Hi All: Our Tournament 225 will be 8 this summer, and there is really only one thing I want to improve this spring. We currently carry 250 or 300' of 5/8" anchor rode in the locker, can't remember exactly, along with 20' of chain and a Fortress FX-11 anchor. The anchor is one size bigger than the boat really requires, at least according to the charts in the Fortress literature. The rode doesn't need to be that heavy obviously but there is no windlass and its great on the hands to be able to grip that diameter. Overall I know the rig is pretty conservative, but we are in the long island sound where many areas are 100' deep and I wanted to maintain a 3:1 ratio or better.
This all works great except there is not really enough room in the locker for all of this. The shank of the anchor just barely fits - to get it in place you have to hold all of the rode and chain out of the way with one hand and shove it down there until it is scraping the very bottom of the locker. This is a pain in the you-know-what, especially if the rode and chain have been in the mud, or its cold, etc.
I could go to the FX-7 - our boat is right in the middle of its intended use chart. The shank is 3" shorter. I could also use less line, or smaller line for the rode. We do not stay out overnight, and we have a back-up steel danforth anchor with another 150' feet of line. I could always make use of that line too if we needed to be somewhere really deep. I would say most of our anchor use realistically occurs in 50' of water or less. often a lot less.
Also I was wondering if anyone has tried fitting a 4" pvc pipe in the locker to create a dedicated location for the shank? (so you don't have to move all the rode and chain out of the way each time you replace the anchor) Not sure exactly how to make that work, but it seems possible.
I would appreciate any opinions or advice. Always a pleasure to take advantage of the knowledge available on this forum.
Cheers,
Mike
This all works great except there is not really enough room in the locker for all of this. The shank of the anchor just barely fits - to get it in place you have to hold all of the rode and chain out of the way with one hand and shove it down there until it is scraping the very bottom of the locker. This is a pain in the you-know-what, especially if the rode and chain have been in the mud, or its cold, etc.
I could go to the FX-7 - our boat is right in the middle of its intended use chart. The shank is 3" shorter. I could also use less line, or smaller line for the rode. We do not stay out overnight, and we have a back-up steel danforth anchor with another 150' feet of line. I could always make use of that line too if we needed to be somewhere really deep. I would say most of our anchor use realistically occurs in 50' of water or less. often a lot less.
Also I was wondering if anyone has tried fitting a 4" pvc pipe in the locker to create a dedicated location for the shank? (so you don't have to move all the rode and chain out of the way each time you replace the anchor) Not sure exactly how to make that work, but it seems possible.
I would appreciate any opinions or advice. Always a pleasure to take advantage of the knowledge available on this forum.
Cheers,
Mike
