Northill Anchor

[jsjpd1]

I didn't want to highjack the other anchor thread but have a question about whether or not this anchor I found in the boat house is suitable for my 19 foot open boat.

Here is the anchor.

http://i646.photobucket.com/albums/uu186/jsjpd1/P5211421.jpg

The power of google has told me that this is a sea plane anchor from the forties. The question is... is it suitable for use on my boat? The ground we have around here is mostly rocky with some mud.

Thanks for your imput.

Jim

[jsjpd1]

It weighs about 12-15 pounds and the stock is about 18 inches long.

[P.L.Lenihan]

Put more chain on her and she'll be fine.....mind you, your boat may not be intended for or happy about carrying too much weight up forward while sailing. Perhaps a 5 gallon pail to hold the chain and protect the boat from dings and gouges? How heavy is your boat?


Cheers!

Peter


Cheers!


Peter

[Peerie Maa]

Put more chain on her and she'll be fine.....mind you, your boat may not be intended for or happy about carrying too much weight up forward while sailing. Perhaps a 5 gallon pail to hold the chain and protect the boat from dings and gouges? How heavy is your boat?


Sea plane anchors were designed and tested for efficiency. They form the basis for the research that Bruce carried out when designing their anchors. So I would have good of confidence in that one.
As Peter says use a fair bit of chain and you will be fine. Stow it in a bucket, I use a small plastic fish box so that I can fake the rode down neatly. Stow the container near the middle of your boat, at the foot of the mast should be OK, you can then secure the bitter end to the mast or mast step.
If you have or can borrow a bigger anchor, go out to where you are likely to anchor and run some tests by dropping both anchors and using a tackle or Tirfor to pull the anchors together. Will be interesting, educational, and will confirm your confidence in that anchor.

[floatingkiwi]

Hi Grey one. Is this common practice..."tackle or Tirfor to pull the anchors together", and how is it done?
Do you need a tank on to work the Tirfor from the seafloor?

[Peerie Maa]

Hi Grey one. Is this common practice..."tackle or Tirfor to pull the anchors together", and how is it done?
Do you need a tank on to work the Tirfor from the seafloor?

Lay them both from the boat, bring one in through the bow chock, one over the stern, middle the boat between them, rig the tackle and start hauling. You will need to double the scope in the first one laid, so that both will have adequate scope for the experiment. You might want to drop a marker float on a sinker with each anchor, so as to be able to see which one is moving if one drags. If you have a diver buddy, have them see how the anchor behaves should it drag, but that is just a nice to have.

[dredbob]

Northill's a great all around anchor. A 12 pound Northill is rated (for what those ratings are worth) as being suitable for a 20 to 25 foot sailboat. The seaplane Northills are stainless steel and the stock and flukes fold up to store compactly. The galvanized ones were called the Northill Utility and are generally well liked by those who have used them. Better than a Yachtsman in mud, better than a Danforth (or no worse) in other than mud, etc. I'd have no qualms about using it as primary anchor on a 19 foot open boat, but I'd probably also carry some other style of anchor (what depending on what type of bottom is common in your area) just as general good practice, unless we're just talking daysailing then a single anchor should suffice.

Bob

[jsjpd1]

Thank you gents, that was exactly the type of info I was looking for.

Jim

[James McMullen]

I used to have one of those. I fouled the lazy fluke with its own rode once on a tide change and ended up dragging. Still, I think it's a good enough small anchor if you keep the angle of pull constant, but there are better modern anchors now.

[jsjpd1]

I used to have one of those. I fouled the lazy fluke with its own rode once on a tide change and ended up dragging. Still, I think it's a good enough small anchor if you keep the angle of pull constant, but there are better modern anchors now.

I appreciate your perspective on this James. I intend to use this anchor either as a lunch hook or with the other end of the boat tethered to the beach. When I dug this thing out of the boat house I was concerned that it maybe wasn't big enough, so I went down to the local ship chandlery to see what they had in the way of anchors. They had a whole pile of Danforths and some large plow anchors that were just way too big. It seems like everybody and their cousin has a Danforth around here, but I'm not convinced it's all that good for our locale. We have a picnic beach that we regularly anchor my dad's boat, standard rocky ground, and it's a pain to get the Danforth to set. Anyway, that's why I'm asking about this one.

Jim

[KAIROS]

My Dad used a 30 lb. one as the lunch hook for his 10 ton ketch. I remember it doing well....never an issue. However, I remember finding that they don't hold very well if you toss them in without first assembling them :D.

Reasonable for your needs, I think. They do stow nicely.

[James McMullen]

For an anchoring system with a shore line, I have no qualms at all about a Northhill. Should work fine!

[Dave Hadfield]

The Northill is my prime anchor, my favourite one, and of the 4 types I carry on board Drake (a plow, a bruce, a danforth and the northill) it's the one I sleep best with.

Any anchor sets well in sand. The test of an anchor is in thick weed, very hard clay, or rocky, boulder-ey bottom. The Northill sets quick and easily in these sub-prime conditions.

Anchor tests are usually done in pefect sand. What a joke!

Anyway, as is mentioned above, if the wind or tide changes, and the boat does a few 360s with slack line, you can indeed wrap a rope rode around the upward fluke, and then pull it out when the wind comes up again. That's the only negative I've found when using a Northill.

Another very useful item when it comes to anchoring is a weight half-way down the anchor line: a sentinel, or killick. I use 3 10 lb iron barbel weights in a stack, hooked under a snatch block, let half way down the rode. This really works. It functions as a shock absorber, taking all the jerks out of the line, and lowering the angle of the rode. I sleep better using it!

Dave

[Dave Hadfield]

You can just see it on the bowsprit. In most of my photos, at anchor, you can't -- because it's on the bottom!

http://i3.photobucket.com/albums/y79/DaveHadfield/3.jpg

[farwesthoops]

My big Northill used to anchor the old Alaska Coastal PBYs. Been fine on my boats...... so far anyway.