New Generation Anchor

[ebb]

Oakland Grill Omlet $9.95, PERFECT. (a perfect omlet is as hard to find as a perfect anchor).
Empty parking garage. Expected crowds for the boat show being Sunday, but there were far more people milling around the plaza farmer's market than in the cordoned off BoatShow. Weather was beautiful, no waiting at the ticket booth ($15) which led directly down to the floats and the HylasBenateauCatalina fabtasticplasticchrome AQUA-RV's packed like gigantic brislings in the sardina marina. Only people around were sales and greeters. There wasn't one smaller boat that looked inviting and comfortable .....went inside the center.

Far fewer vendors there than last year. The halls shrunk with movable walls, looked like a half empty stage set. Talked bottom paint with the e-paint and SeaHawk guys, handled candy colored yacht ropes at Yale and NewEngland, walked breifly through Garhauer and Svendsens - deja vu year last, one past before, and before that!..... and escaped into the sun ouside again. It's unsettling ambling by vendors trying to catch your eye. Innovative vendors were absent like a species gone extinct. Got a free sample of Kanberra teatreeoil boat deodorant that smelled like lime gummy.


[IN THE WAKE OF THE ELUSIVE MULTI-BOTTOM HOOK]

MANTUS. Go to their website and take a look if you haven't recently. Huge changes.
There are some six Utubes, taken together are impressive for the energy put into making them.
There is one UNDERWATER set & drag comparison you could watch.... with Supeme, Boss, Rocna, Spade, Fortress, Delta and even a CQR and an 'authentic' Bruce. First WAR video shows five anchors dragged at zero scope (shaft ON firm grassy sandy seafloor) draging just like we expect CQR, on their sides- NEVER diving in. Mantus also took about 10ft to finally dive in & set. SET is a relative term.

Outside at their tent, a long conversation with the guy about the anchor - not the doctor-inventor. They had a dry setup with 10#-15# Supreme, Rocna, Delta, and Mantus*, all laying on their side as they would on a plywood seafloor. He asked me to lift the tip of each fluke with a finger, to demonstrate where weight was concentrated. Equal weight anchors.....but pressure was doubled (painful) under the Mantus tip. Now THAT'S interesting.
Granted Mantus has a wider stance (therefor more tip weight) because of the rollbar stub-outs on the end of the fluke..... and those constructions on certain seabottoms will sink in easily, thereby lessening weight on the tip......but also, these rather strange appendages will keep the anchor from skidding - and, we have to accept it is designed that way to help trip the tip into the seabed. Mantus advertises INSTANT SET!
[*no Ultra, no Spade lead weighted tips] SKIDDING KEEPS ANCHORS FROM SETTING. (no kidding)

My demonstrator also pointed out a couple of glaring differences between MANTUS and SUPREME. Supreme fluke has the spear point "beveled on the wrong side." The chamfer should be on TOP of the blade... not underneath. Here's the logic:
Imagine a wood chisel. Which way would you hold a chisel to knock off a wood plug in a counterbore? Naturally, with the bevel down on the work, so the blade doesn't dig into the surface. Your hand guides the chisel slightly up as it slices off the bung and you haven't gouged it like you did a hundred times before.
OK, we want the anchor's sharpened bevel to catch 'the work'.....where would we have the bevel?
No kidding.....not undercut, because it LOOKS cool that way.... like Supreme does it (and Rotten Rocky), bevel the top of the fluke, leaving a bloody chisel edge that digs in as soon as the anchor moves.....where Mantus has it.
So simple and logical, it's cutting edge.

And also THIS comparison with Manson. It's a given (to Ebb, anyway) that Supreme is a handsome, hunky, steroidal hook.
Its roll bar has an equal and substantial role in its aesthetics.
Mantus makes theirs REMOVABLE. Use it when you need it. Proportionally, it's lighter in appearance and weight, more like bone than muscle.
The entomorphic look of the Mantus is emphasized with its wide spindly rollbar bolted on.
Seen from a sensible rather than aesthetic viewpoint, it becomes acceptable - moreso, if practicality is compared with its pumped up cousin.

Mantus is appearing on sail & cruise forums. Anecdotally performs as well as Supreme. Seems to hold in current and tidal changes.

At the Show they had a stainless copy on display. Even it looked... experimental. The anchor is a TAKE-APART.
It will always have that attribute as an impediment. Never fashionable like hi-heels Ultra - always flip-flop affordable.
With real reservations as to undisclosed alloys Mantus is made with..... it seems like a great stowable backup anchor for a small cruiser
......more reliable perhaps than an aluminum Fortress......maybe the Spade too.

Imco, one undeniable advantage of the Supreme design is its FLAT NON-BOWL fluke. Open, curved, not a bowl.
[The little Rocna in the boat show comparison display has the usual rear fluke upturns that make the anchor into a SCOOP, and imco can only hinder its ability to set deeper when a situation calls for it.....when you pray it will stay! Imco, scoop anchors will load and pull out.
Flow of sand or mud over the top of the fluke as it is pulled under is diverted by the up-turns at the back of the blade - if flow continues, the extra force pushes the back of the anchor downward - which redirects the pointy end upward. Not really where you want it to go.]

MANTUS is not bowl shaped - it is not a one diameter rolled fluke like Supreme - it is a single plate with three angled planes that runs flat & clean from tip to back - making it unlikely to collect seafloor. THIS IS THE MANTUS' BEST FEATURE...... The stub rollbar connectors probably won't stop bury as much as the angled rollbar gussets under the fluke on Supreme and Rocna anchors. Comparison testing is needed. Mantus' more open top platform than Supreme, suggests mud won't stick & pack but slip off the blade.
YET, sleek Supreme with its impediments and knobly Mantus are equally handicapped.
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MANTUS is a major achievement BUT it has imco some major PROBLEMS:
PROTRUDING HEXHEADS on the bottom of the fluke are dangerous and have to be designed away......Or leave them there
and WELD THE TIP DOUBLER ONTO BOTTOM of the fluke....with bolt heads sheltered within or behind the reinforcement.
Also, inherently flawed are nuts and bolts at the shaft-to-fluke connect.....nuts on top screw into a deminished shaft diameter due to threading. Problem: fasteners shouldn't be in tension, constant concern about bolts loosening but also corrosion in cut threads. Technogical backward steps. MANTUS CANNOT BE PUT ON YOUR DECK BECAUSE OF PROTRUDING NUTS UNDER THE FLUKE. Absurd design flaw.

►SERIOUSLY, look into redesigning the take-apart fluke/shaft by inserting the shaft thru the bottom into a forged slot and fasten it together thru a collar with bolts in sheer across top of blade. Shaft seats into truncated slot (like wooden shaft of pick-mattock tool) with clevis pins holding it tight. No bolts to bend or wear or rust. Stronger the pull, tighter the join. Force is on the whole fluke, rather than bolts alone.◄

Horizontal rollbar stubs (can SNAG LINE & CHAIN and upset the anchor) .. why can't these wide-outs be on the same plane as the fluke? As extensions of the fluke angle. What's the problem? If they must stick out, the transition will be smoother, the anchor streamlined, looking less cranky - and more likely to SLIP THE RODE if it loops under the rollbar in a tidal change. Even less weight (less pipe) to the trailing edge (more tip weight!) Shank & fluke are mild steel...Ideal alloy: Grade 80 for the shank, Hi-Test 4140 for the blade. Must be made in USA. Rollbar should be galvanized inside, left open or rubber plugged.
THERE IS NO INDICATION THAT MANTUS IS MADE IN USA. Assume only US manufacture has control of materials and methods.
No disrespect - just want a winner I can have aboard!.................. IMCO....................
Like to see results of a destruction test (shank pull) on an unprepared full size (25#-35#) Mantus.
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A perfect ALL-PURPOSE PROGRESSED ANCHOR doesn't exist. It's caught in the same bramble of compromise any MidgetOceanRacerCruiser like Ariel/Commander experiences. For the bluewater sailor.....
THERE IS NO CLOSE-ENOUGH for a primary anchor.
Trade-offs, cop-outs, sell-outs, half-measures in design, materials, methods do not apply to boat anchors.