CD 26 anchor suggestions

[John Stone]

Fred,
That's a lovely boat you have. Beautiful. How skilled are you at working with wood? How much are you prepared to spend? How much time to you have? I ask because making a pattern for a bow roller to be cast out of bronze to hold a plow or spade or rocna anchor is not a major project. If you are serious about it I can sketch something up for you and you could build the pattern to fit a standard rubber or delrin roller. Ship the pattern off to Sherri at Mystic River foundry and you would have it back in three weeks. A piece of teak or iroko about 2" thick (the height of your toe rail) by 4" wide by 8-10" long and four bronze bolts and you would have a very stout custom bow roller.

Or you could buy a stock SS roller assembly by Lewmar or some other hardware manufacturer and do a lot of custom work to get it to fit. I would go the custom route and it won't cost you much more than the SS production option--as long as you are willing to do all the pattern making and installation labor.

[Jim Walsh]

Fred,
That's a lovely boat you have. Beautiful. How skilled are you at working with wood? How much are you prepared to spend? How much time to you have? I ask because making a pattern for a bow roller to be cast out of bronze to hold a plow or spade or rocna anchor is not a major project. If you are serious about it I can sketch something up for you and you could build the pattern to fit a standard rubber or delrin roller. Ship the pattern off to Sherri at Mystic River foundry and you would have it back in three weeks. A piece of teak or iroko about 2" thick (the height of your toe rail) by 4" wide by 8-10" long and four bronze bolts and you would have a very stout custom bow roller.

Or you could buy a stock SS roller assembly by Lewmar or some other hardware manufacturer and do a lot of custom work to get it to fit. I would go the custom route and it won't cost you much more than the SS production option--as long as you are willing to do all the pattern making and installation labor.

Wow. You learn something new every day. That Mystic River Foundry is only a couple miles away from my slip an I didn't know it existed. Looks like they can do most anything. Very cool. Thanks John.

[tjr818]

Tim, A photo would help - that link no longer carries the posted images thanks Fred

Here are two that I found, one is our boat the other is the example that I followed.

Planning step 3.jpg

Guthrie Roller Example.jpg

[fmueller]

Thanks for the offer John ...

Tim does that hardware exist anymore ? . I assume you just tap a hole thru the existing bow plate? Your plate looks just like mine AFAIK.

thanks

Fred

[tjr818]

Fred,
it might still exist. Take a look at this recent link: http://www.capedory.org/board/viewtopic.php?f=4&t=34794
He says that he has two available. I doubt that he has sold both of them this soon.
Tim

[Ken Textor]

Thanks to all for your intelligent and useful comments. Too bad our national debates fail to meet this standard. For what it's worth, I've been convinced to try the ronca (22 lbs) and will modify the bow roller accordingly. Also, I like to let an anchor go when I think of it rather than when I can get it out of storage. Best of luck with all your projects,
Ken

[fmueller]

Hey Ken ... apologies for hijacking your post I ... I agree with your idea that having the anchor "at ready" is a good thing. My needs are mostly "lunch hook, swim hook, beer hook" and occasional over-nights in and around Narragansett Bay ... Potters Cove, Salt Pond out on Block Island etc. The point being, I'll be much more likely to use it on a whim if it's on the bow already, and properly shackled to the rode, as opposed to digging it up out of some locker and fussing with the hardware and so forth. I do a lot of single handing.

Right now I have two Danforth types. Not sure if they are "genuine". The smaller is either 14 or 16 pounds and really just fine for a CD 27 in most circumstances. I've used it and it works as you would expect. The big one barely fits into the lazzarette where I keep it and its 3/4" rode / 30 ft of chain. I think its about 40 pounds and if you look at the Danforth chart, this is way, way overkill. I've never tossed this one overboard mostly because I don't want to hand over hand it back onboard. I'd be kind of stupid to let myself get into a weather event where I might actually need this thing.

What I know about Danforth type anchors is that, set well in sand, they hold like cement, but what can happen, and I saw this quite often on our old Boston Whaler years ago now, which we used to take out fishing, is if you get a wind and especially a current change, and the rode drags over the anchor, the rode (rope or chain), can get wedged between the shank and the flukes. Even wrapped around it. That is the actual true hazard of the design. If this does not happen, a Danforth will generally reset as well as it would on any first try. But with the shank tangle up, the design tends to fail. I had to hammer the chain out of the grip of the shank and fluke once. Same thing can happen just with plain old eel grass, and this is what I saw most often ... you get a good set, then the tide comes in and the boat goes with the current and bingo, you are adrift. You pull the anchor up, usually accompanied by lots of "sailor" language, and it has a big mouth full of grass, and it's very clear what happened. And it is really jammed in there. So when folks say Danforths tend to not reset, I think this is the actual problem most of the time, that they can jam with grass or just the rode itself.

I've had my eye on the Spade, but only because of all the "next gen" designs, it does NOT have a "roll bar" and for that reason might fit up on my bow somehow with less complication. But I also suspect it is less likely to get clogged with weed. The roll bar designs, while way cleaner than a Danforth look like they might retain weed, but I have zero experience with any of them them - so that is just a hunch - plus there are so many good reports, I'd just assume it's less of a problem.

Spade's A80 looks to be sized correctly for my CD 27 (< 34', < 9500 lbs) and since it only comes in aluminum, it only weighs 15 lbs ... but it's a lot of $$ just for the convenience - about $700.

cheers

Fred

[Jim Walsh]

Hey Ken ... apologies for hijacking your post I ... I agree with your idea that having the anchor "at ready" is a good thing. My needs are mostly "lunch hook, swim hook, beer hook" and occasional over-nights in and around Narragansett Bay ... Potters Cove, Salt Pond out on Block Island etc. The point being, I'll be much more likely to use it on a whim if it's on the bow already, and properly shackled to the rode, as opposed to digging it up out of some locker and fussing with the hardware and so forth. I do a lot of single handing.

Right now I have two Danforth types. Not sure if they are "genuine". The smaller is either 14 or 16 pounds and really just fine for a CD 27 in most circumstances. I've used it and it works as you would expect. The big one barely fits into the lazzarette where I keep it and its 3/4" rode / 30 ft of chain. I think its about 40 pounds and if you look at the Danforth chart, this is way, way overkill. I've never tossed this one overboard mostly because I don't want to hand over hand it back onboard. I'd be kind of stupid to let myself get into a weather event where I might actually need this thing.

What I know about Danforth type anchors is that, set well in sand, they hold like cement, but what can happen, and I saw this quite often on our old Boston Whaler years ago now, which we used to take out fishing, is if you get a wind and especially a current change, and the rode drags over the anchor, the rode (rope or chain), can get wedged between the shank and the flukes. Even wrapped around it. That is the actual true hazard of the design. If this does not happen, a Danforth will generally reset as well as it would on any first try. But with the shank tangle up, the design tends to fail. I had to hammer the chain out of the grip of the shank and fluke once. Same thing can happen just with plain old eel grass, and this is what I saw most often ... you get a good set, then the tide comes in and the boat goes with the current and bingo, you are adrift. You pull the anchor up, usually accompanied by lots of "sailor" language, and it has a big mouth full of grass, and it's very clear what happened. And it is really jammed in there. So when folks say Danforths tend to not reset, I think this is the actual problem most of the time, that they can jam with grass or just the rode itself.

I've had my eye on the Spade, but only because of all the "next gen" designs, it does NOT have a "roll bar" and for that reason might fit up on my bow somehow with less complication. But I also suspect it is less likely to get clogged with weed. The roll bar designs, while way cleaner than a Danforth look like they might retain weed, but I have zero experience with any of them them - so that is just a hunch - plus there are so many good reports, I'd just assume it's less of a problem.

Spade's A80 looks to be sized correctly for my CD 27 (< 34', < 9500 lbs) and since it only comes in aluminum, it only weighs 15 lbs ... but it's a lot of $$ just for the convenience - about $700.

cheers

Fred

I have Spade S80 (33 lb.) which is galvanized steel. I have nothing but praise for its ability to immediately dig in and stay put. I have 15 fathoms of 5/16 chain and 160 feet of 5/8 three strand nylon behind it. The steel Spades are much less expensive than the all aluminum and the stainless models.
I also have a 25lb. Mantus which is one of the "roll bar" style anchors. It likewise hits the bottom and immediately penetrates and holds tenaciously. I have three fathoms of 5/16 chain and 200 feet of 1/2 three strand nylon behind it.
I'm a big fan of either anchor and chain is your friend in all situations.