would only consider it as a kedge.

The FOB HP anchor is generally only a very average performer in my view, but like a lot of other second tier anchors, in the easy soft substrate here it is managing to do very well. It has set very rapidly with minimal heaping up.

You will notice that that a lot of normally struggling anchor designs are doing very well in this ideal substrate. When you get to a substrate like this, all anchors tend to perform very well. Personally, I think this causes a lot of the angst in anchor discussions. Those that sail in areas where these sort of substrates are common, cannot understand why negative things are said about a design that in their experience, on their home turf, performs well.

[twohapence]

Originally Posted by noelex 77

Some of the other FOB anchors based on the Brittany design are more interesting. The FOB Light is in aluminium and titanium with features such as an adjustable fluke angle that can be altered in a few seconds. It does not have the long stock of the Danforth, which makes it much easier to stow. However, personally I would only consider it as a kedge.

I have a fob light on my 30ft cat. I've never used it in anger but the other week I decided to rinse it off as it had been sitting in the aft locker gathering dust. The rode / cable is lead ballasted nylon.

I dropped it into the water and, I kid you not, it "swam" forward as it decended through the water. Intrigued, I recovered the anchor and threw it from the bows. Exactly the same thing happened. As it dropped through the water it made a sort of swimming motion and travelled forward a fair bit. I didn't think to meaure it but it must have been about 1 ft of forward motion for every foot of depth, if not a little more. The anchor dug in as I tried to retieve it and I had to pull the boat against about 15 knots of wind till we were directly overhead and it pulled out.

It's not going to be big enough for my next yacht otherwise I'd probably keep it. A very versatile kedge, especially with lead ballasted rope cable, that can be easily deployed from a dingy.

[hoppy]

So nice to be in an anchorage with clear water for a change.

When I dropped the wind was light so I backed down at 2800rpm for 15 seconds to dig it in. But before I went for the swim the wind swung around 180 picked degrees up and picked up before then it swinging back again and was about 30 degrees from what it was when I first dropped.

In this photo, the original set of the anchor was to the left of the photo and then to the right when the wind picked up. I was down below on my computer, so when the wind swung back, I'm not sure if it went back the same way (i.e. swing 210 degrees or if I continued the same way making it a 330 swing in total. There were gaps in the chain marks in the sand.

As you can see, the Vulcan did not move much when the wind swung.



The anchor obviously swung only 270 but you can see my chain on the top left of the photo


A charter cat's delta. They set after the wind shift. It set fairly quickly


Some steel laying on the bottom just below my rudder. Could cause a little fun for someone


So clear the water


Since these photos were taken, the wind swung back 180 degrees and gusted up to 30 knots and eventually it became a full 360 when the wind started to calm down. I should perhaps take a swim in the morning.

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by twohapence

I have a fob light on my 30ft cat. I've never used it in anger but the other week I decided to rinse it off as it had been sitting in the aft locker gathering dust. The rode / cable is lead ballasted nylon.

I dropped it into the water and, I kid you not, it "swam" forward as it decended through the water. Intrigued, I recovered the anchor and threw it from the bows. Exactly the same thing happened. As it dropped through the water it made a sort of swimming motion and travelled forward a fair bit. I didn't think to meaure it but it must have been about 1 ft of forward motion for every foot of depth, if not a little more. The anchor dug in as I tried to retieve it and I had to pull the boat against about 15 knots of wind till we were directly overhead and it pulled out.

It's not going to be big enough for my next yacht otherwise I'd probably keep it. A very versatile kedge, especially with lead ballasted rope cable, that can be easily deployed from a dingy.

I knew a Swedish engineer who at one point was involved in modifying the design of a bruce like anchor. His task was to also make it glide. Very handy in Sweden where the like to tie bow first to islands and use a stern anchor with a rope or tape rode

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by hoppy

Since these photos were taken, the wind swung back 180 degrees and gusted up to 30 knots and eventually it became a full 360 when the wind started to calm down. I should perhaps take a swim in the morning.

I did swim but screwed up the camera settings

The anchor looked no different in the morning.

[hoppy]

Today's anchorage. 4.5m

The Vulcan set very quickly again


Before I managed to get in the water, the wind had swung around. Another yacht anchored nearby and I was worried about them dropping their anchor too close to mine. I went to the bow to see where my chain went and then I noticed that I was on top of the anchor and drifting away. This was the state by the time I was swimming



I stayed in the water for quite a while hoping to shoot the anchor being turned, but there was not enough wind to do any more than straighten the chain


The water is so unbelievably clear here. Just had to include this shot.

[skipgundlach]

If that's your anchor, it appears you have a swivel directly on the shank.

A nice strong yank about 30 degrees to the shank might make it fail.

Use a shackle before the swivel to take up that swing, if I'm correct from the view from here...

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by skipgundlach

If that's your anchor, it appears you have a swivel directly on the shank.

A nice strong yank about 30 degrees to the shank might make it fail.

Use a shackle before the swivel to take up that swing, if I'm correct from the view from here...

It's an Ultra Swivel and it is designed to be fitted directly to the shank

Ultra Anchors

[skipgundlach]

That explains the silver bar in the pic. And it's a nice self-righting tool.

But I'd still be nervous about side loading...