Kedging anchor recommendations

[Auspicious]

I think your experience demonstrates why Danforth / Fortress style anchors are so popular for kedging -- their holding to weight ratio is very high and the potential of rotating out in current reversals isn't relevant.

I can't prove it, but I suspect that if you can recover from a grounding by throwing an anchor you could probably have refloated by other means.

For my part once I have got the dinghy in the water to take a kedge out I've already done so much work already I drop the main bow anchor (55#!) into a sling behind the dinghy and all my chain into a bucket in dinghy and run it all out. It takes a few feet to set the Rocna that way but the rest of the rode goes directly to pulling me off.

[Oldrig]

What did they do, just drag through the mud?

Yes, they just dragged up some mud and weed.

But I simply couldn't toss them far enough to get a good shallow angle.

Presumably, your max draft does not extend the full beam.  My boat draws 4' 3", but that is only the width of the full keel. Still, a 10 ft channel is a pretty slim needle to thread.

True--once I figured out where the channel was, I was able to make it, slowly, through the channel.

Still, I think I'll make sure that I have plenty of refreshments, warm clothes and perhaps a good book next time I get grounded. Then I can drop the hook and wait. Of course this will mean I'll have to endure the taunts of all my catboat-sailing neighbors as they glide past me over the bar.

I think your experience demonstrates why Danforth / Fortress style anchors are so popular for kedging -- their holding to weight ratio is very high and the potential of rotating out in current reversals isn't relevant.

That's what my 89-year-old father, who commanded an LCI during WWII, keeps reminding me. Of course, he used his anchors to run aground (and kedge back off again).

--Joe

[AdriftAtSea]

I'd imagine that kedging anchors that are less than 10 lbs. aren't going to be very effective under even the most benign conditions.  IMHO, like all anchors, your kedge anchors should be as heavy as possible....

[s/v Faith]

I LOVE my little Fortress FX-7......
  ......I can toss the 4# anchor quite a ways... with a proper coil of line and the chain looped I can probably get it a couple boat lengths.

  If I want to kedge aft, I throw it from the stern but then walk forward to take the line.  This distance does alot to help increase the scope......   

The fortress is light, but works well. 

But I simply couldn't toss them far enough to get a good shallow angle.

No, hard to do.  But that is what I was saying in my original post on this thread.  BUT if you toss it off the boat (lets say you get it 10' away, probably 2x that) Then you carry the rode to the other end of the boat. 

  Ok, lets say Faith is aground.  The water under the boat is going to be less then 4' deep.  I toss the anchor aft... lets say it goes 10'... probably more, but lets say 10'.  If is stand where I throw it from and pull, my scope is around 2:1... not going to work.

  However if I take the line to the bow, I now have added 25' to the scope.  Now I have 35' of line between me and the anchor... now I am more like 5:1 or better.

  Pulling the anchor to set it, even if it takes a few feet to set is going to give me a much better chance.... without getting the dingy involved or getting out of the boat.

[Oldrig]

If I want to kedge aft, I throw it from the stern but then walk forward to take the line.  This distance does alot to help increase the scope......   

Interesting idea. Perhaps if, after tossing the li'l anchor off the stern, I had run the rode through the anchor roller at the bow and then back to my mainsheet winch . . . but I suspect that a 2.2-lb. anchor is just too light to do the trick.

--Joe

[s/v necessity]

I've been thinking all along that for an anchor as small as that to have any holding (and at the same time still set), it would take a pretty special situation.  Even with 10:1 scope.  (I suspect this does work for the author of the article, but that it's not applicable for many situations)  There simply isn't enough surface area (on an anchor that small) to make much purchase in mud.  For there to be a chance of working the substrate will have to be easy for the anchor to penetrate, and yet competent enough to resist the anchor just pulling through it.

 
    If the requirements are Light weight (so you can throw it) and lots of resistance to a straight line pull in mud.  The best thing out there for both of these needs is probably an aluminum danforth.

[s/v Faith]

If I want to kedge aft, I throw it from the stern but then walk forward to take the line.  This distance does alot to help increase the scope......   

Interesting idea. Perhaps if, after tossing the li'l anchor off the stern, I had run the rode through the anchor roller at the bow and then back to my mainsheet winch . . . but I suspect that a 2.2-lb. anchor is just too light to do the trick.

--Joe

Yes, this works well.  Taking the line in a snatch block (or even through a chalk) does another good thing.  It gets your weight off of the bow (which is usually the hardest aground).