Dave Gerr - Boat Mechanical Systems Handbook-How to Design, Install, and Recognize Proper Systems in Boats

PART SEVEN: ANCHORING SYSTEMS

We can divide anchor systems into three size

categories:

1. Small-boat systems: craft under 25 feet

(7.6 m)

2. Medium-boat systems: craft between

25 and 50 feet (7.6 and 15.2 m)

3. Large-boat systems: craft over 50 feet

(15.2 m)

Each of these can be further subdivided into

systems for lightweight inshore craft and

those for heavy cruising vessels. Naturally,

there are differences between anchor sys-

tems for light use and those for serious

cruising, even on boats of roughly the same

length.

Anchoring-System

Components

We also need to identify the components that

make up an anchoring system. Not all of them

are applicable to every vessel regardless of

size, type, or approach to anchoring. It’s

important, though, to define what the princi-

pal components of an anchoring system are:

• anchor


• rode (chain, shackles, rope, or wire)


• deployment and retrieval gear (anchor
  roller, hawsepipes, davit, or cathead)


• mechanical retrieval aid (windlass or
  capstan)


• load-carrying mechanism (cleat, bollard,
  samson post, snubber, chain stopper)


• chafe protection (protect rope against
  chafe, protect hull and decks from
  chain)


• chocks or fairleads


• rode storage


• backup anchors and gear, and anchors
  for special purposes

Each of these components must be prop-

erly selected and sized for the boat and for

the anchoring approach employed, or the sys-

tem is subject to failure.

Anchor Types

For several centuries, when mariners talked

about an anchor for a boat, they were always

referring to about the same thing. Today, this

standard, traditional anchor is often called a

fishermananchor or a kedgeanchor. Neither

term is strictly correct, as we’ll see, but fish-

erman anchor is acceptable. You really

shouldn’t call them kedge anchors. Kedges

are anchors that are taken out from the boat

and set to either pull a boat off or hold it off

from some location. A kedge can be any type

of anchor.

Over the past ninety years or so, a truly

bewildering array of new anchor forms

have been introduced, each one supposedly

better in some way than the previous. Orig-

inally, much of the impetus for newfangled,

lightweight anchors was due to seaplanes.

Between the two World Wars, seaplanes were

the only means of fast transoceanic travel.

The Pan Am Clippers and their many cousins

were the cutting edge of high-tech transport.

Traditional fisherman anchors were too

unwieldy and much too heavy for use on such

planes. The strange new anchors developed

to serve on seaplanes were patented inven-

tions, and thus these lightweight anchors

were often termed patent anchors.Most

sailors of those days felt that patent anchors

were terrible and considered the term patent

anchoran epithet. Nevertheless, time has

shown that many of these patent anchors

hold better, pound for pound, than the tradi-

tional fisherman anchor. In fact, so many new

types of anchors are now available that we

couldn’t possibly cover them all. We’ll take a

look at the more common or so-called stan-

dard anchors and then at some of the more

recent anchor developments.

Standard Anchors and

Their Characteristics

ADMIRALTY-PATTERN ORFISHERMANANCHORS

Early anchors—of recognizable form—were

used in ancient Rome. In fact, the word anchor

comes from the ancient Greek word ankos,

meaning “angle or bend,” which describes the

hook of an anchor’s arms pretty well. Around

the 1500s, the form was almost completely

standardized. They were cast iron with

wooden stocks, and usually back then, they

had straight arms.

The traditional Admiralty-pattern anchor

is shown in Figure 22-1 with its parts defined.