The other day, my seven-year-old daughter asked why the anchors she saw on boats didn’t look like “normal anchors”. Whuh-huh? It took me a minute to realize that the anchor she had in mind was the traditional Fisherman’s or Admirality-pattern anchor, familiar to her from illustrated books and movies such as Pirates of the Caribbean. You just don’t see these “normal anchors” on “normal boats” these days!
But while she was confused by the various fluke, plow, and claw-style anchors hanging off bow rollers at the local marina, I’ve got to admit to a bit of anchor confusion of my own. What’s up with all these newfangled, funny-lookin’ anchors I see?!?
For example, take a look at the Bulwagga, the Hydrobubble, the Manson Supreme, the Rocna, the Sarca, the Spade, the Sword, the Wasi, and the XYZ.
About ten years ago, I did a lot of anchor research. I looked over absolutely everything I could find, and I came to the following conclusion: on my cruising boat, I wanted a Delta on the bow and a Fortress, dismantled, stored below as an auxiliary anchor. Now I’ve acquired a new cruising boat. A small cruising boat; a C-Dory 22 named Two Lucky Fish. It has a “claw” (Bruce-style) anchor on a bow-roller up front, and no auxiliary. So it looks like I’ll probably get that Fortress after all, but why replace the claw, if it works OK?
Well, it turns out that it may NOT work, if you believe the findings in some recent anchor tests. But…should you believe these tests? It’s a difficult question, and I don’t claim to be any sort of anchoring expert, so don’t look for The Answer here! However, lots of anchoring experts (bonafide and self-proclaimed) have chimed in on a lively discussion over at Seven Seas Cruising Association.
I try to take it all with a grain of salt, but dang…choosing an anchor has never been more difficult! I guess I’ll just use my claw, and if/when I’ve gained enough experience with this boat and this anchor to realize I need something more, I’ll try to wrap my head around whatever new and improved test results is available at that time.
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Have you seen Rocna’s “expose” of its copy? http://www.rocna.com/boat-anchors/manson-supreme-anchor.php
Likely to inspire yet more “lively discussion”, but several of these newer anchors are merely variations on traditional types rather than huge leaps forward.
Talking about Knock-off / copies:
Some new designs are really “original” ones. like the Bulwagga, the XYZ and the Spade..
But many ares only Knock offs:
- The Roll bar of the German “Bügel” has already been patented by Peter BRUCE more than 30 years ago..
- The Rocna is not at all an original anchor; it copy the non lested Sword principle, the concave shape of the Spade, the “roll bar” of the Bügel and the shape of the shank of the Delta.
The Manson Supreme is slightly more “original” the sloted shank is not really a new invention, but the Cylindrical shaped fluke is original (with perhaps the exception of the Bruce fluke).
the Sarca is a plow.. with a sloted shank and strange looking openings on the fluke..
but any of those ‘New” designs are good improvements over the Last century anchors..
One more funny-looking anchor on:
http://www.ancoralatina.com
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