Anchoring

Anchors

Probably the worst we had was in Mexico , Manzanio, 1991, hurricane warning closed the harbour, we had the Bruce out out in 30 ft..250 ft chain, a stern out Danforth 50, all chain 150 ft. someone took a picture of the starboard stabilizer fin visible on a roll..the cockpit hawse that the danforth was deployed through actually warped,,aluminum boat.....was not a fun 3 days...boat did not drift..just really lucky I guess seeing the Bruce is such a lousy anchor !!!!! the wind speed was assumed at over 60 kts outside the harbor.

Will not change what works...

I purchased a Rocna 88lb and 300 feet of 3/8" HT Chain for my Bertram 54. Something to consider is all that weight up on the front of the boat ... also whether the existing hardware on the bow of the boat can accommodate a much bigger anchor. In my case, going from the Fortress 55 to the Rocna 88 was not possible without making significant changes ... I returned the new anchor instead of opening another $5k can of worms reconfiguring the bow pulpit and hardware to accommodate the huge anchor.

Also, the 300 feet of chain was too much weight and started flying around in heavy seas ... broke the chain locker and ended up in my v-birth. I reduced the chain size to 175 feet and kept the rest for my second anchor.

Mike

Yes, the size of the anchor will be limited by the windless.........as will the chain size, as for that I live G IV hi-test.

I like 200' of chain with 500' of Nylon behind it. The chain is enough to get a proper scope in even 65' of water and enough weight, or if you really need a lot of scope or really deep water, you have 700' to play with........

I started using Bruce anchors, when my friend came back from the North Sea where he was a commerical diver on the oil rigs, and he told me that's what they use to hold the oil rigs in place. If it will hold an oil rig in the north sea it will hold my little boat.

When you anchor you boat, how many "Bruce" anchors do you use?

Because I believe oil rigs use more than one and they are quite large.

" ... and they are quite large."

Like this?

Yes. And it looks like even the oil industry has moved on from the Bruce.

MARMOT

i have seen a few times i wishi had one that size

happy holidays travler

How about this....

More for the Aussie boaters than international as its made in Oz. The Sarca Excel - made in Victoria. I've used it in tough conditions off Kangaroo Island and found it to be remarkably good. I use all chain 12mm shortlink and don't use a swivel on the 50kg Sarca. Mine is all galv including the Sarca Excel. I "upgraded" from an Admiralty pattern anchor with which I had all sorts of retrieval issues. I have a 55' 25 tonne flybridge cruiser. I sleep well with ideally 7 times water depth of chain out (or more sometimes). And the price was good direct from the manufacturer.

Just noted he never provided a link for this anchor
http://www.anchorright.com.au/products/sarca-excel-anchor

Posting #46 above is NOT a Bruce anchor, but I'm sure Marmot knew that.

Bruce Anchor
This claw shaped anchor was designed by Peter Bruce from the Isle of Man in the 1970s. Bruce gained its early reputation from the production of large scale commercial anchors for ships and fixed installations such as oil rigs. The Bruce and its copies, known generically as "claws", have become a popular option for small boaters. It was intended to address some of the problems of the only general-purpose option then available, the plough. Claw-types set quickly in most seabeds and although not an articulated design, they have the reputation of not breaking out with tide or wind changes, instead slowly turning in the bottom to align with the force.

Claw types have difficulty penetrating weedy bottoms and grass. They offer a fairly low holding power to weight ratio and generally have to be over-sized to compete with other types. On the other hand they perform relatively well with low rode scopes and set fairly reliably. They cannot be used with hawse pipes.

Since someone revived this thread I ll update my post...

I did sell the SS danfirth back in Jan and upgraded the 110 Bruce to the 176. Big difference in holding power, obviously.

Couple of weeks ago I got hit by a nasty line of storm anchored in a creek near charleston SC. Got about 20 minutes of 60 kts plus gust, maybe more but the hail took out the wind vane... The anchor didn't move a foot.

I used it about 20 times inthe last 3 weeks or so, always set on first try, never dragged and to be worked loose in the morning

Anchors need more surface area for the soft stuff, hence Danforth over the Plow type