Cooper Anchors

[Michael Rogers]

Does anyone have practical experience of these (see cooperanchors.com)? They seem to be a possible improvement on folding grapnels for small boats. As the old lady of yesteryear might have commented, 'They must be good, even the advertisements speak well of them' - except they don't seem to have been advertised in the UK yet. Have they just not been around for long enough to make an impact, or are they no good?

I intend to try one, but wondered if anyone else has got there already.

Michael

[alopenboat]

On 21 Feb 2013 at 17:17, Michael Rogers [via UK HBBR Forum] wrote:

>
>
> Does anyone have practical experience of these (see
> cooperanchors.com)? They seem to be a possible improvement on folding
> grapnels for small boats.

Last year I did some experimenting with my grapnel. I found that
restricting the angle that the  flukes were allowed to open caused
the anchor to bury itself (dry sand, horizontal pull) and actually
act like an anchor. Allowing the flukes to open all the way caused it
to rotate out of the sand (even when originally buried by hand) and
just skid over the surface.

So it appears possible to make grapnels that work if the geometry is
controlled. Do the manufacturers just not care?

This Cooper anchor looks interesting but still has the stowage
problem of a plough anchor and I am not sure the light weight would
allow it to set through weed. I would be interested in hearing some
real-world experience.

--
Hoping for calm nights

Alastair Law,      
Yeovil, England.
<http://www.little.jim.freeuk.com>          

[Michael Rogers]

My Cooper anchor has arrived (very prompt delivery). For me, there are two obvious issues -

1) Taking Alastair's point about plough anchors, does it fit in my boat? There's a specific issue, because my Trouper 12 has a cunning smallish anchor well right up in the bows immediately aft of the stem, complete with its own hardwood coaming. This space really does need to be used, obviously. Answer  - it (the Cooper) does fit, just, and this is ideal. It needs a slight 'wriggle' to get it in and out, which may be a bonus in terms of it not falling out in the (extremely unlikely, with a Trouper) event of a capsize. The anti-'ding' quality of the nylon material it's made out of is, I think, going to be another plus: in taking it in and out I didn't feel I was potentially knocking the boat about.

2) Does it work? Just a bit crucial! I don't know yet. I'll report back when I've tried it.

And I suppose a further issue is how durable it proves to be, which of course only time will tell.

Michael

[alopenboat]

On 22 Feb 2013 at 5:41, Michael Rogers [via UK HBBR Forum] wrote:

 
> 1) Taking Alastair's point about plough anchors, does it fit in my
> boat? There's a specific issue, because my Trouper 12 has a cunning
> smallish anchor well right up in the bows immediately aft of the stem,
> complete with its own hardwood coaming. This space really does need to
> be used, obviously. Answer  - it (the Cooper) does fit, just, and this
> is ideal. It needs a slight 'wriggle' to get it in and out, which may
> be a bonus in terms of it not falling out in the (extremely unlikely,
> with a Trouper) event of a capsize.

I used to have a friend who was worried that, during a capsize, the
boat would sail off without him. He was not enamoured of safety lines
in dinghies and his solution was to ensure that, during a capsize,
the anchor would deploy, thus securing the boat in place head to
wind.

I am not sure if he ever had to test the theory in a live situation
but, if he did, it obviously worked as he never lost his boat, or
drowned.

--
Hoping for calm nights

Alastair Law,      
Yeovil, England.
<http://www.little.jim.freeuk.com>          

[Port-Na-Storm]

Denis, a blogger in Australia, has just bought a Cooper Anchor for his gorgeous Melonseed, but I don't think he's quite ready to try it out yet.

Little Wing

[Chris Waite]

I must say

The Melonseed is a beautiful little skimming dish - would suit the Broads.

That Cooper Anchor doesn't look even remotely pink and plastic though,
it looks like real metal to me.

Could be good, at that, though

CW

[Jeremy]

Many years ago I made a very similar looking anchor from welded aluminium sheet, with lead cast in to the tip.  It was staggeringly effective, far more so than I would have thought given it's light weight.  It's major failing was that it would bury itself very deeply in sand at times and was a bugger to pull out unless I bothered to rig a trip line to the heel.  

My anchor was around 2 ft long, with a shank made from 1/2" thick alloy plate and the blades made from 1/4" plate.  I never once had a problem with it holding anywhere on the Scottish south west coast, even in a fair old blow.  It took more distance to dig in through weed (in mud or sand it would bury itself almost within its own length)  but would still hold well.  I tested it on the beach with a Land Rover before using it for the first time and it effectively stalled the Land Rover.  We had to dig the anchor out after the test as it was buried a few feet down and we couldn't pull it out.

The only failing I found was if you had a big shift in wind/tide.  More often than not the anchor would break out and then reset when this happened.  Not a problem, as I've had other anchors do the same, but perhaps not to the same degree.  I did find that the anchor needed a good pull to set properly, something that might be an issue with a small boat (Mine was used on a pretty hefty small gaffer of around a ton or so displacement).

I would suspect that this little plastic version would behave very similarly to my home made alloy one.  I've no doubt it will attract comment from those who mistakenly believe that anchors need to be heavy to work, though (mine certainly did).

[Michael Rogers]

Chris

The colour of the nylon (is nylon, technically, a plastic? I have no idea and defer to Those Who Know) 1 kg job seems to have been changed from pink to blue: personally I don't fancy either. There is a chunk of lead up in the tip, otherwise I suspect it might not even sink. It's specified for boats up to 3.5 m, mine actually being a relatively very light 3.6 m. There is a range of bigger Cooper anchors for bigger boats, made from aluminium I believe: but they are all very light by 'conventional' standards.

I'm getting more and more intrigued to give it a go, once the ice melts (currently only a very slight exaggeration).

Michael