What style of anchor to use?

Anchors play an important role when requiring to hold a boat into position. Many recreational fishers anchor up to fish. This may be at a known fishing spot, at a drop off, on a weed bed or even just dropping the anchor down and hoping for the best (I’ve certainly done that a few times. On some occasions it has paid off quite handsomely).

There are many anchors on the market. We’ll talk about 3 anchors that are quite commonly used but only 2 of them are suitable for Savwinch equipment.

Danforth:

This is commonly known as a sand anchor. Many boats without a drum anchor winch come with this anchor as a standard setup. They are a great multi-purpose styled anchor that works in many seabed terrains such as sand, weed, mud, rock and reef.

They range from 4lb to 100lb and generally come in Galvanised Steel

These anchors don’t normally suit drum winches as they don’t sit well in the bow sprit.

Good for: Sandy bottoms, lightly silted and / or hard mud bottoms, clay, shell and rocks

Not so good: Grass, deep mud/silt. These anchors can tend to drag along the bottom and not set in

Delta Style:

This is the most popular anchor at Savwinch. With a thin style arm, this allows the anchor to sit nicely in place on the bow sprit when the anchor is in the resting position on the bow sprit.

The good holding power of the Delta anchors enables it to land on the side when dropped into water, while it manages to bury itself when pulled. In case the wind or tides shift the boat position, the shape of the anchor helps the boat reset fairly. The shank geometry has been improvised to force the tip downwards while setting. This there by aids in quicker set.

Benefits

• High holding power in most of the bottoms
• Made of galvanised steel or stainless steel
• Strong one-piece construction
• Narrow cross-section shank for deep penetration

Disadvantages

It is hard to find an anchor with no limitations, as such Delta also comes with drawbacks of not being able to set and reset in soft bottoms. Its weighted point penetrates mud and hard sand bottoms, while they may not be able to work efficiently on soft bottoms.

Bruce/Claw Style:

This multi-purpose anchor is also suitable for Savwinch equipment. It is extremely effective on a variety of sea beds. They work tremendously to align with the force by slowly turning at the bottom. They perform well on boulder bottoms and also works well with sand, mud and clay.

Benefits

• Sets quickly on surfaces and resets after veering
• High warranties of non-breakage
• One-piece compact construction
• Remains stable under a range of tides and winds
• Roll stabilized

Drawbacks

It also has lesser holder power in mud or soft sand and hence can only be preferred greatly on hard surfaces.

The team at Savwinch prefer to use the claw style anchor. It’s a quick bottom grabbing anchor. For those that use this type of anchor in reefy and rocky areas. It would be recommended to set the anchor up in a breakaway system. See diagram below:

 

This allows the anchor to be picked up from the nose of the anchor rather than the arm. This would reduce the risk of losing the anchor to the sea bed when the anchor is stuck/reefed.

Tip: always tie off to a bollard before driving over the anchor.