Anchor...

[Carlo]

Hi there,

My 6.5m RIB will be in the Med for the summer. She will typically be moored bow to a jetty in around 5m of water. I have 35m of good quality anchor line and around 15meters of heavy anchor chain. I have just swapped my old (far too heavy) 10kg anchor for a 5kg Bruce anchor and I am considering reducing the chain length to around 5 metres to make everything more manageable. Does 35m of anchor line, 5m chain and this 5kg anchor sound sensible?

Thank

Carlo

[BruceB]

I would have thought for a 6.5m RIB you would have been better sticking to the 10kg rather than halfing the size?
I used a 5kg Bruce with several metres of chain for a 5.3m RIB as it was the largest than would fit in the locker but have just bought a 7.5kg with 5m of 10mm chain for the slightly larger boat as the bow locker is bigger and I can fit the slightly larger anchor and chain in there.
I would prefer to have a slightly larger anchor than theoretically needed than find out the hard way it was too small.
I suppose it depends also on conditions and use, calm conditions and only as a lunch hook is better than leaving unattended in potentially choppy conditions.

[BruceB]

Of course the above is all IMHO as usual!

[m chappelow]

i agree with Bruce b ,think 5 metres of chain should be ok with a danforth but bruce anchor may have a tendency to skip over a hard bottom without digging in unless its soft mud or sand ,and i think that i would take a bit more spare line to tie on if you need to anchor in deeper water should you have engine problems ,once was involved with the rescue of a boat that had engine problems a few hundred meters from the shore in around 10 meters of water they had a small anchor and about 30 meters of line ,the wind changed direction and the anchor wouldent hold the boat ,the more they were pushed out to sea the deeper the bottom went until the anchor was just hanging there, we found them nearly 30 miles out to sea after a 9 hour search involving 2 lifeboats and an raf nimrod aircraft. they then wished that they had had a slightly bigger anchor and a few more meters of line to pay out.

[Carlo]

Thanks for that guys. Still have old anchor so will take your advice.

[EdGriffiths]

big problem in med is that the bottom is often sea grass, your anchor just plows through, without biting into sand, so bigger is better