Can you send me a picture? Someday I might want to weld some onto mine, if
they help. You know the address. Thanks!

--


Keith
__
Without geometry, life is pointless.
"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in message
news:aqSSc.27747$Jo1.1890@lakeread01...
They are little tabs that stick out about 1" or so behind the edge of
the fluke at the shoulder or widest part of the fluke to prevent the
corner from digging in. Prior to about 2001 Spades didn't have these.
When it first lands the Spade rest on this corner and the tip. Without
the winglets the corner would start digging in first effectively raising
the tip so that it could not dig in. The problem was discovered by
Practical Sailor in an early test and Spade modified the design. Now
the corner slides over the bottom and the slight concave edge forces
most of the pressure onto the tip.

Tamaroak wrote:
We used the Spade A-80 in Alaska exclusively for seven weeks last year,
anchoring in all kinds of wierd muck/shale/shells/clay. We were having
quite a time of it at first until a nosey Brit with binoculars across a
bay with nothing else to do asked us to just try throwing it out and
letting it find its own way into the stuff. We tried that and from that
day on just threw the damn thing overboard, set the anchor watch on the
GPS and went to bed. We never dragged once, even in high winds and when
we would be holding on a slant and the tide would be pulling us in and
out. We were impressed.

What's this tab thing? Do they retrofit?

Capt. Jeff


--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

I will take a picture and send it to you. They should be easy to add
just before you need to get the anchor regalvanized but unless you
bought it before early 2002 your anchor should have them. I only
received one S80 in the old style.



Keith wrote:
Can you send me a picture? Someday I might want to weld some onto mine, if
they help. You know the address. Thanks!


--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com

Glenn,
Have you posted the details of your anchor test yet?

Paul
www.jcruiser.org
"Glenn Ashmore" wrote in message
news:dpxSc.27378$Jo1.2034@lakeread01...
We're back! 10 days of sailing and daily anchor testing. Brought down a
33 lb. aluminum Spade and borrowed equivalent Delta, CQR and Bruce anchors
from BVIYC. Primary rode was 3/8" all chain and secondary was 40' of 5/16
with three strand. We tested setting, basic holding power and long term
drag under pressure on both rodes in sand, sand over grass, mud/sand mix
and muck. It took about 2 hours a day with all 7 crew working. Two in
the dinghy changing anchors, two snorkeling with cameras, measuring rods
and marker buoys, helmsman, windlass operator and note takers.

The test sites were Cistern Point, Cooper Island (grass over sand); Dead
man Bay, Peter Island (grass over sand); Green Key (loose sand); Great
Cruz bay (mud/sand mix) and Hurricane Hole, St. John (muck).

The procedure was to drop an anchor and mark where it landed with a buoy
(pool noodle tied to a 5# lead weight). Set it and drop another buoy and
measure the distance it took to set. Let out to 7:1, back down slowly
then up to 2,200 RPM for 5 minutes and measure the drag distance. Hook on
the dynamometer, increase RPM until it broke out and record the maximum
rode tension. If it didn't back out we shortened rode until it did
recording maximum tension and ratio. We then reset and pulled from about
90º to the side to see how it realigned to the new pull.

Basic findings:
We found little difference between all chain and rope/chain except on
extremely short (under 4:1) rodes.
The Bruce set fastest overall in all but grass over sand but drug first
every time.
Delta and CQR set and held about the same (holding considerably better
than the Bruce) but when pulled off center the CQR realigned itself better
without breaking out when pulled at an angle.
The Spade required a little more attention to get it to set but held
considerably better on shorter scope than all the others in all bottoms.
It also realigned itself with less position loss than the others.

We found that you have to let the Spade sit for a few seconds and let the
wind push the boat back before it would right itself. In stronger wind it
was necessary to slowly let out scope to give it time to start to set.
Once the bow came up into the wind it set perfectly every time. If you
back down before it has a chance to right itself it just skids on its
side.

I will post pictures, a cleaned up spread sheet and add more detailed
results on my anchor site once I quit rocking.

--
Glenn Ashmore

I'm building a 45' cutter in strip/composite. Watch my progress (or lack
there of) at: http://www.rutuonline.com
Shameless Commercial Division: http://www.spade-anchor-us.com