Have your Anchor ready: Don't be caught out

[magnetman]

The stockless type is good if you have a whores hole on the boat as it sits nice and close to the hull and causes few problems. 

 

A CQR or Bruce type is not as tidy. 

 

I think this is why big boats favour the stockless type. You will often see a pair of stockless anchors on the front of a big Dutch barge. Emergency brakes. 

 

 

[IanD]

10 minutes ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

 

The comparisons between the 'Stockless Admiralty Pattern' and the CQR are quite interesting.

 

Published in The Yachting Monthly and Motor Boating Magazine April 1934

 

Anchor A = 23 lb CQR

Anchor B = 25lb Traditional (with stock) anchor

Anchor C = 20lb Traditional (with stock) anchor

Anchor D = 20lb Stockless anchor

 

As may be seen from the table of results the traditional type is always more efficient than the stockless, and it seems that the new type (CQR) is, in all kinds of ground, more efficient than the traditional type. Indeed, the superiority of the new type is very marked, for it gives a rule about two-and-a-half times as big a drag as the best anchor of the same weight

 

 

 

To quote from Malcolm Tucker in The Thick Of It (which I was watching last night), the stockless one looks to be about as much use as a marzipan dildo... 🙂

Edited August 16, 2023 by IanD

[Alan de Enfield]

1 minute ago, magnetman said:

I think this is why big boats favour the stockless type. You will often see a pair of stockless anchors on the front of a big Dutch barge. Emergency brakes. 

 

As compared to latest generation anchors the stockless needs to be ~10x the weight. It relies on its weight as it does not 'set' in the conventional way.

 

If I had a stockless on the 'Cat' It'd need to be over 300kg. (currently a 30kg Mantus)

[magnetman]

They do work in the right sort of bed. 

 

 

 

I have seen a reasonably large stockless anchor very well set in the Thames foreshore mud. It was well and truly in there holding one end of a large barge. 

[IanD]

2 minutes ago, magnetman said:

They do work in the right sort of bed. 

 

You mean, like a marzipan dildo? 😉

Edited August 16, 2023 by IanD

[magnetman]

 

To be fair my quite small but heavy (25kg) Byers weighted stockless anchor is a bit useless where I am. 

 

The country estate boat (16 tonnes) on the Thames has 'quite a lot of water passing in winter' you can hear the River sometimes it is very loud.  I put the anchor out and as soon as the weir was fully drawn it just blew the anchor away. No grip. 

 

 

[rusty69]

Our small sailboat is permanently anchored all year round with two anchors. It has come through some seriously bad winters and hasn't dragged yet. 

Edited August 16, 2023 by rusty69

[Naughty Cal]

3 hours ago, magnetman said:

When I used to throw big magnets in the Thames on ropes I occasionally found anchors with nothing attached. 

 

I can imagine a scene where the skipper issues instructions to a crew member to 'chuck the anchor in' but the crew member fails to check if the anchor is fixed to anything. 

 

I had about half a dozen out including some quite good anchors. 

 

A friend of ours lost his anchor at Trent End.

 

He had bought a new boat and was taking it for a run down to Hull. On arriving at the anchorage at Trent End he deployed the anchor only to find it wasn't attached to the boat 

 

He ended up running the boat aground in the outfall and waiting for the tide to lift him off rather than just milling around the anchorage for a few hours waiting for enough water to enter the Humber.

[magnetman]

1 minute ago, Naughty Cal said:

A friend of ours lost his anchor at Trent End.

 

He had bought a new boat and was taking it for a run down to Hull. On arriving at the anchorage at Trent End he deployed the anchor only to find it wasn't attached to the boat 

 

He ended up running the boat aground in the outfall and waiting for the tide to lift him off rather than just milling around the anchorage for a few hours waiting for enough water to enter the Humber.

 

Its no good not having it tied on. I still have the anchor on the end of the rode its just it is now downstream of the front of the bow whereas when I set it up last summer it was about 20ft upstream ! 

 

 

[rusty69]

Sometimes it doesn't matter. We lost our CQR at anchor in Holkam bay once. I forgot to put the snubber on.....ooops,snap. 

 

Luckily we had the kedge. 

[Dave123]

19 hours ago, Theo said:

I'm going to bite and be prepared to be shot down.

 

We have 50ft chain and 40ft rope.  I do wonder if that it really enough on the Severn but I hope that as we approach the weir the water get shallow enought for the anchor to bite.

I thought the profile of rivers is usually deepest immediately above a weir, and shallowest below?

[magnetman]

Holkham! We used to go on horroday with my Aunt there when very small children late 70s early 80s.  She lives in Hempstead by Holt. Good.memories of sandy ham sandwiches.

 

 

 

[rusty69]

Well, it beats Hemel Hempstead. What a dump. 

[magnetman]

We were stuck in Hemel during the foot and mouth silliness and no it wasn't the greatest place. 

[ditchcrawler]

2 hours ago, LadyG said:

As I don't have a 56lb weight, if was going downstream I assume I could use the chain without the anchor, its at least 56lb. 

I'd still have the anchor itself in the bow with a warp.

Norfolk Wherries use to do that going backwards through Gt Yarmouth so they had flow over the rudder. it worked well

[Ray T]

 Will your anchor hold in the straits of fear,
when the breakers roar and the reef is near?
While the surges rave, and the wild winds blow,
shall the angry waves then your bark o’erflow? 

 

😁

[ditchcrawler]

I have just put ours away and hoping I am fit enough to get it out locker next time we venture out.

[howardang]

2 hours ago, ditchcrawler said:

Norfolk Wherries use to do that going backwards through Gt Yarmouth so they had flow over the rudder. it worked well

Barges on the River Hull among other places, used to travel backwards up the river on a flood tide, using the same technique. They often used their anchor as a weight, lowered until it just touched bottom, giving flow over the rudder and allowing the barge to be sheered thereby steered round bends. Sometimes referred to as “drudging”.

 

Howard

 

 

 

 

[Theo]

11 hours ago, IanD said:

 

I've seen the same mistake made with a stern line... 😉

So have I.  Don't ask when I saw this.

[IanD]

Just now, Theo said:

So have I.  Don't ask when I saw this.

Or on whose boat? 😉

[ditchcrawler]

 

12 minutes ago, IanD said:

Or on whose boat? 😉

More than once, throw me your rope, so they throw the lot including both ends

[Midnight]

13 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

 

Presumably you/he then sourced a suitable anchor for the size / type of boat ?

I doubt he did and I'm not sure with the ebb pulling off at that speed any anchor would have stopped us mid river. I do remember thinking it was a bit on the small size 🤔. Mine is a larger danforth which I only ever used once and that was this year when we stopped on a sandbar in the Wash. So not a real test.

[cuthound]

On 16/08/2023 at 12:26, IanD said:

And Wayne Kerr still make component analysers... 😉

 

Back in the 70's they had a factory alongside the A3 at Tolworth. The company name was lit up in huge letters at night. Oh how we juveniles laughed as we sped past the factory.

 

[magnetman]

There was a kid at one of the schools I went to called Toby Oliver Kerr. 

 

I'm not sure but did think his parents may have been smokers.