Anchors

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The best anchor

In my not-so-humble opinion, the absolute best all-around anchor you can possibly have, by a large margin, is the original Simpson Lawrence CQR.  Get the largest and heaviest one you can manage.

CQRs have held our three boats safely at anchor for thousands of nights, through winter storms and steady winds as high as 50 knots in Alaska, Tasmania, and New Zealand, in coral anchorages, rocky anchorages, weedy anchorages, mud, shallow, deep, whatever.  If I could only have one anchor, it would be a CQR.

I will add the caveat that CQRs smaller than 35 pounds or so are difficult to set.  They aren't heavy enough to penetrate weeds or hard bottoms.  In that weight range, I'd probably use a 22 pound Bruce.

How about all the new designs?

Look, anchoring isn't rocket science.  The number one factor is quite simply, weight.  Weight of the anchor, and weight of the chain.  

If you are only anchoring in sand or mud, it's true that a Danforth, Fortress, or one of the other large-fluke lightweight types will hold better than a CQR of equivalent weight.  If you only anchor in coral, a coral pick that will bend if it gets stuck, allowing you to recover it, may be appropriate.  If you only anchor in rock, an old-fashioned fisherman-style anchor may be a good choice though they are difficult to handle and prone to fouling.  

But, I've seen some ridiculous claims made by people pushing new and unorthodox designs, and most of them are nothing but snake oil.  The most amazing was the model that was supposed to glide away from your boat when you launched it, dragging your rode with it, to the perfect 3 or 4:1 scope!  Anyone with half an ounce of sense would realize this could never work, and it didn't.  Don't these people even test their anchors in real-world conditions?

I've noticed that nearly all long-term cruisers have big CQRs, with a minority using big Bruce anchors.  The guys running the weird ground tackle are invariably the newbies.  Doesn't that tell you something?

Storm anchors

It all sounds so easy when you're sitting in your armchair, reading about the three-piece, 150 pound storm anchor that you can store in your bilge and easily assemble and deploy if you need to, but think about it...  If the three pieces weigh the same (they don't) you still need to schlep three 50 pound chunks of large and awkwardly-shaped metal from the depths of your bilge to your foredeck, all while the boat is moving violently in horrendous conditions.  

THEN, you need to assemble it while hanging on with one hand and trying to avoid damaging your deck or being injured.  What are you going to use for chain if it's all on your primary anchor?  If you do have a spare rode, you then must shackle it to the storm anchor and THEN, you have to get this very large, awkward, and - did I say HEAVY? - 150 pound object over the side, all without hurting yourself or damaging your boat too much, again, while trying to keep from being thrown off your bucking bronco of a foredeck.

You've got to be joking.  You'll never be able to use a "storm anchor" like this in any kind of emergency.  You'd be far better off using the heaviest anchor you can manage as your primary anchor.  Then you'll always be prepared for the worst.  That's what we do.

RED's ground tackle

We have two anchors ready to deploy on RED; a 75 pound CQR and a 66 pound Bruce, so we have the luxury of selecting the best one for the situation.  We've played with the Bruce three or four times, but the CQR wins my vote hands-down.  The Bruce is suited in close-quarters situations in sand bottoms because it holds well with scope of as little as 2:1, but we avoid these situations if at all possible.  

The real reason we have two ready-to-deploy anchors, though, is so that we have a backup ready to go if we find ourselves in a bad situation.  Your spare anchor won't do you a bit of good if it's sitting at the bottom of the sail locker when you need it NOW. 

December, 2005:  Abemama, Kiribati.  Preparing for a traditional sitting dance.  The "drum" is behind this girl; it's a plywood box with a pandanus mat on top of it.  The men surround it and slap it with their palms, very energetic and dramatic.  This, incidentally, is the only traditional musical instrument in Kiribati.

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