[Rhodes22-list] Fortress Anchor Re: Key Largo-final post

[Mary Lou Troy]

At 09:34 AM 5/27/2007, petelargo wrote:

>2) I did end up buying the FORTRESS ANCHOR, billed as the greatest anchoring
>system since sliced cheeze. However, I could not get it to "stick" in the
>morrel muck down here. It just slid along the bottom even on soft mud mode.
>I thought I got the right size, but maybe need to go one size larger.
>Thoughts?

If the anchor was just skittering along the bottom the problem could 
be a mismatch to the type of bottom or a problem with your anchoring 
technique or perhaps you do not have "mud palms" on your Fortress 
(http://www.fortressanchors.com/mud_palms.html). A friend of ours 
mentioned just this afternoon that when he first got the anchor he 
couldn't get it to set. When he called the rep he had met at the Boat 
Show the rep told him they had just introduced the mud palms to 
address this problem. He added them and hasn't had a problem since. I 
think that all Fortresses are now sold with the mud palms but you 
have to install them.

Our personal experience with the Fortress in Chesapeake mud (thick 
and sticky with bits of shell and other debris) is pretty good. We've 
had it for a year and we've always been able to set it.

Our technique is as follows: I try to drop it overboard with the boat 
at a standstill and let it go straight down with the flukes pointing 
aft. We then let the boat drift back or reverse and start paying out 
the rode (there is also 6 ft. of chain attached to the anchor). When 
I have rode out to at least twice the depth of the water I start to 
tug on the rode encouraging the anchor to set. Usually it sets within 
a few feet and a few tugs. We then pay out more line while still in 
reverse. Once we have at least a 3:1 scope out we give several hard 
pulls until we are sure it is set. This past weekend, we set the 
anchor 4 times. On all but one it set on the first try. On the one 
where it didn't set, it set momentarily and then pulled loose. We 
simply went around and tried again.

The last anchor set of the weekend was a real test and increased my 
confidence in the anchor significantly. We set it in 10 ft. of water 
and it set very quickly on the first attempt. We had about a 5:1 
scope out. Later in the evening, we heard a weather report about a 
thunderstorm and saw clouds building so we let out more rode until we 
had 90 ft. or a scope of 7.5:1 (10 ft. of water + 2 ft. to the bow 
=12 ft x 7.5 = 90). When the thunderstorm hit, the first gusts turned 
us completely around so that the pull on the anchor was exactly 
opposite from the way we had set it. The winds were not exceptionally 
high but there was a period of about 10 minutes of sustained winds 
above 25 knots. We had the poptop enclosure and the bimini up so we 
had a lot of windage. The anchor held beautifully and this morning it 
took two of us to break it loose pulling directly above it.

Hope this is helpful.

Mary Lou
1991 R22 Fretless
Rock Hall, MD