Da(m)nforth anchor!

[Group9]

I have experience boating from Mobile, Al to NJ and Kodiak, Ak. Anchored hundreds of nights between NJ and the Keys in the last 6 years.

Sure there's lots if Danforths around, lots of inexperience boaters who barely lunch hook every once and awhile who typically have them. But I know there are rock solid captains and cruisers who swear by and regularly use them. I just happen to have been burned by and seen and heard from too many others to trust my boat to one.

I usually caught quite a few as the drug into the surf or mud flats because their danforths were fouled...that's not including the ones who had no clue how to anchor or had 1 to 1 scope out.

Guess what anchor they had the next season?

Within 2 miles of my home marina there are at least 5 different bottom types that are similar all up and down the coast. Including hard sand, soft sand, and a variation including more and more mud till it's all mud.

Oh, you’re an expert everywhere and on everything. Well, you’re certainly in the right place (the internet, I mean).

 

[dhays]

Well, this thread has run its predictable course.

If anyone has a Fortress that they want to sell, I need a secondary/backup anchor for my 43.

 

[psneeld]

Oh, you’re an expert everywhere and on everything. Well, you’re certainly in the right place (the internet, I mean).

I would hope many consider you an expert too or will someday.in your line of work.

Mine has been around and saving boats for 38 years on top if a solid pleasure boaing background before the USCG

So, call me whatever you want....just passing along info I have personally come across for a long time....

 

[Nomad Willy]

Psneeld wrote;
“Perfect place to jam a clam shell in between a fluke and shaft...or impale it on a fluke tip..”.

HaHa that happened to me on our two week trip. First time ever that this S class Dan failed to set. But it failed. The clam was actually quite large. Clams happen.

But the success of the Danforth started in 1938 and is still going strong.

Here is a picture of the facade of a West Marine store showing a cruiser and a trawler in a massive display of (presumably) typical boats of considerable size. The trawler is with a Claw and the cruiser w a Danforth. I thought (and still do) that from a business point of view these boats should (ideally) have a roll bar anchor and a modern scoop anchor. Representing modern times seems more important now than in the past.

 

[jleonard]

I am still a Danforth guy in the NE waters I cruise in and also from the times I cruised the Chesapeake.
Shells? Yes it often comes up with many but also packed with mud. That's a good feeling.
When I cruised Canada I switched temporarily to the Delta because of the weedy bottoms.

 

[Nomad Willy]

Most of the time my anchors come up clean in the PNW.
The worst mud experience I’ve had was in Calder Bat in Alaska. There were at least a dozen otters play’in in the bay when I entered. That was a tel tale. The bay was large and only 20 feet deep so I thought I’d anchor w long scope. Rarely get to do that. Anchored at about 10-1.
In the morning the anchor was stuck good. Did come up though ... as a huge glob of very dark and very stinky mud. I layed on the foredeck and worked the mud off w some kind of stick w the anchor slightly submerged. Took about 1/2 an hour of determined work. Backed down too hard I sopze. i don’t remember if there were any clams. It was most certianly whatever those otters had been eating for the last several thousand years.
Wasn’t the perfect anchorage after all.

 

[tallswede]

My Danforth works very well here in the mud of Galveston/Trinity bay and all along the Gulf coast but I know there are some others that when slightly oversized will be more versatile when I begin cruising outside my current area. I'll most likely get a Mantus before I leave on the Great Loop but I'll have a Danforth for a backup.

Kevin

 

[High Wire]

If it’s not marked Danforth, then it’s a fake copy . You were snagged on something. When you pull up vertical and tie off, just sit there and wait. It will pull free unless snagged. If snagged, go over the top or circle around with tension. Sometimes the snag comes up still stuck in the anchor.

 

[sunchaser]

Dropped the 35 pound or so Danforth with all chain rode and let out about 60 feet in 20 ft of water.
WHAT WAS TIDE LEVEL WHEN YOU DROPPED ANCHOR?


I worked for about a half hour getting that sucker up! I rode over it, I jumped up and down on the tight chain, I tried to back into the wind to get behind it, I finally let out a lot of chain and pulled on that sucker in reverse sideways after exhausting myself and all other means I could think of.
FINALLY, AN ANCHOR DISCUSSION WHERE THE ANCHOR HELD TOO GOOD!