Trying out a Spade anchor

One new Nelson friend, Adrian Faulkner fell in love with the Maggie B. He was, however, shocked about our main anchor which is a 80 pound CQR. He had gotten to know the French inventor of the Spade anchor, which is quite different in design. I said something like “well, everybody has their favorite anchor.” Or words to that effect. The next day he brought by a thick package on all sorts of careful tests by several different independent organizations, which proved that the traditional “plow” anchor was pathetic and the Spade was terrific. That caused me to recall that the Maggie B did drag in Barbados, the Seychelles and twice in Tasmania. All were in notoriously bad holding grounds. But then I thought of the anchoring challenges ahead of us in the Marquesas, the coast of Chile and Patagonia, and all of a sudden a “top rated” anchor seemed much more attractive. While the Spade anchors are excellent, their availability isn’t. It is run by Frenchmen.

Adrian is off to Southeast Asia for five months and has loaned us his anchor with the understanding that we either get it back to him by his return or get him a new one. I’m hoping that the overdue shipment will arrive in Auckland by the time we get there. Meanwhile we’ll try it out in Marlborough Sound and the Bay of Plenty.

The essential difference is that the “plow” anchors plow up the bottom. I have definitely seen it happen in Barbados. The Spade digs in. Also the plow anchors have a big proportion of their weight in the shank and not much in the tip, which needs to dig in. The Spade has 50% of its weight in the tip and supposedly digs in so hard and fast that new owners think that they have snagged an underwater cable. We’ll see.

Tawhirimatea joins us

The Schooner Maggie B is still tied up at the Tasman Cruising Club marina in Nelson, NZ, waiting out a classic Kiwi Souwester. It is blowing 25-30 knots in this rather sheltered port, and lots more off shore. We now think that we will be off on Saturday, heading just to D’Urville Island on which makes the western part of Marlborough Sound, and then on to Wellington after a few days in Marlborough Sound.

“Our exciting news is that we have acquired a Guardian for the boat. Tim Wraight has made a carving of Tawhirimatea that has replaced our boom end cap. Tawhirimatea is the Maori wind deity. Tim left the tongue blank instead of the gale-like swirl that is usually seen on it, so that we don’t get too much wind. It is made of Totara wood and paua shell. There are some great photos up on this site.

One new Nelson friend, Adrian Faulkner fell in love with the Maggie B. He was, however, shocked about our main anchor which is a 80 pound CQR. He had gotten to know the French inventor of the Spade anchor, which is quite different in design. I said something like €œwell, everybody has their favorite anchor.€ Or words to that effect.

We get our anchor “in Spades.”