Sooner or later every cruiser will have some difficulty setting their anchor. By setting the anchor, I mean getting it to hold the in the place you drop it – or close thereto. Actually, it needs to hold the boat in any conditions that come its way. Here in French Polynesia, we set our anchor as if a storm is approaching, and commonly see winds in the 20 knot range with gusts to 30+ knots. The bower we carry aboard Huzzah is a 33kg (73lb) Rocna plow-type anchor with 300’ of 3/8” hi-test chain. It has always worked well for us – until now that is. So when we pulled into the Arue Lagoon off Tahiti YC earlier the week and dropped the trusty Rocna, we were surprised when it wouldn’t hold when we backed down (70% throttle) hard. So up it came, we re-positioned the boat again and back down it went! Not once, but four times. What’s going on I was thinking; bad luck, random chance of multiple failures, are there bananas aboard or what?
The answer is probably a combination of luck (bad), science and art. The bottom was a-typical for lagoons in Tahiti in that it’s soft mud. So when I failed to knock the mud off the fluke on my second attempt, I was clearly the problem. The next failed set was due to a flip-flop that had become impaled on the anchor’s tip – simply bad luck there. But what about the other two sets? I think physical science came into play here. The Rocna has a large roll bar or crown that I believe prevents it from digging deep enough to get a strong bite is soft mud. Is the Rocna a good anchor? Yes, it immensely popular, and I’ve sworn by my Rocna. But it does have this weakness in my humble opinion. I’ve recently learned this issue has been cited by a competitor as well.
So I assembled my Fortress FX 55 storm anchor and changed anchors on the bow (with Rose’s help) using halyards while Jody maneuvered Huzzah through a tight anchorage full of boats in 20 knots of wind. The Fortress set hard and fast and we felt secure. But that’s not the end of the story – unfortunately.