New Generation Anchor

[ebb]

Goodwin's 90+ sv PANOPE Youtube videos, taken together, are an
extraordinary tour deforce, and gift to us. But Video #56, taken alone,
is the most reliable anchor 'compilation' we'll ever experience. It's a
deep five part study of common anchors of our time. This one video
says it all, surely the most significant finding ever put together.

Notable what anchors are not included -- without comment. Crocna anchor
totally ignored in this summary survey. ...You've been reading these past posts,
you know this thing-a-ma-pete hook has personally been tossed into the
Pit of Doom.

WET
This focus must bother some sailors a lot. But a lot really is in limbo if you are
not yet cruising, or limit cruising to certain areas.

FIXED FLUKE-BLADE STYLE-GALV.STEEL ANCHORS
rollbar flat-creased Mantus.
rollbar flat-curved Supreme.
rollbar convex Super Sarca.
rollbar scoop Rocna,
will, by all rights when pulled around in a 180 rotation after initial set, turn
through the seafloor - and still buried or not, reset. No reset if pulled around
with sea floor stuck in the fluke. PANOPE videos show clumps stuck on specific
shafts. Supreme-Fail. Rocna-Fail.

Mantus - 50% tip weight, makes a fuss in 180, but resets instantly. (Video #62)

Vented Sarca - 33%, fails reset. Convex blade fluke, downcurved tip - dragged.
YET Rex Francis' original Sarca, in a heftier version did well in later videos.
(#43>#48). From a dry point of view: a clever design, but not simple enough.
From mixed performances, it can drag instead of reset. It's probably best where
it originally was intended: on the bow of small Aussie fishing boats.

(If you like plow style anchors, Rex has created the vented EXCEL 20%, which
looks like Simpson-Lawrence Delta plow, but completely corrects & obsoletes it.
Australian Excell & Sarca -- two of only four anchors anointed by Goodwin.)


It is true, and obvious, that blade anchors won't always reset in all bottoms.
But if they clear off material during 180, or shortly after: they have to reset.
We have to understand our Prmary. No maybes. When a heavy tip weight
anchor pulls out, we're pretty sure it will dig back in and reset everytime.

Both Supreme and Rocna are not dependable. They have problem tip
weights. And real serious problems resetting after rotation.
Goodwin's svPANOPE Video #56: Tip weight: Mantus 50% - Supreme 23%
- Crocna 30% (guess) - Spade 42%, as test measured, home page says 50%.


DRY -- AN UNCOMMONLY COOL LOOKING ANCHOR
Masterfully designed with common low carbon A36 steel. Flawlessly fabricated
inTunisia. (wage: $3.00 hr equivalent ) Welding doesn't alter tensil strength.
Assume bent shaft can be persuaded back straight without weakening.
WET
Wedge fluke SPADE is known to tumble or pull out in a 180. It does not readily
collect seabed. (Not always the case, there's sticky mud out there.) Yet, NO roll
bar Spade helped by its heavy tip resets immediately. Certainly witnessed in the
GoPro record we now have. It tumbles probably because the tetrahedral under
body is unlikely when set to move sideways as the shaft rotates. Imco, sideways
pull pushes the anchor up and out of set.
[YouTube: Goodwin SV PANOPE. Spade videos, #12, #13, #55 and #27, #64.]

The Spade seems to overcome pulling out and other limitations, like its scoop
fluke, imco. Could be fluke-top geometry is a perfect fluid concavity - that other
Spade-inspired anchors have failed to copy correctly.
{Have seen no proof that a concave spoon shaped fluke top actually contributes
to an anchor holding better than flat or convex. It is a myth..}

Spade shaft slender entry thru fluke with carefully fabricated triangular section
may also help shed seabed without need for vents. Steel Spade is smooth galv,
and signature yellow paint helps slip sticky material.

Assume deepest set can be achieved with an unencumbered flat blade design.*
Wedge volume must displace more sea floor to set deep. May not always.
It's my opinion, of course, these limits on Spade. They seem in balance, coming
together in an anchor better than its compromises. Spade scoop fluke geometry
is the most copied by all modern single fluke anchors. Cuts thru kelp. Holds in
rock. Afterall, the design works: When Spade pulls out: we count on reset.

Housed, on display in a bow roller, the open end tetrahedron looks unfinished
like something's missing, like a couple lithium batteries must've fallen out.

Could say The Spade has a forgiving quality = Reliability. That's a friendly thing.
It's about trust.
Many cruisers depend on steel Spade for their Primary.


Yet to be invented: SUMSUCH - ALL-PURPOSE CRUISING ANCHOR
*Imagine a hybrid Spade/Mantus. Creased Mantus flat fluke married
to a curved 3-sided Spade shank with a very sharp tetrahedral wedge
under fluke packing tip weight and Poiraud's clean single pin
mortise/tenon innovation. NO HOOP. Toolless take apart.


Visual inspection of the S80 steel Spade shank in my possession - what can be
seen inside with a 1300 lumen led flashlight - seems equal to the galvanise
outside. There's a tiny breather hole visable inside the shackle cutout.
There to help molten zinc get into the narrow end. Imco keeping it open can
help clear mud from living inside.

Rust problems on a sound anchor? Aluminum-filled MCU coating ALUTHANE
will check corrosion as well if not better than regalvanising, or any zinc paint.


Out of the gargle of successful and partially successful anchors, Goodwin's 4
only 'never-fail' set/reset anchors are: Super Sarca - Excel - Mantus - Spade.


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DEFENDER UNLOADING MANSON ANCHORS
Schaefer, importer of Manson Anchors, seems to have ended their contract.
Defender is having a final? closeout sale of every Boss and Supreme.
As of 1/1/18, Schaefer's home page has yet to say anything about their deal
with Manson. But Schaefer has a deal for you: a Manson Danforth style Racer
anchor, $212.35 now for $35 ! (What's that called, plummet pricing?)

Wonder if Goodwin has anything to do with this...? (Schaefer axing Manson.)
Don't know if Schaefer had exclusive US import concession. Glad they quit.
Schaefer is a precision tool company. Disconcerting to find Manson Anchors
and its turgid copywriting on Schaefer's internet home page.

Manson Boss meant to be the answer for power boats generally unable to
house rollbar fluke Supreme. Marketed as a powerboat anchor. (focus may
be a mistake.) It could be a pretty good anchor. Maybe just never caught on.
PB owners probably aren't anchor style conscious. Boss attempts to be an
anchor that on seafloor orients itself to penetrate without needing an
appendage.
Design result seems to have been to do it without increasing tip weight by
adding fluke area! Boss also has a disconcerting and useless 'rock slot' shank
that visually dooms the design. Manson & Rocna both depend on customers to
test their new gen anchors -- rather than copacetic inhouse R&D to work bugs
out -- before going into production and foisting thousands of half fast designs
on world-wide sailors. Good enough not good enough for any best bower.

RollBars on anchors are a passing design fancy. They are an unnecessary
addition like a crutch, and take away from tip weight, a proven benefit for
instant setting. Imco they are on their way out and essentially obsolete.

INDEPENDANT ANCHOR TESTING
Turns out tip weight really is what first delivers a successful single fluke anchor.
Not always, of course.
Our smaller lighter anchors benefit from tip-weight.
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ANCHOR QUALITY
The only people responsible for quality testing anchors are the makers, There is
no agency, society, third party that oversees 'recreational anchors'. There are
'certifiers': Lloyds, RINA and others hired by the manufacturer to certify materials
used, but not construction methods. Costwise, it's understandable no 3rd party is
regularly seafloor testing -- or ultimate shaft to fluke bend and break testing.

EVERY AUTHENTIC COMMERCIALLY SOLD YACHT ANCHOR SHOULD SUBMIT TO
A VOLUNTARY Certification Society CS PROOF TEST.
This is a decades old shank to fluke certification proof test that all makers sign on
to. Some don't. Some won't.
imco, All commercially sold yacht anchors ought to be rated exactly like chain
and shackles are, with WLL (working load limit), and a modified - UBS rating
(ultimate breaking strength). This will help put anchors on the same sea floor.
Brute strength does not necessarily make a first class anchor. Manufacturers that
hide or omit common specifications cannot be wholly trusted. Nor trusted at all!

Manufacturer's home page dragging videos, beach/underwater, are always a con.
Hard to guess whose product tops all the others?
'Responsible' is not an operative word here.
'Reliable', often used -- but impossible to prove.
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When you depend on an anchor, be sure yours is dependable..... Loud Sue
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You never enjoy the world aright,

till the sea itself floweth in your veins,

till you are clothed with the heavens

and crowned with the stars:

and perceive yourself to be the sole

heir of the whole world.... Thomas Traherne 1636 - 1674

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