commercial use in hawsepipes. For big ships
this is an improvement, and this form is
usually termed the navy stockless anchor,
though there are now many types of stock-
less anchors for ships, such as the Hall and
Forfjord, to mention just a couple. Figure 22-8
shows a further assortment of modern stock-
less ship anchors, improvements over the
original Westeney Smith navy stockless.
Nevertheless, most of these anchors have
no place on any boat (as opposed to ships).
Though easy to deploy and retrieve, navy
stockless anchors have abysmal holding
power until they weigh at least 200 to
300 hundred pounds (90 to 140 kg) and—in
most patterns—over 500 pounds (225 kg).
Many really work best at weights over a ton
(1,800 kg)! If you see a boat fitted with navy
stockless anchors, you’re looking at a boat
that’s likely to drag.
There are a couple of exceptions. On
larger yachts (over 90 feet [27 m] or so), a
heavy stockless anchor in hawsepipes may
make sense. Two stockless anchors that
work well in what are lightish weights for
stockless anchors are the Manson Anchors
kedge anchor (available in sizes as small as
110 lb. [50 kg]) and the G. J. Wortelboer
D’Hone Special.
Figure 22-10 shows a traditional West-
eney Smith navy stockless anchor in a
hawsepipe on a wooden commuter yacht. I
would not want to weather a nor’easteraboard while riding on this anchor, or even a
pair of them.
DANFORTH-TYPE ANCHORS The original
Danforth anchor was invented by Bill Dan-
forth in 1939 as one of those lightweight
patent seaplane anchors. It has worked
well enough over the years to be used in
World War II landing craft and almost to be
considered today’s “standard” or “traditional”
anchor form. There have been several vari-
ations of the original Danforth. The com-
pany was later purchased by the White
Instrument Company and is now part of
the ITT (Jabsco, Rule) corporate structure.
The three common original Danforth an-
chors currently sold are the Deepset II, the
Hi-Tensile, and the Standard. Only the
Deepset II and Hi-Tensile are of drop-forged,
heat-treated steel, and these two are recom-
mended for cruising. The standard Danforth
is really for small, coastal dayboats. This is
close to the original Danforth, though earlier
models such as the Danforth Mark III and
Mark IV had somewhat different propor-
tions. Figure 22-11 shows a generic Danforth
anchor with approximate dimensions. It is
important to note that these dimensions
vary and are only a general guide (though
they should be close enough to size most
anchor roller and storage arrangements).
Since the original Danforth patent ex-
pired, numerous other manufacturers have
offered their own either “improved” or lower-
cost versions. Some of these are excellent
anchors, some aren’t. The quality of manufac-
turer, the alloy, the sharpness and propor-
tions of the flukes, and the angle of the palms
at the crown all contribute to proper anchor
holding power and further vary performance
for better holding in soft mud, or sand and
gravel, and so on.
Regardless, the Danforth-type anchor
can be considered one of the standard mod-
ern anchors and is probably the most com-
mon all-around anchor. Holding tests for
well-made and well-proportioned Danforth-
type anchors are consistently good to very
good in most bottoms, with the exception
that these anchors have trouble digging into
grassy, rocky, or hard-clay bottoms.
ALUMINUM, LIGHTWEIGHTDANFORTHTYPES
(FORTRESS, GUARDIAN) The most recent
version of the Danforth-type anchor is thePART SEVEN: ANCHORING SYSTEMS
Figure 22-7.
Disassembled
Luke anchor
Figure 22-6.
Comparison of
anchor fluke
patterns