On Sat, 20 Jun 2009 12:50:30 -0700, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
.. .
On Sat, 20 Jun 2009 10:47:26 -0700, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

I've always thought they look kinda flimsy, but they seem to work. Of
course, my boat is 1/2 the weight. The biggest boat I've used Danforths on
as a primary was a Catalina 27

Danforths are very strong and have excellent holding power once they
are properly set. We've anchored our 49 ft, 70,000 lb trawler all
day in 25 kt winds, and 3 to 4 ft seas on a 35 lb Danforth. Bottom
conditions were ideal hard sand however and we used 25 ft of chain and
lots of scope.

The problem with Danforths is getting them to set in the first place
in anything other than ideal conditions. They will not set from a
moving boat, tending to plane through the water instead. They will
usually not set in a grassy or rocky bottom, and worst of all they
frequently do not reset if the boat gets turned around by a wind or
current change.


When you initially anchored, were the conditions less than what they turned
into or did they start in the 25kts range? If the latter, how did you set
the anchor, give the problems you described?

Conditions started at 25 kts. We were doing race committee duty at
Key West Race Week in January and didn't have much choice.

We anchored by bringing the boat to a dead stop using the engines,
paying out rode until the anchor was down, and then slowly backing up
as we increased scope. That's more or less standard practice for any
controlled anchoring.

The problem with a moving boat arises when you are anchoring in an
emergency with failed engine(s), or in a strong current, or after the
anchor has tripped out for some reason.