Oh boy, this is a workout! But I'll tell you what. If you want to get fit, go to the
gym. If on the other hand you want to be a boater,
you do have to learn a few things about anchors. Hi folks. I'm Lenny Rudow for
BoatUS Magazine, and I'm here today to talk about the basics of what an anchor
is and what it does. Now, there are a lot of different types, shapes, styles, and
sizes of anchors, and that's one of the reasons we came to this West Marine in
Annapolis, Maryland, where they have a large selection of them. In fact, if you
went back there in the aisle and looked, you'd see 50 or 60 different anchors back
there right now. Now will you know exactly which one to choose? Well it
varies quite a bit depending on the bottom type in the area you're in, the
style of boat you have, the size boat you have. And all of that can change, so it's
really a good idea to talk to the experts at a store like this West Marine
to get their input on your particular location. Now, that said, let's talk about
some of the specifics of these different types of anchors. Now you old salts, you
can probably just go ahead and tune out, but you new boaters, this is important
stuff to know you because let's say you walk into the store you want to be able
to speak intelligently with the people there, right? Well, here's the first thing
you need to know about an anchor — it has these things called flukes. These give an
anchor their holding power. They dig into the bottom. And all different styles
of anchors have flukes. This piece down here is called the crown. This holds the
different pieces of the anchor together. It's basically the base, and you can see
here it attaches the flukes to this piece. We call this the shank. At the top
of the shank, there's an eye and that of course is what you attach your line to.
Use a shackle like this. Put it through the eye, then bring a chain up and put
the pin right through there.
There! There you go. Now if I were gonna put this on my boat, I would secure this pin —
it's called seizing it — with a piece of wire. Make absolutely sure that shackle
doesn't spin out. But the interesting thing is all these different anchors
have an eye like this, right? Every different style, like this claw style.
Or you can look at this plow style anchor, which has a very
different set of flukes. It's actually just like a plow, and just as you could
picture in your mind, it plows right into the bottom. Heck, there's even an eye and
a shackle on this little grappling anchor. It's a very different kind of
anchor obviously than these others but it's you know it's got its advantages.
It's compact, it packs up, and you can open it up like that. Now it obviously has
some rather unique parts. It has an eye on the back so you can attach a line to
it to pull it back out if you need to. Some other unique parts you might want
to look at are, say, well the stock on this Danforth. Danforth has a big stock on the
bottom. This is intended to help the anchor when it lands, hit the bottom in
the right way so it doesn't go sideways, and then drag into the mud so it holds.
The downside being you can tangle your chain and line around it on occasion. You know
the claw doesn't really have any incredibly unusual parts, nor does this
plow, although it does have this bar in the back which is not exactly a stock
but you know certainly has its similarities. Now, again, I know you're
wondering which specific anchor should you buy for your boat, and again I want
to advise, talk to local experts. Different places have different bottom
types, and it really can vary quite a bit as to which is going to be the best
choice for you. Now that said, you probably also want to know how to lower
and how to retrieve an anchor right? Well fortunately we have a video on that very
topic. Just stick around on the BoatUS Magazine YouTube channel, plug it into
the search box, and you'll find it — how to drop and retrieve an anchor. Well, folks, I
hope this video has been helpful, and I hope you leave some comments in the box
below. If there any other topics you'd like to see us address, please feel free
to put them in there.