The importance of a boat’s anchor cannot be overstated.  There are many boaters who do not plan on spending any time at anchor or “on the hook” so the anchor’s crucial role as a piece of safety equipment is often overlooked.  It’s pretty simple…should your boat ever lose power or the ability to safely navigate, your anchor could be the only thing on board that will keep you from drifting into a dangerous or even life-threatening situation.  And obviously, when you intend to anchor out – which is a big part of OLOH’s future adventures – you want to sleep soundly, secure in knowing that the hardware tasked with securing your boat is going to do its job and do it well.  Opinions on anchor sizing and type are wildly varied (if you wanna see some fireworks, search for the topic “best anchor” on any boating forum).  But the common sentiment among most opinions we found in our research was that you should have the biggest anchor your boat can comfortably hold and that your windlass can capably retrieve and deploy (the windlass is the winch that is used to lower and raise your anchor).

One of the items we learned about early in OLOH’s pre-purchase survey process was that the boat’s stainless steel anchor’s shank was bent.  This caused the anchor to sit improperly on its mount on OLOH’s bow.   Plus, we were told by several marine professionals and old salts that at sixty pounds it was undersized for the boat.  So this set us on a long hunt for the proper anchor.  The anchor on board was original equipment to the boat and it is not uncommon for boat builders to undersize the “ground tackle” that is included, even on very expensive new boats and yachts.

After a lot of research and many conversations around the docks at various marinas, we narrowed our hunt down to Mantus and Rocna anchors.  As the anchor’s shank needs to pass through the bow pulpit on OLOH, a Mantus or the standard Rocna wouldn’t work because they each employ a roll bar.  We landed on the Rocna Vulcan which was reputed to have similar holding abilities to the original Rocna without a roll bar.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

For sizing, we went with the brand’s recommendation for OLOH’s size and weight.   While the 88 pounder (40 kg) probably would have been sufficient, we just exceeded the size and weight guidelines for it.  This put us at the low end for the 121 pound (55 kg) Vulcan but once we determined it would fit, we took the leap.

The crated anchor arrived perfectly protected and wrapped like a fine piece of 121 pound jewelry (there is cardboard and a cloth sleeve protecting the anchor under the bubblewrap).  The folks at Rocna in Canada have been an absolute pleasure to deal with and completely stand behind their product.

UPDATE:  In its first year of use, while we haven’t been in any particularly challenging anchoring situations other than very strong current in a few places, we can report that the Vulcan has always set on the first attempt and has never dragged.  We always deploy a minimum scope of 7:1 (all chain).  We look forward to getting it wet a whole lot more in its second year and will continue to report back.