Anchor Retriever Capacity

[Horse]

I'm looking at replacing my Danforth sand and reef anchors with a tripped 10lb Plough. Is this going to be too heavy for a 300mm anchor retrieval bouy to hold up? I imagine so. I will run about 3m of 6mm chain

[Tangles]

I know its good enough to retrieve Wardy's big Sarca with bloody heavy chain! which is way more than what your describing.... run the same setup myself Horse and made up an anchor retrieve myself.

[Horse]

Yea, my current system is not working. Most of the lumps I want to fish are a mix of sand and rock so my reef anchor or Maloolabah pick dont grab until I'm past my spot. I'm not happy putting the Danforth down as they don't come back from rocky locations

[Muddy Toes]

I reckon you'll be right Neil.
I used to have one of those 300mm foam balls to retrieve my old set up which was a small reef pick with 18m of 10mm chain and it used to work fine.
Then I bought a rather large, fully lead filled reef pick off Wags and coupled with the 18m of 10mm chain the ball wouldn't float too well. It would get it off the bottom whilst driving forward but after that it would just sink again but when we used to lift it by hand it was quite easy to lift so the ball was actually helping us quite a bit, my guess is that the 300mm foam ball was just about at its limit then, not enough to float it but enough to help it up while we pulled it up manually.
I now use one of these...http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/POLYFORM-SERIES-BUOY-A-4-21-5-DIAMETER-RED-A-4-RED-/230918849238?_trksid=p3284.m263&_trkparms=algo%3DSI%26its%3DI%26itu%3DUCI%26otn%3D 21%26pmod%3D221122997769%26ps%3D54
I'm looking at the same thing now due to wanting to anchor on sand or rubble to fish little rocks and pinnacles. I was going to buy a Sarca or a Manson Supreme and get rid of my Manson Plough but I think I'll just try my 20lb plough and trip that......see how that will work work.

[bigjimg]

I run a 12lb anchor wth 7m of 8mm shortlink and it floats it no worries.Jim

[Horse]

Anchors away in that case. I just need to work out how to hold it in place on the bow as it won't fit in the locker.
Anthony, I reckon the inflatables are the way to go as they make a great fender as well

[Boat Hog]

Horse you should be fine with the 300mm foam buoy.

Lets say 10 pound plough = 4.5 kg,
6mm chain @ roughly 1kg/meter x 3 = 3 kg
Total about 7.5 kg. So add fittings and fudge factor 8 kg.

A 300mm round foam buoy provides 13 kg of floatation. A Polyform buoy in a similar size (310 mm) has 15 Kg of floatation (buoyancy) with a recommended maximum load of 9 kg. ( I would imagine the maximum load is more for constant use situations)

I have changed over to the Polyform buoy from the Foam style. Not only do they have more buoyancy than foam they are an extra (and very good) fender for raft ups etc.

Cheers,

[Horse]

Thanks for that Jim. I might go with a polyform. I used a 250mm for years tied to the front of the boat. nice and quiet and did not damage anything bouncing around. I might even go to 5m of chain as it comes in at around 0.8kg/m and I want the chain to balance the anchor to hold in the ring without dropping

[bigjimg]

I forgot to add that I have also fitted a yellow plastic bouy with a handle.Adds that extra lift when retrieving and makes it easy to lift up from the bow.I run one of those retrieval clips so my anchor chain stops at the shackle and I have to lift it up and remove it from the rope.I don't have the room to haul floats and anchor in at the same time.Works for me but some of my deckies have trouble removing the clip.Once you have worked out how the rope is held onto the clip you can remove it with eyes shut.Jim

[Horse]

I have one of those clips but I use a ring now. I might pull it out again and try it. I just remember it was a pain in the a#$e

[Noelm]

I have one of those spring clip things in my garage, I swapped to a simple ring setup years ago, though now I don't use any of them, just a hand pull thing nowdays, but I did use the anchor retriever thing for many years, the buoy and stuff are hanging on the wall.