Why Use an All terrain Active Anchor?
The first impression most have of an Active Anchor is simply to see a sand anchor. The reality is, Active Anchors are a genuine all terrain anchor that can easily be retrieved and re-set in the most difficult of circumstances.
Innovative Design
The enormous benefit of this design is as much a product of discovery as deliberate intent. None the less, the not so obvious attributes are supported by basic physical principles that dramatically improve performance. This truly revolutionary design delivers a highly effective anchor in a vast range of seabeds from rock to gravel, sand and mud. They are fully releasable and immediately reusable.
The Active Anchor design employs a spring and pivot action to set into the seabed and take hold. It’s an important and pivotal feature (no pun intended).
An easy way to understand the way the action works is to consider pushing a spade or shovel into the ground. Using your foot to apply pressure to the top of the shovel blade, when it gets stuck, and won’t go into the ground further, you then rock the handle back and forth. This gets the blade past solid objects, like rocks, and moves the dirt away from the highest part of the blade (to reduce resistance). You can then continue to apply more pressure to the blade and drive it down further.
The same action is created by the Active Anchor design automatically, due to a spring action and the rocking action of the boat pulling on the anchor. The double fluke design has a high tensile steel, trombone shaped, shank spring that provides the flipper action to both flukes.
Pivotal feature
The single feature that makes the double fluke design so revolutionary is the toggle action release mechanism. Both because it can be set at one of multiple pressures, making the release function safe and easy to use. For the ability to simply turn the release off to a fully locked, cyclone setting, see the How to page.
Watching one go into the ground is like watching a creature looking to get a bite in. As soon as the Active anchor hits soft ground it goes straight in or crabs along the hard rock till it finds a crevice to slip into.
This claw type action is a deliberate design feature, as are all the attributes of the fluke shape. It may look like it was created with a superhero in mind, yet all attributes of the fluke shape are designed for stopping power, not aesthetics.
Weighted fluke tips
The most important design feature of an Active anchor is that the center of mass is near the fluke tips. With a standard Danforth anchor all the weight at the back of the anchor prevents it from rising up at the rear so the tip of the flukes often can’t get a hold to bite in.
With an Active anchor, when the shank is pulled forward, the rear of the flukes rise which drives the tips into the ground. As a result, the bulk of the surface area of the flukes goes into the ground immediately and the maximum holding power of the anchor is achieved quickly.
This feature has additional benefits. Firstly, it makes the Active anchor very stable on its fluke tips, unlike most sand anchors that never get into the seabed because they constantly roll over and won’t dig in.
Secondly, in water the Active flukes pitch down as the anchor drops to the ocean floor or the riverbed, making them appear to swim away from the boat to the sea. It’s amazing to watch but has the benefit of moving the anchor away from the drop point so the rope and chain don’t tangle around the anchor as it hits the sea floor or riverbed.
Cutting action
The tapered outer edges of the Active double fluke anchors creates a highly effective cutting edge that dives into most substrates with ease. This keeps any ploughing action to an absolute minimum and leaves the ground largely undisturbed.
This feature reduces the environmental impact of anchoring in weed beds and increases the holding capacity of a given seabed. For reference, there are areas in Australian waterways that preclude anchoring by boats to stop the spread of invasive weed species.
It also makes for easy removal from the ground as the flukes simply slip out backwards without disturbing the ground as is the case if pulled vertically. In addition, as the anchor is pulled in different directions by a vessel, the flukes cut through the ground side on maintaining hold with ease.
Release function
An Active anchor has 4 release settings and a lock position that will not release.
Why they work so well
Anchor rope angle
As most anchoring is done in bays, rivers or estuarine settings, anchor drag is a real danger because there’s often other boats in proximity and less room between obstacles.
The rope scope angle of an Active Anchor can be increased by up to 15 degrees more than any other anchor tested without dislodging. And it has twice the stopping power for a given weight in soft silt and mud due to the parachute effect created by the spring.
This test shows the difference between a standard 3 kilo Danforth and much small 1 kilo Active anchor.
The chart above produced by SV Panope shows the marked reduction in performance of a range of anchors in soft mud.
Additional features
Slide ring
The benefit of the slide ring is of most use when anchoring in areas when there are old anchor ropes or underwater cables. This is because if you do snag a rope or cable, it will tend to slide down the flukes toward the pivot point of the anchor. It can then be difficult (or Impossible) to trigger the release mechanism as you can’t apply enough leverage to the flukes to do so.
If there is a possibility of this happening, have the chain attached directly to the ring so it can slide down the shank. If you do get caught up, let the anchor drop to the seabed and drive backward over the anchor making sure that the rode is slack. As you go over the drag point, gently lift the anchor rode up when you feel the ring is next to the release collar. This will allow the fluke tips to pitch down and the offending rope or cable can fall away.
Float retrieval system
Deep water anchoring can be made easier and simpler with the use of a float or buoy with a ring. If the anchor rope is run through a steel ring connected to a buoy, as you drive away from the anchor point at speed, the boat can do the work of both triggering the release and lifting the Active anchor to the surface.
This makes it easy retrieve the anchor and coil the rode into the anchor well or a bucket.
When using this method of anchoring it is important to ensure you pull from the bow of the boat so that if for any reason the anchor cannot be dislodged from the snag the boat will still be bow first into the prevailing swell.
Anchor loss
Most people give little thought to their anchor after first buying a boat, it’s often one of the lowest priced items on a vessel. The irony is, if it fails, there is real potential to lead to complete catastrophe. Unfortunately, the sea does not care!
Few boats have more than one or maybe two anchors on board and rarely is the anchor of a size or type that’s well suited to the vessel and the ground it’s on. People tend to use what they have available and simply accept anchor drag or loss as a part of boating.
This attitude or perception has developed into a school of thought that says, “it’s the chain that does the work” and that the anchor is just a weighted lump on the end of the rode. If that is the thought process, it makes you think, why bother with an anchor at all?
Simply losing an anchor to a snag can ruin your trip and force a complete change of plans. For these reasons there is no doubt that an on the water, an effective anchor that’s easy to deploy and retrieve in any situation is a must have item.
Intractable problems need a new way of thinking - Active delivers the new way of anchoring.
Australian Made
Manufacture from high tensile and Stainless steel, active anchors are a high-quality Australian made product. If you have any questions, please contact us at; info@activeanchors.com.au
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