Bruce anchors

[Sabre27Admin]

mharman
United Kingdom
2 Posts

Posted - 22/01/2010 : 14:46:34
Hi all

I would like to have some thoughts on Bruce anchors. 'Gitana' is based on the Blackwater, Essex, loads of mud!!!

We have just returned from the boatshow with a shiny new electric windlass (ouch!!) and want to change our rusting 10kg CQR for a Bruce anchor, which would now be secured on the bow roller.

The Bruce anchor guide suggests an anchor weight of 5kgs for everyday use for a Sabre. It also suggests 7.5kg for a storm but I would lay out additional anchors if that was the case. I wondered if anyone has experience of Bruce anchors and what weight they would choose if they were to do it again. The rode will be all chain ~50m

Any thoughts?




Mark Harman
La Gitana
ken endean
United Kingdom
52 Posts

Posted - 22/01/2010 : 18:04:10
I have used a 15kg Bruce as part of a mooring and lots of people swear by them. They certainly seem to 'grab' quickly at most surfaces and I guess they have some of the properties of a grapnel. However, several drawbacks are known. In some tests they have produced only moderate figures for maximum holding force in sand, apparently because they can skate along at a shallow depth. This may be because the angle between the central fluke and the shank is fairly acute. They have also been known to baulk at stringy weed (possibly getting it between their three flukes) and to pick up lumps of clay or rock that jamb between those flukes.

Several years ago, we replaced our 25lb CQR with a 10kg Delta and it is a vast improvement, very quick setting and even able to cope with shallow weed and shale - unlike the CQR. Most modern RNLI offfshore lifeboats carry one 'fisherman' anchor and one Delta. Other anchors such as the Spade and the Rocna have given even better test results in sand, and in very soft gloop where the Delta tends to slice through, but those higher results were in excess of any likely wind force. Also, the Spade failed one test when a lump of sticky stuff lodged on its concave blade and I am worried that the roll-over bar on the Rocna type might cause problems in weed or boulders. We have twice pulled the Delta from under very heavy boulders, at Plymouth and Castletownsend, and I think that a more complicated anchor might have been bent.

I would not go any lighter than 10kg.

And good luck!


sabre27
178 Posts

Posted - 22/01/2010 : 23:39:35
Hi, Mark,

We have been using a 10kg Bruce as our main anchor and a 7.5kg as a kedge successfully since 1982. They stow well, the bower through the stemhead fitting and the kedge in the port locker with 7m of chain in a small bucket which we drop into the flukes of the anchor, head down.

Over the years I have been quite satisfied with the performance which is fairly well described by Ken. In hard sand with eel grass it once pulled out with the lump of grass and its roots neatly contained in the fluke bowl. More chain was really in order but once out, the root filled lump did not break up, preventing the anchor resetting. In mud it is good, never pulls out, even when quick 180 degree changes of direction.

If we were long distance cruising I would be tempted to add a Delta to the armoury, but still generally keep the Bruce up front as it stows so conveniently and recovers via our Anchorman winch straight down into the locker! I have not offered a Delta into position so cannot comment on how it might stow. You would have to get one on approval to ascertain this.

Pictures of the deck setup are on the ‘Owners Gallery’, ‘Corsair’, towards the bottom of the list. The stainless anchor ‘chock’ was designed by myself and fabricated by a pro. You must ensure all the components of the ‘system’ are in exactly the right place for smooth recovery and chain drop into the locker.


Paul Howard. S27OA Technical Officer.

mharman
United Kingdom
2 Posts

Posted - 01/02/2010 : 15:07:01
Thanks Ken & Paul, it seems 10kg is the way to go. I will go with your thoughts rather than the sizing charts. In terms of a Delta, I will have a look and see whether I can fit one with the windlass.




Mark Harman
La Gitana

ken endean
United Kingdom
52 Posts

Posted - 02/02/2010 : 15:39:30
Mark,
The Delta was originally designed to self-stow on a stemhead but I don't carry it there because our home mooring is sometimes a little wild and I am afraid that the mooring rode might get under the tip of the anchor, probably with disastrous results. I carry it on deck, using a standard set of plastic 'chocks', as sold for CQR anchors but arranged in a different way, plus a single U-bolt set through the deck with its curve upwards. The anchor's tip hooks into the U-bolt and it is then stable. If you think you might decide on a Delta, I could take a digital photo of this arrangement for you to consider.
Ken