Fisherman's Anchor |
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| Fishing anchors work great. These
old-fashioned anchors still have specialized uses The fisherman anchor, also sometimes known as the yachtsman’s anchor, is the old-fashioned anchor seen in coats of arms and old paintings. Made of galvanized steel, it has a long straight shank with a ring at one end to which the anchor line is fastened, and two curved arms at the other end to hook into the ground. Each arm terminates in a broad fluke with a sharp bill, or pea, as it used to be called.
Fisherman anchor and boat anchors with quick release.At the ring end of the shank, there is a broad stock, or transverse rod, whose purpose is to capsize the anchor so that the two curved hooks forming the crown lie vertically, better to bite into the seabed. The stock of the fisherman is usually removable so that the anchor may be stowed flat. Few small boats now carry fisherman anchors as working anchors because they are very heavy compared with more modern anchors, and they are awkward to handle. But they are still useful as storm anchors and will hold fast in rock or foul ground where no other anchor will grip. Claud Worth, British sailor and author of the classic Yacht Cruising, gave this advice for the selection of a fisherman anchor: “The arms and shank should be oval or flat in section. Boat anchors - Anchoring systems - Anchor ReleasesThe flukes should be sharp and long to bite into hard ground. They should make an angle of about 40 degrees with the shank. The measurement from the crown to the hole for the stock should be not less than 1˝ times, nor more than 1 2/3 times, the length of the chord—the chord being the distance between the tips of the two flukes. The stock should be the same length as the shank. |
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