I realized I needed to replace my anchor back in June 2020, during a couple of days of sailing with Jie and Tao. (Why do these things always happen when young ladies are aboard with Vicky and me?) We had anchored near Gratitude Marina in this little area between the channel coming into Swan Creek, and the shore to the north. We had a pleasant time eating lunch, fishing and taking photos. When Jie went to the Bow and I took the photo below, I marveled at how dramatic the sky looked.
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And then the realization dawned on me....
Uh oh!
Yes, a fast moving summer squall was crossing the bay from Baltimore and at this time, boats started racing back. You can click on the link above for the rest of the story, but in summary, I was worried. I had to try twice to get the anchor set and wasn't confident it would hold. During the squall, we started dragging back into the channel requiring me to weigh anchor quickly. One of the ladies was seasick earlier (that's why we were anchored in the creek) so going back out into the bay wasn't a possibility and trying to dock during the squall wasn't a good idea either. I was caught between a rock and a hard place and I didn't react well.
The anchor we were using that day was the one supplied with Seas The Day as part of the "safety kit" that typically comes with new boats. I don't know the exact specifications, but I'm guessing its the Delta 35 lb which on their size chart is the one for a 40' boat. Inside the box on the dock is a rode that is maybe 15' of chain and around 125' of nylon rope. I'm not complaining... the purpose of the safety kit is to provide the minimum of what is needed to make the boat legal and get it delivered.
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| The anchor and rode supplied as part of the "Safety Kit" |
It is inadequate, though. I've used it a few times... struggled to get it set each time (the plow shape seems to just pull through the loose Chessie mud) and the only time it felt really secure was during the time fishing with my brother when it snagged on a submerged and buried branch and held quite firmly. I've been thinking off and on since the squall incident about upgrading my anchor and decided that now is the time.
In preparation for this upgrade, I researched a lot over the intervening year... read anchoring parts of Chapman and The Annapolis Book of Seamanship, watched tons of YouTube videos, and during evenings the last week or two, read the book at the top of this post Anchoring: A Ground Tackler's Apprentice.
I also posted on a few facebook groups to get other's opinions (which was interesting because let's just say that opinions are varied among sailboat owners - even among those who own the same boat). So here I'm going to share my choices, what I finally ordered, and a bit of my rationale behind those choices.
I liked the approach in the ground tackler's apprentice book... namely size everything for likely maximum loads. With that in mind, however, Seas The Day won't be anchoring out in hurricanes or anything approaching those extreme conditions. If conditions are expected to be bad, I'll be at a dock. I'm sizing for summer storms that come up unexpectedly... those can (and have) touched 40 to 50 knots, but for a short time.
I found the table below listing ABYC working loads on the sail-delmarva blog (which has some incredibly detailed information). For my 40' sailboat (LWL) in the event we see 60 kt winds, it looks like we should shoot for 3600 lbs horizontal working loads.
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| Found on Sail-DelMarVa.blogspot.com |
That is good because Seas The Day already has a windlass - a Quick Rider windlass - that has a gypsy for 5/16" G43 chain which has a working limit of 3900 lbs. That windlass has a working load (for lifting the anchor) of 265lbs (from the manual). A call to the Quick folks confirmed my chain specs, but also noted that this style of windlass can shred rope rode, so an all-chain rode is recommended.
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| Quick Rider R1012D Windlass The motor is mounted below deck and the metal part is what you see. |
This defines the first part of my system... an all-chain rode. I purchased a half-drum of Peerless 5/16" G43 HDG chain through Gratitude Marina (who will handle putting everything together... they also had the best price including delivery). They will splice it to 50' of nylon 3-strand (just enough to attach it to the boat and allow for a few years of redoing the splice as needed). That may sound like a lot of chain, but any place I'd likely anchor in the Chesapeake Bay is maybe 20' deep. 275' of chain will cover us for 30 to 35 feet at a 7:1 overnight scope. If needed, it will be relatively inexpensive to add additional rope to the rode later.
Now for the anchor... I decided to go with a modern design and ended up selecting the Mantus M1. I selected their M1 over their newer M2 model because their website said it performs slightly better in loose mud (which is common in the Chesapeake area). I selected the 65# model based on my LOA from the chart below. That means the windlass will have to be able to lift 35 lbs of chain and the 65 lb anchor... well within it's limits even if it is lifting some mud as well.
I added the Mantus S1 swivel to connect the anchor to the chain. This has a working load of 3000 lbs but they noted that was with a safety factor of 5x, so we should be good for that occasional 60 kt load of 3600 lbs.
This gives me an all-Mantus system with all the parts designed to go together and sized for the chain that my windlass can handle. It's all ordered and should come in within a week or so.
Finally, I realized from my research that I shouldn't rely on only one anchor. That means that the anchor and rode from the safety kit will become a back-up and remain on-board Seas The Day.
I also have (at home) a traditional fluke (i.e., Dansforth) anchor that was a backup on Seas The Day (315), and that will be brought onboard for use in an emergency. It's technically undersized at 13 lbs, but several tests show that these anchors can quickly penetrate loose mud very deeply and it's not likely to get used sitting in the garage.
That will give me three "anchor-rode" systems for now.
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