Setting Anchor....

[kregars]

Happy 4th of July everyone....

Questions with regards to correctly setting an anchor.  Boating is mostly on the Potomac that has a silt/mud/sandy bottom.  Using a 22# Danforth anchor with 26 feet of chain and 120 feet of rope.

It seems as those the anchor isn't biting and is dragging allowing the boat to lose hold and move 20-30 feet with the tide until it grabs ahold and sits for a period of time before again slipping and allowing the boat to again lose hold and move.

Most other boats on the river appear to be using the same type of anchor and the last boat I had also had this style anchor (23.5 AftCabin) but it didn't have the anchor pulpit.  

I am feeding the anchor up through the pulpit and then the chain and rode through the deck feed and when deployed, I am tied off to the (lack of better words) anchor cleat in the pulpit.

What am I doing wrong and do I need to get a larger anchor and use this as a secondary/storm deployed anchor?  

Boat is a 1991 260 Walk...and the chain is actually longer than 26 feet.  It goes from the tip of the bow pulpit all the way to about 3 feet behind the outboards if I stretch it out on the ground.

[C-Lark III]

Happy 4th of July everyone....

Questions with regards to correctly setting an anchor.  Boating is mostly on the Potomac that has a silt/mud/sandy bottom.  Using a 22# Danforth anchor with 26 feet of chain and 120 feet of rope.

It seems as those the anchor isn't biting and is dragging allowing the boat to lose hold and move 20-30 feet with the tide until it grabs ahold and sits for a period of time before again slipping and allowing the boat to again lose hold and move.

Most other boats on the river appear to be using the same type of anchor and the last boat I had also had this style anchor (23.5 AftCabin) but it didn't have the anchor pulpit.  

I am feeding the anchor up through the pulpit and then the chain and rode through the deck feed and when deployed, I am tied off to the (lack of better words) anchor cleat in the pulpit.

What am I doing wrong and do I need to get a larger anchor and use this as a secondary/storm deployed anchor?  

Boat is a 1991 260 Walk...and the chain is actually longer than 26 feet.  It goes from the tip of the bow pulpit all the way to about 3 feet behind the outboards if I stretch it out on the ground.

Although the Danforth isn't the best for silt / muddy bottom, a 22# anchor should be OK unless current is strong.  I'd start by adding another 25' of chain.  And the recommended length of rode is 7:1.  So for 30 foot deep, that's 210 feet of rode.  If that doesn't do it, you might want to change to a plow type anchor, like the Delta anchor. 

[kregars]

Thanks C-Lark III.  I'll give the longer chain a try.  Most times I anchor is much less than 30 feet of water...normally around 12-15 feet.

[231CALIFORNIA]

danforth type fine in heavy grain sand  but light silt /deep fluffy mud and even some gravels are going to drag abit.
plow type may help but if you are in that stuff all the time try a farm disc blade (cupped steel like a mushroom anchor) with a 3foot steel shank center welded to it with an eye at one end,cut a couple of 2"drain holes in it , about 14-18" diameter,paint it all up with white rustoleum and use it as a mini mooring.
leave it in place with a float if you can and use danforth for reg anchor.
but if local pros use something else find out what that is.
where we frequent, mooring anchors are railroad wheels on a shank with heavy chain, a swivel and float. chain does the shock work, wheel and shank burry self into sand bott |:(om

[kregars]

So I went ahead and purchased a Delta plow style anchor, pulled boat out of the water (to change the lower unit oil back to Quicksilver) and as I go to launch my boat today, the dang thing wouldn't start...so I was unable to test the holding power of the new anchor.    I am so frigging down today it's unreal...all I wanted to do was to get the boat in the water and go catch some fishes with my Family and my Father.

I know it's off topic and I just need to boil a bit....but wife thinks boat is out of gas, I know for certain there is 20 gallons in the tank...I went to check the friggin separators/filters and dang it.....couldn't get them off to replace cause the 5200 that was holding the mounting plate released and because of the location I was unable to get enough leverage to grip the danged filters.  Sent it back to the party that installed the filters on the mounting plate and won't have it back till at least Thursday...*grumble*

On a lighter note, the anchor sure looks good hanging from the pulpit.....*grumble*

[kregars]

Turns out it was a bad fuse...Marina is being overly nice (not charging me as they knew exactly which fuse to look at first).  They have asked me to come down to show me which fuse it is and how to confirm it on the water should it happen out away from the dock.

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