Fisherman style anchors?

[Brian Palmer]

I have a Danforth style and also a fisherman style that came with my boat.

Based on actual experience, are there any situations in which you have found the fisherman style anchor to be a better choice than the Danforth style?

Thank you,

Brian

[David W Pratt]

Never tried one then the other, but have had a Danforth come up choked with grass. I use a 35lb fisherman on Truth (30'x 9' 9"x5', 11,000lb). Works great in mud, sand, grass.
Good luck.

[Breakaway]

Experience: A fisherman is much better in grass then a Danforth.

Kevin

[wizbang 13]

I have always carried one , but not exclusively.
Fisherman is the fastest setting , and breaking ,anchor.
Getting underweigh under sail, you can get off on the desirable tack.
Good in grass and rocks,
bad in mud and fluky winds.
My 100pounder held me in thick grass in Windward Carriacou this past winter where my 45 cqr with 200 ' of chain would not stay bit.

[JimConlin]

We carried a 35# Wilcox yachtsman style on Magic's deck for many years. In order of use, it was third in line behind a 18# high tensile Danforth and either a 33# Bruce or a Delta. It was occasionally useful, mostly in grass.
I was just miffed that my local PHRF measurer would not give me credit for all that iron on deck.

[Yeadon]

I use a small 12lbs fisherman all the time for my little 15' peapod. Works great in a lot of different settings, though my main anchoring areas seem to be a mix of mud and cobble, or gravel. I also have 20 feet of quarter inch chain - so it's not like the fisherman has to do all the work. I've tried a danforth, but I'm not sure my boat has enough ooomph to set the thing correctly.

[Roger Cumming]

I had what the previous owner called a "yachtsman's" anchor, like the one in the picture #4. The stock collapsed along the shank making it easy to stow. It was 25 lbs or so and was versatile especially on hard, rocky bottoms. It's only flaw was that on several occasions the rode would get fouled on the fluke sticking up above the bottom if the boat drifted over the anchor. Raising the anchor after a quiet night I discovered that had there been any wind at all the boat would have dragged. I got a heavier CQR to serve as my regular anchor which did drag on several occasions during thunderstorms due to, I think, inadequate scope. Boat was 9,000 lbs displacement. The fisherman type anchor with folding stock works well as a storm anchor stowed below the floorboards or under a berth. It should be heavier than your regular everyday anchor by a factor of 1.5 or 2.

[rbgarr]

Our new boat came with four anchors: a Danforth, a CQR plow, a Luke fisherman, and a Bruce. I can't wait to try each of them out. I'm tempted to search for a small used Rocna just to have a 'full house'!

[Doug Wood]

While it's a bit of a pain to stow, the fisherman is pretty terrific. It holds securely in a wide variety of bottoms, and it stays put with much less scope than something like a Danforth.

[Peerie Maa]

One issue that I have with shop bought fishermens anchors is that the palms are both too small and blunt. I reworked the anchor I use on Peerie Maa to both increase the area and sharpen the edges, thus making it bury quicker, and offer more area to develop holding power.
These are the ideal proportions that I used:

[Dave Hadfield]

They ALL hold well in firm sand. Any anchor will do then. But when the bottom is less than optimal for an anchor, the Fisherman works better.

Up here in Lake Huron, there are places where the bottom is hard clay, or rocky with small patches of sand, or very weedy. There, I use a Northill, which is a kind of modified Fisherman. I've never had it drag.

Where a fisherman can let you down is during light airs, when the boat circles the anchor, it's possible for the boat to put a turn around the upraised fluke, and then when the wind rises, pluck the anchor up.

Dave

[Breakaway]

The other nice thing about a Fisherman versus a Danforth is that if you are going to swing on the hook for a number of days, a Danforth just keeps going down, especially in sand or mud. Can get really hard to extricate after about 4 or 5 days. Not so the fisherman ( and other types).

kevin

[johngsandusky]

I've mostly used Danforth types, then CQR, rarely the fisherman. The fisherman holds surprisingly well on a short scope. My anchoring is almost always in sand, mud, stones up to softball size. The shortcoming of Danforth types (use a good one, with beveled flukes) is that they clog with mud, grass, or a stone. Once full of grass they skate. If flipped over by tide or wind after jamming a stone or thick mud, they will not reset.

[Hwyl]

I too like fIsherman type anchors in all but soft mud (Cape Porpoise maine and Harbor of Refuge Point Judith RI come to mind), but the fisherman is generally specc'd with twice the weight of a more modern (if WW II is modern) anchor.

The CQR was designed for flying boats as a lightweight anchor and the Danforth was designed to pull landing craft off the beaches, again as a lightweight and in it's case uni directional anchor

[wizbang 13]

I think that is the northill,developed for seaplanes.

[Capt Zatarra]

I had my Bruce stolen in Salsaledo(sp) California. So I started using my danforth, but becuase I felt it was a little small for my boat I would attach my fisherman about twenty five or thirty feet up the rode from the Danforth, with a five foot leader. The idea was that the fisherman would work as a killet and improve the holding power of the Danforth. This work very well. The fisherman was so old and rusty that one day when I hauled up the anchors the colaspable stock had fallen out of the hole and was gone. I took a three foot length of one inch threaded rod and bolted it in the middle of the shaft where the old stock used to be. Then I cut 4x4 blocks of purple heart, drilled a one inch hole in the middle and threaded them on the rod, glued them together and finished the ends with a block of rock maple and a nut, so that it looked like on old traditional anchor. I sanded it so that there was a slight taper from the middle to the ends. Sealed it with epoxy and varnished it. I often dive on my anchors to see how they set. This is what I learned from this.
1. The fold up fisherman with the round cross bar will set quickly, but in sand and mud it would drag along the seabed harrowing a furrow while the stock would slide over the top of the sand and mud. Even with two hundred feet of chain out if there was a constant wind or current it would slowly plow it way across the seabed until the Danforth would set and then it would hold.
2. Once I put the 4x4 wooden stock on the fisherman it's behavior changed radically. The stock that used to slide over the surface now plowed in to the seabed like a bulldozer and would set in less then three feet and then hold without budging. If the tide turned the boat about 180 degrees the anchor would twist about staying set. Every time I went down to check the anchor after putting the the wooden shaft on the fisherman I would find the Danforth was just laying where it fell as the chain had not been stretched out enough for the anchor to get a chance to set.
3. With the round stock it was not uncommon to have the chain fouled on the flukes if we had been in the same anchorage for over a week or so. For two years of continous use, it NEVER fouled after the wood stock was added. Maybe it was luck, maybe it was blessed by Pasidon, I don't know why only that it never fouled.
CONCLUSSSION you cannot compare a fisherman with a collapsable stock to a fisherman with a stought, square, wide, permanent stock. They are a world apart in performance when they hit the seabed.

Just a note to add. The hassle of a fixed stock fisherman on deck requires a well planed routine to deploy, recover, and secure it on deck. But, if you can work it out, it is worth it, in my opinion. Capt. Z.

[CapnJ2ds]

Fisherman is the fastest setting , and breaking ,anchor.

Provided it doesn't get stuck under or in something!
But that's a good looking anchor!

My 100pounder held me in thick grass in Windward Carriacou this past winter where my 45 cqr with 200 ' of chain would not stay bit.

Two-and-bit times the weight might just have had something to do with it too, eh? I once anchored in seagrass during a blow, next to a smaller boat with what looked like appropriate ground tackle, including a 35lb CQR. They dragged, we didn't, and I have to put it down to the extra weight of our 60lb CQR, heavy enough to break through the ******* grass. (Thought I'd save the moderator having to censor this ) I've commented before on the weight of Wizbang's ground tackle - I'm a believer in plenty of weight too.

If the boat in your avatar is yours and is the one you're referring too, my experience is that for small craft like this, a Danforth (type) is very good for anchoring off beaches, when you're taking a stern line ashore. This puts a fairly steady and straight pull on the anchor, something this sort of anchor needs. Have had Danforths in larger boats, and wouldn't give one ship room again.

The term "fisherman anchor" covers a multitude of vices and virtues. A well proportioned one like Wizbang's (above), with a nice long rectangular sectioned shank and plenty of fluke area, and that area concentrated out towards the tips, is a Very Good Thing. Trouble is, these days they aren't well understood and there seem to be more 'orrible hexamples than good ones about, made from round bar stock with too short shanks (I presume to save stowage space?) and teensy weensy flukes. There's no real excuse for this, as there are plenty of illustrations of the Herreshoff
anchor, and Claud Worth's table of anchor dimensions isn't that hard to come by. (The proportions of both seem very similar, though I'd award the prize to the Herreshoff for its larger and better shaped flukes.)

Apart from it's ability to penetrate grass, shale etc., the other advantage the goode olde fisherman has is it's ability to hold on a 3:1 scope. Modern burying anchors hold very well indeed (If properly dug in!) but need a minimum scope of 4:1 to be reliable.

[Thad Van Gilder]

Our preference on the east coast is for our bruce (35 pound on a 37 foot ketch) we just acquired a 35 pound cqr and its getting regalvanized right now. Hopefully we will get an opinion on that by the end of the summer.

We keep a 13 pound alluminum fortress as a stern anchor. its easy to row out and holds well if used as a stern anchor.

We have had issues in the past with danforths as primary anchors when the tide changes. because of that I will not sleep on a boat that is just hanging on a danforth... particularly if there are other boats around to drag into.

-Thad

[outofthenorm]

I use a 35 pound CQR as a lunch hook, and in a sheltered anchorage it's good on most bottoms - except rock. That's where the 50 pound fisherman pays it's way. Both of those anchors are rove off and ready to go at all times when I'm cruising. I use a 20 pound Danforth as an occasional stern anchor, but I don't really trust it. The Danforth lives below decks behind a bunk.

- Norm

[Peerie Maa]

Provided it doesn't get stuck under or in something!
But that's a good looking anchor!

The angle between the flukes and the shank is a little to open for optimum burying, but it is not far off.
If there is any risk of being hooked up under anything, rig a line from the crown at least as long as the water depth and buoy it off, or stop it off to the anchor rode, so that it comes inboard when the rode is up and down. The other trick, which is simpler but risky, is to secure the rode to the crown and stop it off to the anchor ring with a just strong enough lashing, so that if the anchor will not break out, the lashing parts and the anchor is lifted out up side down.

[Brian Palmer]

Thank you all for the replies. The boat in question is a 15 1/2 foot Drascombe Dabber, weighs about 550 lbs.

The Danforth "clone" I have is 8 or 9 lbs, and the fisherman style anchor is about 10 lbs.

I can't find any builder marks on the fisherman. It looks like it was welded up out of round bar stock and the flukes cut from flat plate and then butt-welded to the ends of the crown. The flukes are probably a bit smaller than they should be. It is galvanized so I don't think it was home-made. The stock folds along the shank so it doesn't take up much room.

I was debating putting it on Craigslist (seafood restaurant decor, anyone?), but I think I'll hang onto it.

Thanks again,

Brian

[wizbang 13]

I have another "fishermon",an everyday hook.Long nskinny,Ihave heard it called a "neddle".50pounds,that is the fast setter.My wife found it in St Bart's 30 years ago while snorkeling.It is a ball of rust now,but I still have it on my STBD cat.

[johngsandusky]

An 8lb anchor is plenty for a 15' boat.

[Phil Y]

Such a little boat, convenience of stowage is probably your biggest consideration, so probly go for the danforth. In South Australia, particulalry St Vincent's Gulf, almost all the anchorages, such as they are, are a fairly thin layer of sand, over limestone, with a layer of grass on top. Its the one place I know where nearly every boat of any size at all has a Fisherman anchor. Its the only think that will reliably hold in those conditions. Everything else just slides across the seagrass.

[Hwyl]

Thank you all for the replies. The boat in question is a 15 1/2 foot Drascombe Dabber, weighs about 550 lbs.

[Brian Palmer]

I've got one of those, too, but it's only 1.5 kg, and I use it as a fishing anchor with our canoe. I've also got a 10 lb mushroom style fishing anchor, and even a couple of coffee cans filled with concrete if I need them!

Brian

[Doug B]

What a coincidence. This morning I found WB#218 awol from its proper place on the shelf andrandomly opened it to the Letters page and read the second letter which is pertinent to this discussion.

[johngsandusky]

Gareth, have you had any luck with those folding grapnel types? I bought one a few years ago and found it useless in sand.

[Hwyl]

Gareth, have you had any luck with those folding grapnel types? I bought one a few years ago and found it useless in sand.

Yes, but never used in sand