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What’s the best anchor to use in the Florida Keys for a 26M?

There is no one best anchor. Most of us have two different anchors. What determines the anchor is the bottom you are hooking into, and the length of your boat. You have a 26’ boat, now, what are the most common bottoms in the keys?

There are some board members from that area, hopefully they will chime in.

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Awesome, thanks, all that info is super helpful. PS - I love your name, get a kick out of it every time I see it

PS - I love your name, get a kick out of it every time I see it

I never thought Ray was humorous

Florida is mostly soft sand from what I know. Danforth or fluke style would likely works well in those conditions. I have a Fortress FX-11 and it would likely do the job and fit in your front anchor locker. For the fluke anchors you want at least 6:1 scope. For the anchor chain/ line - you want the first part to be chain about the length of your boat 25-30ft of 0.25in connected to nylon rope anchor line (the real stuff).

Also another great option is the Mantus series. They have an 8lb that would likely work well that is fixed or disconnect and the latter will lprobably fit in the front locker taken apart.

Mantis, Rocna, would be top choices next would be Manson supreme or Fortress. Remember when anchor manufacturers state sailboat lengths those sailboats weigh thousands of pounds. A 30 foot catalina weighs 11,000 lbs. Our Macs loaded might be 3,500. We have over 200 nights on anchor with a 15 lb Manson supreme and have never had our anchor drag. We have anchored from Florida to the Great Lakes in all kinds of bottoms from sand to mud. Use about 30 ft. of chain then 3 strand rope for your anchor rode. Learn to set your anchor and then sleep without worrying about dragging. A 15 lb.anchor is easier to pull up than a 25 lb. anchor.
Richard

I use a Fortress FX-7, which is the smallest Fortress aluminium anchor. That's the biggest that can fit my anchor locker. If you want to store it in the anchor locker of your , which is larger than that in the , then the FX-11 is your best bet. Excellent anchor in sand, like genuine Danforth anchors are/were, though they're steel. In fact, I've heard Danforths referred to as "sand anchors". Fortress anchors have the advantage, beyond light weight, of having two fluke angles - standard 32° for sand, and a steep 45° for mud. Mine won't set worth a darn with the wrong angle for the bottom type, but I once had it set for mud, anchored in mud, and I got worried I wouldn't get it back out it had set so deep. Had to cleat it vertical and drive over it a few times to break it out.

My top choice would be a next generation anchor with 'roll bar', like the Rocna, Manson Supreme, or Mantis, or hoopless like the well respected Spade (pricey, though). They don't fit in the locker, though, so an external storage system would be needed. But they're top-shelf for not just holding, but resetting on wind or current changes.

Symmetric twin-fluke anchors like the Fortress or Danforth don't do as well resetting when the direction of pull changes drastically, and that can be a problem overnight or unattended when you don't know it's broken loose. The next-gen types do far better from what I've read.

I've had a Bruce on a much bigger boat and was happy with the way it worked, but Bruce doesn't make small boat anchors any more, just giant anchors for offshore rigs and such, which is their bread and butter anyway. I have a smallish Claw, which is a Bruce knock-off, which I use mainly for a stern anchor when I need to control or orient the stern, especially at a beach. Just a big, solid lump with no moving parts, so it's easy to handle to walk out from the boat and plant by hand. Just like Captain Ron below.

As others have stated, a boat length of chain or so, and three-strand nylon rode for the rest. Three-strand especially is stretchy, which is exactly what you want in a rode for shock absorption. Use rigging wire (permanent) or nylon zip ties (not as permanent) to secure any shackles. Have enough rode for 7:1 scope in your deepest anchoring water. The water depth for 7:1 scope is measured from the bow, not the water surface, by the way. That should give you enough to handle a blow, which can happen even if you make a point of avoiding such weather. And tie the bitter end to something, anything, before launching the anchor. Nothing worse than pulling a Captain Ron when you really can't afford to. And have a spare anchor and rode below decks but ready to go, in case you do pull a Captain Ron.



p.s. I don't know if the one Capt. Ron is about to toss is real or a foam fake, but if it's real, it's probably a 110 pound Bruce knockoff, as I don't think Bruce anchors had a flanged shank.

It's really going to depend on where you plan on anchoring. The bottom in the Keys may be sand, coral, grass, or a combination. Many places in the Keys require you to use a mooring ball to protect the fragile ecosystem on the sea floor. Most of the places that allow anchoring will be sand. I like a Danforth in sand.

I love our two Mantus anchors...8lb on stern, 13 lb. on the bow. They always set in any bottom our lakes throw at us....until...they don't.

Had my first drag event yesterday. We were anchored in 5 ft of very weedy water over a clay-ish bottom. Winds were gusting to 30 mph, but we were reasonably sheltered.

A big gust from the side, as my boys and I were paddling the dingy ashore, ripped her loose. My wife, my daughter and her boyfriend were on board but didn't notice right away, but I noticed the boat's position starting to change too fast relative to how fast we were paddling.

We chased the boat down in the dinghy and got the motor started to hold position. I went to the bow and pulled up the anchor, to find that the anchor was still perfectly set in a massive chunk of about 100 lbs of clay and weed roots that had ripped from the bottom as a single piece. I suppose that our setting the anchor had loosened that chunk of the lake bottom, and the big sideways gust twisted it out. I couldn't get the anchor on board, it was so heavy, so I cleated it in place and manually hung over the side and cleared the anchor. I was a mess, and so was the boat. I don't know if I can fault the anchor, because it was still well set in the huge piece of lake bottom that ripped out.

Anchored again, this time with a prolonged high power reverse burst....and ripped out another chunk of the lake bottom and weeds. Repeat cleaning procedure.

It's hard to explain how much material was pulled up each time by the anchor. The entire anchor was still buried and well set in the chunk of lake bottom that came up with it.

Third time was a charm, and we never moved again. Set the anchor alarm after that, of course.

Four other boats tried anchoring in the bay near us and none of them could. They all dragged during the set. We watched a Tanzer 22 try about 10 times with their Danforth (or replica) but they never got the slightest bite and had to leave.

The weeds are awful this year. An invasive species called the Eurasian Millfoil is clogging everything. It's so bad that I can't back up out of my slip with any of the boards down if the marina hasn't cleared them out that week.

Starscream wrote: ↑Mon Sep 13, 2021 6:14 amI went to the bow and pulled up the anchor, to find that the anchor was still perfectly set in a massive chunk of about 100 lbs of clay and weed roots that had ripped from the bottom as a single piece. <snip> I don't know if I can fault the anchor, because it was still well set in the huge piece of lake bottom that ripped out.
<snip>
Four other boats tried anchoring in the bay near us and none of them could. They all dragged during the set. We watched a Tanzer 22 try about 10 times with their Danforth (or replica) but they never got the slightest bite and had to leave.

I've had this discussion long ago on a cruising forum regarding bottom type and anchor size, with the prevailing wisdom about anchor type being the main variable. But the other half of the problem is that the weeds, or rocks, or mud surface over gravel or sand, doesn't get smaller as the anchor gets smaller. An aircraft carrier's stockless anchor wouldn't even know those weeds were there, while my Fortress wouldn't be able to even reach the bottom through the weeds, let alone hold enough bottom to do any good.

Not a perfect example, as your anchor clearly did engage the bottom, but there are times (and bottom types) where there just isn't any substitute for size, along with an appropriate style for weeds (for instance). My Fortress is about the worst type for weeds as it's both too small, and will load up right away with weeds, or just skip over them which is what mine usually does, but if it was a 25000 lb Bruce, it wouldn't care, though that's assuming the boat could pull hard enough to actually move it to engage the bottom rather than just lay there being heavy (they were originally designed for offshore platforms).

You may have gotten a little better results with an anchor that didn't have the 'roll bar', like some of the newest next-gen types, but that's not a sure thing either as the shank will still load up.

"They don't fit in the locker, though, so an external storage system would be needed." per Tomfoolery.

Yes, but....

There are unsalty sailors like me who use one of those anchors that don't fit at all in the locker. That doesn't stop us because the locker closes just fine when anchor is out and a bungee cord holds the anchor locker door snug against the big anchor as it shows its butt way out of the locker when underway.

Yes, unsalty and we get a stare or two, but they are great anchors and we don't care what stares we get. (there is no interference with furler).