My father's boat (a big cabin cruiser) always had danforths. When he wanted
some quiet time he would tell me to "go check the anchor," which was really
a challenge-type game to me. I'd jump in, grab the line and pull myself down
to the anchor to see how it "looked." Sometimes I'd go down and dig it out
and clean the mud off, when we were ready to get underway. They always dug
deep in sand and mud, as I recall. This was the same guy who would tell me
if I wanted beach time to swim ashore, and he'd make it easy for me by
getting within a mile of long beach island. I guess he knew what he was
doing because I got good enough at swimming to get a lifeguard cert at 15.
He was a tough old sailor (the U.S.N. kind), I wonder if they still make
dads like him.
Scout


"Jeff Morris" wrote in message
...
No, not quite. I've used Fortress as my second anchor for 12 years, on
two
boats. Although they have much in common with Danforths, there are
significant
differences.

The Fortress has a much higher area to weight which means that it can
"sail"
like a kite in a strong current. I experimented without no or little
chain and
found that I couldn't even get it to the bottom in a current with no
chain. On
the other hand, you can use this ability to glide the Fortress out away
from the
boat, by pointing the flukes toward the boat as you lower it.

The light weight, (if you use minimal chain) allow you to "fish" for the
bottom,
especially in sand or hard mud, since you can feel the flukes as dig in.
Perhaps I've practiced this more with a Fortress, but with a regular
Danforth I
usually can't feel it until it fully grabs. I haven't had the problem of
skipping on a hard bottom - I've had just the opposite experience: In a
few hard
places where the Delta won't bite, the Fortress grabs quickly. (BTW, the
solution for the Delta is to let it sit for 10 minutes - it will slowly
dig in
if you give it a chance. This is an advantage over the CQR, which will
sometimes land on its side or up-side-down, and never dig in.)

The lighter Fortress allows you to go up a size, and thus use a "full
size"
anchor with the ease of a lunch hook. This is why I like it as a second
anchor - having set the primary, its very easy to position it (especially
when
your boat has two bows!). Its also nice to be able to row it out.
Another
benefit - the Fortress has a 45 degree "mud setting." We switched to that
in
the Chesapeake where our Delta would sometimes do the "slow drag" in soft
mud.

Now the downside: The light weight of the flukes means that a clump of mud
can
get caught between them and prevent the flukes from dropping down. While
this
has only happened to me once with the larger FX-23, the smaller Fortress I
used
on my last boat did it several times. On two occasions, I had set firmly,
let
out scope, and an hour later was drifting completely free. For this
reason, I
never trust a Fortress in an "unattended" situation in anything other than
soft
mud. I've never had this problem when using it as a second anchor,
because in
this situation is doesn't seem to release the same way in a wind shift.

For the record: My primary is a Delta 35 with 50 feet of 5/16 chain
spliced to
9/16 NE 3-strand. The secondary is a Fortress FX23 with about 15 feet of
chain.
I carry a Danforth style 20 pound anchor as a spare, plus 2 spare rodes,
and a 8
pound dinghy anchor.


"DSK" wrote in message
. ..
wrote:
... Fortresses, *IF* they can get a bite, will hold
very well. The problem is they are so light that they skip over the
surface
of
all but very soft mud.

BittyBill, you don't know WTF you're talking about. A Fortress works
just like any Danforth.

DSK