Anchors - what is carried ?

[chris moody]

I’m now trying to work out how PeterM stores a Bruce in his fuel tank handle. Stowage of kit will be more important once I get the boat with the open bow and open transom. I don’t want the anchor sliding out the back at 20 kts as a wave passes through the boat

[The Hobbit]

You might as well just tie your chain round a house brick and throw that in.

On Chris Moody's advice I have binned my house brick and use a Danforth, about 2.5 kg I think. Works for me

[PeterM]

This is how I do it in calm conditions. Chain and warp only a few m of each as only for stopping in a few feet of water. Anything rough and it's on a dry bag attached to the boat.

Handy getting set up to stop this way aswell...

[digitalman]

I've found grapnels, even really heavy ones, to be useless. You might as well just tie your chain round a house brick and throw that in.

I've had a lot of success with small Bruce anchors with lots of chain. For the sib I have a 1kg Bruce and 3 metres of chain then warp, for the rib I have a 2kg Bruce with 10 metres of chain then warp. Both work perfectly if you lay them out properly and use the correct length of warp for the depth. On the 2kg Bruce we once held a raft of a 4m Rib, a 5m rib, and a 7m rib in the Menai Straits (that's impressive for such a small anchor).

How and where do you stow your Bruce style anchor so that it doesn't become a problem with the claw part damaging the boat please Chris?

[chris moody]

I store the Bruce anchor in a heavy duty canvas bag which stops it marking or damaging the boat. That canvas bag can also be stored inside one of the big Aldi dry bags along with other kit for even more protection. I’m not risking it marking or damaging £1900 of brand new Sib.

The Takacat anchor has now been upgraded to a 1kg Bruce, 4m chain and 15m of warp, which will enable anchoring in up to 3m depth of water. I will carry an additional 20m length of rope so I can extend the anchor scope to 39m for anchoring in deeper water.

I've found grapnels, even really heavy ones, to be useless. You might as well just tie your chain round a house brick and throw that in.

I've had a lot of success with small Bruce anchors with lots of chain. For the sib I have a 1kg Bruce and 3 metres of chain then warp, for the rib I have a 2kg Bruce with 10 metres of chain then warp. Both work perfectly if you lay them out properly and use the correct length of warp for the depth. On the 2kg Bruce we once held a raft of a 4m Rib, a 5m rib, and a 7m rib in the Menai Straits (that's impressive for such a small anchor).

How and where do you stow your Bruce style anchor so that it doesn't become a problem with the claw part damaging the boat please Chris?

[digitalman]

Thanks Chris

[chris moody]

Anchor in place in the Takacat

[harrison]

How and where do you stow your Bruce style anchor so that it doesn't become a problem with the claw part damaging the boat please Chris?

Hey digi,
On our sib we stored the Bruce anchor in a flexi builders bucket tucked up in the bow, all ready to deploy at a moments notice. Not a particular good pic but you can just make out the yellow bucket in the bows of our old 3.5 sib. Hole in bottom of bucket, pass end of warp through and attach to boat. Cleat off for shorter warps as req’d.

For info twas a 2kg Bruce, 4m chain and 30m warp - total overkill as this also easily holds our 5m rib. Same bucket, chain and warp.

For info we now have a tiny 1kg Bruce, 3m chain and 30m warp for our little Bic Sportyak. Amazingly this will still hold our rib for lunch stops in sandy bays.

Chris M; Your new Taka looks the cats whiskers!

[digitalman]

Thanks for all the great advice guys, got rid of the heavy grapnel now and replaced with a lighter Bruce style, not had to use it yet, but will update when I do

[Mitch]

Was watching saving lives at sea the other day & they said they came across some bloke using a microwave for an anchor, I wonder if it cooks the fish as they swim into it.