Anchoring a cat

[Alan M]

Hi first few weeks of Cat ownership for me - today we were out in 25kn and tried to anchor up but repeatedly dragged the anchor. Seems the windage on the front of the boat puts a lot of pressure on the anchor.....I have a 4m Mattcat I am thinking a 4kg plough? At the moment I think I have a 3kg sand anchor (i would have to weigh it) it held on my 4.5m tinny no worries.

Any recomendation?

[Moonlighter]

How much chain have you got? You need at least the boat length of chain on the anchor rode. That will make a huge diffence to how well your anchor holds.

[Jeremy]

How much chain are you using? More chain will help, also you need to double the size of those anchors to hold in strong wind.

[ranmar850]

Windage and weight means you will need at least a 6kg Danforth minimum for anchoring on sand or mud. And at least 5 metres of 8mm chain. Any of the mud/sand anchors rely on weight of chain to keep the eye end down to allow the flukes to dig in, more and heavier chain the better. Your cat has at least 3 times the weight and windage of your tinny.

[Alan M]

Thanks - I have 5m of chain on, I could add more but the cat was dragging the anchor so easily I think a new one is the go. 4kg plough is roughly equivelent to 6kg danforth? In the past I have had more joy with ploughs so thinking that is the way to go?

[shaungonemad]

I changed from a sand anchor to a plough and it was still dragging so I went to a Sarca it always grabs and holds the bottom where you drop it.

[ShaneC]

I would not go too heavy. I use a 15 lb tripped Mooloolaba pick with 8m of chain and regularly anchor in over 100m in current and weather. Thats in a 2700 Noosa Cat. Yep, it does sometimes let go, generally from tripping in poo weather, but for the most part holds on fine in anything other than really shailey bottom. If you are anchoring on anything other than sand/mud/ loose gravel you run a real risk of not getting more expensive anchors of similar weight back....

[airlock]

I've just gone through all this myself, mostly with reef anchoring but i also found anchoring in mud and sand was an issue.
I found by using longer and heavier chain i more or less fixed the issue on mud and sand as this falls to the bottom and digs in proving much better hold, combined with letting our a little more rope to ensure the chain lay flat on the bottom. In bigger wind and swell i let out more rope again and used a springer (large thick rubber attached between the anchor rope and bollard) This reduced the jerking action that was lifting the chain and pulling the anchor or bending the tines (reef.)
I found a wide tined sand anchor to be infinitely more use the the plough anchor the boat came with, lighter with a larger surface area so it was easier to handle and provided better hold when combined with the new chain. Try using about %50 more chain on your cat then you would on a mono, a little over the top i know but the effort of lifting and storing the chain is well worth knowing you won't be watching the boat drift happily along on a solo adventure.

[ranmar850]

Danforths hold a lot better than a plow in sand or soft mud, IMO. This viewpoint comes from 26 years of operating boats to 50 ft commercially, as well as small boat stuff. Get those flukes in and you will actually bend the shank on a big one if you try to lift it anything but from directly above, and I have a 30kg danforth in my shed with a bent shank to bear witness to that. And no, it wasn't stuck on reef, it was 3 fathoms of clean sandy bottom when I got careless retrieving it off a 38 footer. You will never do that with a plow. Of course the plow has a hinged shank, and this makes it more versatile--they are the anchor of choice for the west coast rock lobster fishery, and these are boats of up to 75 ft anchoring in up to 70 fathoms of water . You never know what kind of bottom they are going on , could be mud, hard coral or sponge, they always hold and generally come back up. Plows also work well on ribbon weed, which renders danforths useless. All anchors rely on chain to varying extents to make them work, but the danforth absolutely rely on heavy chain to make dig in and stay in.
I have never used a sarca, but they strike me as looking like a good all-rounder, with the slider giving you a chance of getting it back if hooked under reef.

[Noelm]

Makes little difference if you are anchoring a cat, a big mono, or a ship, the anchor has to suit the size of the boat, and the type of bottom.

[Lovey80]

Noelm I think with a cat though you need to consider an anchor/chain that Is larger than a comparable mono if you want to be able to anchor in most conditions. If a 5m cat you should be looking at an anchor that is similar to what a 7m mono would use.

[tjotter]

bcf sale, 20 lb Plough $42

[Alan M]

Thanks guys - interesting feedback - I am thinking I might stick with the danforth based on that but maybe get an appropriate size and add more heavy chain. The mooloolaba pick look great for reef - I didnt know they existed, for me i am mostly in sand / mud. Rarely in heavy reef in which case I can swap anchors so seems like the danforth could do it. I will look more at the sarca too but I have had on before and from memory they are quite pricey and i actually swapped mine for a plough and thought the plough held better in the typically mud bottoms i fish over on that boat.