Preview: Anchoring a Boat, Part 2 — Reliability & Versatility of a Danforth vs. a Yachtsman Anchor

14 Responses So Far to “Anchoring a Boat, Part 2 — Reliability & Versatility of a Danforth vs. a Yachtsman Anchor”

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  Peter Buxton says:

  Great comparison!

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  David Tew says:

  Maynard- We just returned from a week’s cruise down your way. We used our yachtsman anchor each night instead of other types as before and I’ve never slept better. It held well in mud and popplestone/rocky bottoms.

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  David Tew says:

  Maynard- We just returned from a week’s cruise down your way. We used our yachtsman anchor each night instead of other types as before and I’ve never slept better. It held well in mud and popplestone bottoms.

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  Ben Fuller says:

  In playing with little boats like the Caledonia or mine, stowage is a big factor, once you get into the 10 plus pond range. I’ve a bruce I think around 10 lbs; it was the largest I could fit into a high drywall bucket which has had rope swapped for the bail. It rides flukes up, and there is a shot of chain attaching it to the 200′ or so of rode which I’ve marked every 30′ or so. I’ve similar sized danforth as well which I carry in a custom anchor bag, again with the rode made up. I also have one of those small Mantus dinghy anchors for lunch stops. I’ve been impressed with it and if I was looking for a claw today, I’d head in that direction I think. All of my anchors have some chain on them.

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    Steve Stone says:

    Thanks Ben. I hope others weigh in.

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    Steve Stone says:

    Ben. I’d be interested in your thoughts on the fact that I don’t use any chain. Partly for ease and mostly for the mess it brings aboard after having set on a mucky bottom overnight. While I understand the benefit of chain — causing the anchor to better stay flat on the bottom at the right angle to dig in, I still opt not to use chain. Since I pick my weather so carefully, the anchor generally gets very light duty and I seem to always have plenty of room for scope. Your thoughts on using no chain on a small boat like the Caledonia?

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  Kenneth Elowe says:

  Hi – which weight fisherman’s anchor would be suitable for the 20 ft Caledonia yawl? The 7 1/2 lb or 17 lb? I’ve always carried a 12 lb Danforth in my dory, but would like a fisherman’s anchor for my new boat. Which would you carry? Thanks for any advice.

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    Steve Stone says:

    Hi Kenneth. Do you want the insurance company’s answer from their lawyer, or a practical answer from real life?

    The short answer is this: Get the anchor that you’ll sleep most soundly on. Here’s the longer explanation, and I hope others with even more experience weigh in …

    Even if you want the real-world/practical answer rather than the risk-assessment-cover-your-ass lawyer’s answer, there’s a wide range of opinion. In Geoff Kerr’s “Boat Handling for Beach Cruising” video, you’ll see he carry’s a 35 lb. fisherman that has held NED LUDD through a hurricane. I think he uses his smaller anchor much of the time for lunch stops etc., and I believe the 35 pounder is what Geoff already had, so he didn’t bother buying another one, so those are factors. Geoff’s a pretty big/strong guy, so for him the extra weight and size of the 35 lb. anchor doesn’t outweigh the comfort he has in knowing his boat isn’t going to move after he sets it (he does acknowledge it’s more than is needed most of the time).

    The core of this question lies in the trade off of the difficulty handling, and space required to stow it, due to size and weight vs. what is actually needed to keep your boat in place under the worst conditions you think you’ll put yourself (and your family?) in (plus 30%). I recall one beautiful afternoon at the finish of the Eggemoggin Reach Regatta when a thunderstorm with 80-knot winds came close and sent 50-foot boats with big anchors running for cover.

    Our uncertainty about which anchor to get is dredged up because we don’t really know until we test them in the worst conditions we expect to find ourselves in, in our particular boat, and a test of those conditions can’t happen with an anchor sitting on the shelf in the store or on a website before purchase. Then, even well-after we purchase one, those feelings of uncertainty may lurk on every cruise we take for years until we actually get to use the anchor in awful conditions.

    I’m a minimalist and carry one of Jim Reinick’s bronze 7 1/2 lb Herreshoff (fisherman) anchors in our Caledonia, and feel it is going to hold just fine in anything short of a hurricane, and it may hold her through a hurricane as well. Why the confidence, you ask? Well, when I was deciding which anchor to get for a previous boat — a 23′ Herreshoff Prudence that weighed 7,000 lbs, I read that Capt. Nat used a 7 1/2 Herreshoff anchor for his 28′ Alerion in his older age. The 7 1/2 lb. bronze Reinick anchor held my 7,000 lb boat in all conditions, up to 30 knot winds, without ever dragging. I suppose there was some luck involved, and I had a much bigger anchor on board just in case, but there never ended up being any “just in cases”. Keep in mind that I choose my weather carefully in my overnight cruising in Maine summers, which rarely provide a test for any anchor, and Capt. Nat probably did much the same in his older age on his Alerion (the piece I read didn’t say whether his anchoring was limited to fair weather lunches only).

    I use a fisherman because it seems to hold the best in New England waters (bottoms), but a different anchor style might suit your local bottoms better. Also keep in mind the significant limitation that Maynard points out about fisherman anchors — if wind direction changes a lot, the rode can wrap around the fluke, and then the first decent breeze will cause the rode to pull the anchor right up off the bottom. Summers in Maine most often have a wind overnight that is either steady from one direction, or nearly flat calm, but it’s something that I pay attention to with a fisherman.

    As I write this answer(?), I realize how easy it would be to anchor the Caledonia next year in Center Harbor when the breeze blows down the harbor from the West at 40 one day. And film it.

    Bottom line — the Caledonia Yawl just doesn’t have much windage or weight to cause much of a tug, so an excellent Reinick anchor at 7 1/2 lbs may be quite sufficient. If I didn’t already have a 7 1/2 lb anchor, and was buying a new one for the Caledonia, I’d find a 7 1/2 lb’er and a 15 lb-er and I’d handle them a lot to see the size they each take up, and the difficulty of handling each bent over the rail in odd positions. If I thought the 15 lb-er was easy enough to handle, and I had the dough to pay the difference, I’d probably buy the 15 lb-er. I might also ponder the trade-offs of stowage space required for a plow/CQR type anchor vs. a fisherman to mitigate the concerns mentioned above.

    Price is always a concern as well, and I suspect that in today’s prices, the price difference between second-hand fishermans wouldn’t be much for the two weights, but if you buy new from Jim Reinick, the price difference between the two might be worth some head-scratching time.

    In the end, get the anchor that let’s you sleep the best on it once it’s set. I suspect Geoff and I sleep equally as well at anchor in Maine, but I’d probably be sleeping with one eye open if I hadn’t had the experience with my 7 1/2 lb-er in a much heavier/bigger boat.

    Here’s the video I referenced:
    https://www.offcenterharbor.com/videos/boat-handling-beach-cruising-anchoring-beaching-rigging-outhaul-boat-knots/

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      Kenneth Elowe says:

      Hi Steve,
      Thanks for your reply and experience! Real life is always better. Is the 7 1/2 lb Herreshoff the anchor in this video with Maynard comparing against a Danforth? Or is that the larger one? I used the 12 lb Danforth for 20 years on an Alpha Beachcomber dory, but it was hard to set in anything but soft bottoms, and not many of those in Muscongus Bay. The 7 1/2 Herreshoff sounds perfect, based on your experience with your Prudence – should be plenty secure for the light Caledonia.
      Thank you for your reply and for a tremendous wealth of video advice and experience!
      Best,
      Ken

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        Steve Stone says:

        Kenneth. I added some to my answer, so you may want to read it again.

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          Kenneth Elowe says:

          Thank you! Sound advice.

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  Maynard Bray says:

  Hi Ron,
  A video on reefing is near the top of our list for the coming summer. We have a gaff-rigged Wianno Senior sloop all lined up. For a small, loose-footed sail like yours, all you may need is a reefing downhaul at the luff and a reefing outhaul at the leech. If both of those lines are pulled tight, there shouldn’t be much flapping in between. But if there are reef points and you decide to use them, they tie around the sail only.

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  Carolyn & Ron Pease says:

  Maynard,While I was reviewing your video on anchoring I could hear wind in the background. This gave me the idea of you making a video on how to reef the mainsail in high winds. I have always mondered about a main sail like mine that is not attached to the boom and only attached to at the boom ends but not in the middle. I don’t know if the reef points lines rap around the boom or the loose reefed mainsheet.

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  David Tew says:

  I’m finding that anchoring in many popular spots along the Maine coast is getting crowded. Bow and stern anchors with a kellet on the lighter stern anchor set toward shore works for me on occasion. I’d like to hear some of your experts thoughts on anchor line kellets and marking/setting/retrieving anchors with marker buoys. Some say they are worthless, others not so much.