Nice to see you testing again. I anchor on slopes a lot, often across the slope, i call it parallel parking. I'm hoping the anchor digs in enough to hold the boat without popping out. So this test was very interesting to me , thanks.
I had exactly this situation today. I wanted to anchor at a deep slope in a bay at Grenada. From 20ft depth to 60ft it was maybe a distance of 50ft. My 44 pound Vulcan was not holding, of course. So i had to winch up the Anchor with my manual vertical Ankerwinch. Hell of a job. Next time i watch your Video before i try it by my self 😅 P.s. I am really looking forward to your Ankerplex Video. Have seen this Anchor once and it is a really interesting Anchor for a spare one if it performes good. Lightweight and easy to store.
Thanks Steve, interesting stuff as ever. It raises an interesting point, given that we normally seek a windward shore when anchoring and that water gets deeper the further away from the beach, then by default we tend to anchor with a downslope pull. Rarely is there a nice flat seabed to drop the anchor in, at least that’s the case in Scotland. I take the view that catenary is only relevant to low wind speeds, once it’s blowing 30kts the rode is practically straight to the anchor, but that’s another story!
That would be a lot of line for a stern tie in that spot. I'm going to have to try to draw the vectors to convince myself that two stern ties at an angle would reduce the pull on the rode at the bow. As always you give us lots to think about. Thanks!
Thanks again Steve. I love all of your videos. If you are looking for a new subject of testing, Is there any chance that you might like to test out "bad anchors"? I just see alot of folks buying what I consider fake, or just terrible achor concepts. I would love to see some data confirming that there are terrible performing anchors that many people keep wasting there money on, which is exactly what I did before I took a moment to learn about anchor tech. I now own 14 mostly terrible anchors that have been a waste of money as I eventually arrived at a proper anchor thanks to your testing and opinions. Or am I the fool, maybe I have wrongfully dismissed some of these anchors. Example is the Box Anchor, mushroom style, grapnel type anchors and even cheap chinese utility fluke style but have short shanks or other important features that are not considered in the anchor design. I have talked with others who claim Box anchors are the best (I am willing to bet otherwise). They just seem heavy and mostly not effective relative to the weight and size. We need data to put this matter to rest.
Sorry, no video dedicated to chain size. However, I have conducted many tests where chain length was varied between 12' and 80' with the result of the long chain almost always having substantially more holding power. Other benefits of all-chain rodes like abrasion resistance and a reduction of "sailing at anchor" could make for an interesting video in the future.
Just had a discussion yesterday evening about why our not keeping it all chain. My friend has 60 meters of ø10mm chain and then 40 meters of rope while I’m just about to buy 100 meters of ø8 mm chain before sailing Norway and Lofoten next season.
5/16*25.4 = 7.94mm ≈ 8mm chain, 80' or feet is 80 x .3048 = 24.38m. Did you know that all Imperial/American measuring tapes are made on metric calibrated machines? :) Steve, in order to avoid camera being pulled down & under, maybe used very-high-strength fishing line, which is much thinner than the rope you are using now, so less drag on the seabed.
Interesting, but I can't recall ever anchoring on such a slope here on the East Coast. I just wouldn't choose such a spot because almost always it would be possible to anchor a little further offshore where the bottom is flat and less than 20 feet deep. I'm sure there are places where downslope anchoring might be tried, but they are few and far between.
It is as if the East Coast is another planet! The nearest "flat bottom" to the location of this video is only .3 nm away, but is over 300 feet deep and is exposed to 10 miles of fetch.
