Norca wrote:
I don't really want to drill holes in the deck to install a new, longer roller if I can avaoid it.
In the spring I am planning to try this:
http://mantusanchors.com/mantus-anchor-mate/.
I spoke to Greg at Mantus through the Mantus Anchors facebook page. Good customer service,even though he couldn't help but to make fun of the 26X bow roller a bit. SIZE DOESN'T COUNT, right? He wasn't sure if it would fit on the small 26X stock roller, but asked me to try it and if it didn't fit Mantus would give me a full refund and pay the return shipping. He'd probably do the same for someone with a 26M.
I wanted to get a new generation anchor and was looking at the Rocna. I recently bought instead a 13lb galvanized Mantus for $120 cdn...like 30 cents US but I haven't tried it yet. We don't do a ton of anchoring out, and when we do it is always in fresh water with a good forecast, so I felt the 13 lb would met our needs. I just wanted something that would set quickly in sand or mud and would reset during the night as the breeze shifts around. The boat came with a small danforth knock-off that fits in the anchor locker with 200' of rope and about 6' of chain. That anchor never dragged but we never exposed it to anything more than 20 knots or so.
I know it would be nice to have a 22 lb monster up on the bow, and I would do that for ocean anchoring or any time that I didn't have a dock available for the night, but where we sail, for now, I am never more than 5 miles or so away from a Marina. Our principle anchor use is to hold the boat while we build sandcastles at a beach, or if the weather forecast is calm, then we'll anchor out for a night or two.