Anchoring

quote:
Originally posted by adru

If you are frequently anchoring in deep water I would suggest a lot more chain. I have all chain and have rarely failed to set with my fortress even in 60 feet of water in a strong current with 150' chain out.
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In theory, a Fortress is a very good anchor, well designed, and well constructed. I used to use one with my old boat (well I tried it several times) and there's one as a spare on my current boat.

What doesn't really add up is that it's designed and sold as a weight saving anchor, yet it doesn't work well in many conditions unless there's a lot of chain attached. This need for extra chain pretty much negates the advantage of the light weight aluminum construction.

For setting an achor in a strong current, any dansforth type will tend to "sail" in the water un the way down. Part of the chain may reach the bottom before the anchor does and that will make it harder to set the anchor.

With my Fortress, if I got the anchor set, I never had it drag. The problem was getting it set in the first place. I bought a plow style anchor for that boat and it worked well for me. In retrospect, I should have tried the "mud" setting on the Fortress but I never did.
 
quote:
Originally posted by adru

If you are frequently anchoring in deep water I would suggest a lot more chain. I have all chain and have rarely failed to set with my fortress even in 60 feet of water in a strong current with 150' chain out.
Click to expand...


In theory, a Fortress is a very good anchor, well designed, and well constructed. I used to use one with my old boat (well I tried it several times) and there's one as a spare on my current boat.

What doesn't really add up is that it's designed and sold as a weight saving anchor, yet it doesn't work well in many conditions unless there's a lot of chain attached. This need for extra chain pretty much negates the advantage of the light weight aluminum construction.

For setting an achor in a strong current, any dansforth type will tend to "sail" in the water un the way down. Part of the chain may reach the bottom before the anchor does and that will make it harder to set the anchor.

With my Fortress, if I got the anchor set, I never had it drag. The problem was getting it set in the first place. I bought a plow style anchor for that boat and it worked well for me. In retrospect, I should have tried the "mud" setting on the Fortress but I never did.
 
Agree on the chain, but my results improved dramatically when I listened to Pascal and SLOWED DOWN the backing process, to the point of actually putting it in forward in current and wind situations.
 
I anchor in mud and sand, and have found that the Delta Fast Set works the best for me. Like others have suggested, I went one size larger than I need, and I added 100' of chain to that. Not an option with a bowrider.

Out of all the good points posted, I think the most viable solution for the OP is a bigger anchor.
 
I have a 13 lb. danforth in a 26' boat that came with 10' of 1/4" chain. I added another 40' of chain and the improvement is amazing.
 
There are a couple things fighting you from anchoring in the Delaware....

1. The number one issue is that the Delaware River has a very rocky river bed. The anchor tends to skip over the rocks and it becomes very hard for the anchor to set.

2. Like you mentioned, the river is 50' deep in the channel. It's usually best to try and anchor just outside the channel in about 20' of water. The river shelf rises sharply off the channel, so just keep an eye on your depth finder.

I too have the very same issue when anchoring in the Delaware. I won't even try anchoring in the channel because it just requires too much scope... something that a 25' boat just doesn't have. It's even worse when there are a bunch of boat around you because you don't have a lot of wiggle room once you start backing down.
 
The classsic recommendation is at least a boat length of chain. More is better. And, a Danforth isn't going to work very well in a rocky bottom. I'd suggest a bigger Delta or similar. For our 26' boat which spends most of its time in BC and SE Alaska, we have a 16.5 lb Bruce and 40 feet of 1/4 chain. Has never dragged, once well set, in 700-750 nights at anchor.
 
quote:
Originally posted by dl2525

.......... Like you mentioned, the river is 50' deep in the channel. It's usually best to try and anchor just outside the channel in about 20' of water. The river shelf rises sharply off the channel, so just keep an eye on your depth finder.

I too have the very same issue when anchoring in the Delaware. I won't even try anchoring in the channel because it just requires too much scope... something that a 25' boat just doesn't have. It's even worse when there are a bunch of boat around you because you don't have a lot of wiggle room once you start backing down.

Click to expand...


You anchor in the channel? What happens when a ship or tug and barge come down the river?

Maybe I'm missing something here, but I never anchor in a channel. To much chance of being hit.
 
You don't really need to be in the 'channel' to see 50' of depth. For the Red Bull Flugtag event over the weekend, they created an area for boats to anchor in the channel while still leaving adequate space for cargo and other traffic to move through. There was really a ton of people on the water. I have never seen it packed like that before.
 
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