While the CQR is still very popular amongst the blue water cruisers, the
Delta (Lewmar), Kobra (Plastimo) and Quickset (Kingston) are getting
interesting reviews. Delta and Quickset are claiming that their anchor can
be self launched.

Plastimo with their Kobra are not yet making that claim?

Is there someone that has used any one of these anchor and can offer
comments

On Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:48:01 -0300, "Denis M"
wrote:


While the CQR is still very popular amongst the blue water cruisers, the
Delta (Lewmar), Kobra (Plastimo) and Quickset (Kingston) are getting
interesting reviews. Delta and Quickset are claiming that their anchor can
be self launched.

Plastimo with their Kobra are not yet making that claim?

Is there someone that has used any one of these anchor and can offer
comments


Almost any of these anchors will work well in good conditions, i.e.,
bottom conditions ideal for that anchor. The trick is to find one
anchor suitable for being considered your "primary" that is always
ready to go on the bow, works well in a wide variety of conditions,
sets quickly, and is highly resistant to dragging or tripping out.
After trying a lot of different types over the years, including CQR,
Delta, Danforth, Bruce, etc, I've been using Spade anchors as the
primary on my last two boats. They set quickly in a almost all
conditions, have excellent holding power and do not trip out on wind
shifts. There is a newer, somewhat less expensive anchor called Rocna
which has a design fairly similar to the Spade. The Rocna has also
performed well in several independent tests but I have no first hand
experience with it.

Here is a picture of a Spade S200 (steel, 120 lbs) on the bow of our
Grand Banks 49 trawler, about 80,000 lbs fully loaded:

http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/5...croppedsc6.jpg

It has been our primary anchor now for 4 years and 14,000 nautical
miles of cruising, tested several times in 40 to 50 kt squalls with 3
to 4 ft seas. It has never dragged or pulled out, and almost always
sets the first time.

Wayne.B wrote:
On Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:48:01 -0300, "Denis M"
wrote:

While the CQR is still very popular amongst the blue water cruisers, the
Delta (Lewmar), Kobra (Plastimo) and Quickset (Kingston) are getting
interesting reviews. Delta and Quickset are claiming that their anchor can
be self launched.

Plastimo with their Kobra are not yet making that claim?

Is there someone that has used any one of these anchor and can offer
comments


Almost any of these anchors will work well in good conditions, i.e.,
bottom conditions ideal for that anchor. The trick is to find one
anchor suitable for being considered your "primary" that is always
ready to go on the bow, works well in a wide variety of conditions,
sets quickly, and is highly resistant to dragging or tripping out.
After trying a lot of different types over the years, including CQR,
Delta, Danforth, Bruce, etc, I've been using Spade anchors as the
primary on my last two boats. They set quickly in a almost all
conditions, have excellent holding power and do not trip out on wind
shifts. There is a newer, somewhat less expensive anchor called Rocna
which has a design fairly similar to the Spade. The Rocna has also
performed well in several independent tests but I have no first hand
experience with it.

Another worth looking at is the Manson Supreme.
Gordon

"Wayne.B" wrote in message
...
Here is a picture of a Spade S200 (steel, 120 lbs) on the bow of our
Grand Banks 49 trawler, about 80,000 lbs fully loaded:

http://img126.imageshack.us/img126/5...croppedsc6.jpg

It has been our primary anchor now for 4 years and 14,000 nautical
miles of cruising, tested several times in 40 to 50 kt squalls with 3
to 4 ft seas. It has never dragged or pulled out, and almost always
sets the first time.

I prefer to see an anchor with a forged shank. That Spade anchor looks as if
the shank is cut from plate.
When I got my boat from USA it came with a 10kg Danforth anchor with a shank
that was cut from plate that only measures 3/16 thick. This for a boat
displacing 16000 lb!
What happens to a shank like that when the wind changes or the tide turns? I
have replaced it with a 17kg Bruce.

Wayne.B wrote in
:

On Sun, 26 Oct 2008 13:48:01 -0300, "Denis M"
wrote:


While the CQR is still very popular amongst the blue water cruisers,
the Delta (Lewmar), Kobra (Plastimo) and Quickset (Kingston) are
getting interesting reviews. Delta and Quickset are claiming that
their anchor can be self launched.

Plastimo with their Kobra are not yet making that claim?

Is there someone that has used any one of these anchor and can offer
comments


Almost any of these anchors will work well in good conditions, i.e.,
bottom conditions ideal for that anchor. The trick is to find one
anchor suitable for being considered your "primary" that is always
ready to go on the bow, works well in a wide variety of conditions,
sets quickly, and is highly resistant to dragging or tripping out.
After trying a lot of different types over the years, including CQR,
Delta, Danforth, Bruce, etc, I've been using Spade anchors as the
primary on my last two boats. They set quickly in a almost all
conditions, have excellent holding power and do not trip out on wind
shifts. There is a newer, somewhat less expensive anchor called Rocna
which has a design fairly similar to the Spade. The Rocna has also
performed well in several independent tests but I have no first hand
experience with it.

I put a 20 Kg Rocna on BlueJacket 2 years ago and it's by far the best
anchor that I've ever used. It replaced a 45 lb CQR and before that a
Bruce. In the Caribbean I always had to swim over the CQR and most of the
time hand set it to give it a solid set. I've had none of those problems
with the Rocna. The Rocna reliably sets in all conditions where you can
reasonably get an anchor to set. The only time that wasn't able to get a
good set was in very soft mud and I suspect that no anchor would have held
well.

I will state that the CQR has also held very reliably once set properly.
I've ever ridden out a 72 kt storm at anchor in Honduras that bent the
anchor roller like a pretzel. The winds blew 40-50 kts for 20+ minutes and
the storm lasted about 2 hours in total. When I looked at my instruments
later, I saw a max wind speed of 72 kts! See
http://www.geoffschultz.org/2002_Sai...n/P6040586.jpg for
a photo.

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org

On Sun, 26 Oct 2008 22:28:33 +0100, "Edgar"
wrote:

I prefer to see an anchor with a forged shank. That Spade anchor looks as if
the shank is cut from plate.

No way. The shank is a forged V-shape that helps the anchor to bury.
The chain would break at 17 or 18 thousand pounds before the shank let
go.

On Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:44:33 -0500, Geoff Schultz
wrote:

I will state that the CQR has also held very reliably once set properly.
I've ever ridden out a 72 kt storm at anchor in Honduras that bent the
anchor roller like a pretzel. The winds blew 40-50 kts for 20+ minutes and
the storm lasted about 2 hours in total. When I looked at my instruments
later, I saw a max wind speed of 72 kts! See
http://www.geoffschultz.org/2002_Sai...n/P6040586.jpg for
a photo.

Ouch.

We use a "hook line" on the chain to take the strain off the anchor
pulpit and roller. The hook line also acts as a shock absorber since
it is 3-strand nylon with a bit of stretch to it. The hook line runs
through a deck chock (hawse pipe on our boat), and then to a cleat.

Wayne.B wrote in
:

On Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:44:33 -0500, Geoff Schultz
wrote:

I will state that the CQR has also held very reliably once set
properly. I've ever ridden out a 72 kt storm at anchor in Honduras
that bent the anchor roller like a pretzel. The winds blew 40-50 kts
for 20+ minutes and the storm lasted about 2 hours in total. When I
looked at my instruments later, I saw a max wind speed of 72 kts! See
http://www.geoffschultz.org/2002_Sai...n/P6040586.jpg
for a photo.

Ouch.

We use a "hook line" on the chain to take the strain off the anchor
pulpit and roller. The hook line also acts as a shock absorber since
it is 3-strand nylon with a bit of stretch to it. The hook line runs
through a deck chock (hawse pipe on our boat), and then to a cleat.

I do too, but I removed it when I was attempting to let more chain out for
more scope. Unfortunately I had forgotten (having just awoken in the dark
with lightening crashing down and sideways rain) that the anchor chain was
wrapped around the gypsy and then going to a cleat in the anchor locker.
Once I had released the snubber line, there was no way to unhook the chain
to increase the scope and/or re-attach the snubber.

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org

I'm curious, as I'm trying for the same setup now that I'm cruising,
and the scraping chain is a pain. Once you run the "hook line", there
is spare chain that will be looser than the line, doesn't it just
bang against the side of the boat?

On Sun, 26 Oct 2008 18:11:01 -0400, Wayne.B
wrote:

On Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:44:33 -0500, Geoff Schultz
wrote:

I will state that the CQR has also held very reliably once set properly.
I've ever ridden out a 72 kt storm at anchor in Honduras that bent the
anchor roller like a pretzel. The winds blew 40-50 kts for 20+ minutes and
the storm lasted about 2 hours in total. When I looked at my instruments
later, I saw a max wind speed of 72 kts! See
http://www.geoffschultz.org/2002_Sai...n/P6040586.jpg for
a photo.

Ouch.

We use a "hook line" on the chain to take the strain off the anchor
pulpit and roller. The hook line also acts as a shock absorber since
it is 3-strand nylon with a bit of stretch to it. The hook line runs
through a deck chock (hawse pipe on our boat), and then to a cleat.

"Geoff Schultz" wrote in message .. .
Wayne.B wrote in
:

On Sun, 26 Oct 2008 16:44:33 -0500, Geoff Schultz
wrote:

I will state that the CQR has also held very reliably once set
properly. I've ever ridden out a 72 kt storm at anchor in Honduras
that bent the anchor roller like a pretzel. The winds blew 40-50 kts
for 20+ minutes and the storm lasted about 2 hours in total. When I
looked at my instruments later, I saw a max wind speed of 72 kts! See
http://www.geoffschultz.org/2002_Sai...n/P6040586.jpg
for a photo.

Ouch.

We use a "hook line" on the chain to take the strain off the anchor
pulpit and roller. The hook line also acts as a shock absorber since
it is 3-strand nylon with a bit of stretch to it. The hook line runs
through a deck chock (hawse pipe on our boat), and then to a cleat.

I do too, but I removed it when I was attempting to let more chain out for
more scope. Unfortunately I had forgotten (having just awoken in the dark
with lightening crashing down and sideways rain) that the anchor chain was
wrapped around the gypsy and then going to a cleat in the anchor locker.
Once I had released the snubber line, there was no way to unhook the chain
to increase the scope and/or re-attach the snubber.

-- Geoff
www.GeoffSchultz.org

This may not be the ideal set up. My boat was purchased with 125 feet of chain and 250 of three stands nylon rope to fit the electric windlass.

At first, in shallow water I would only use the chain and let it rest on the bow roller, Last summer, when the wind got strong and repeatedly veered from one direction to the other during the night the chain was making a terrible noise when hitting the side plate of the bow roller. After that I started to let all the chain out and use the rope to tie the boat to the (bow) mooring cleat after passing through the chock.