Made the swap
At this moment, the wind is blowing, and the rain is teeming down. While the boats at anchor around us are, in some cases, having their ground tackle tested, I have no concern that our boat is going to move. Why? Because we’re now lying to our big bad Mantus anchor.
Yesterday morning, Rebecca and I moved Frost over to Port Louis Marina to take a spot on one of their docks to make the anchor switch. Using a halyard to lift the heavy anchors, Rebecca and I were able to make the change over by ourselves with little drama. As we expected though, the anchor was not a perfect fit on the boat. Due to the shape of the Maramu’s bow pulpit, when we attempted to draw the anchor in tight, the large roll bar made contact with the forward rail before it was in a perfect position to be secured. While there are a few things we could do to address this situation, we have pretty much decided that the best solution is to have that forward piece of stainless rail modified.
In the meantime, we have removed the roll bar, and have anchored perfectly without it. For those who are curious, the subject of anchoring without the roll bar is addressed on the Mantus Anchor website.
Last night’s sunset. Really liking our new camera!
It’s kind of funny that a few days ago you posted a picture of the big mantis with the caption “less hoops please” and today your using it without the hoop! You have to be careful what you ask for, or much more specific. ?
lol… funny.
Hey Mike, you can save yourself a whole bunch of trouble by not messing with
the stainless rail, but simply heating the roll bar and bending it back 3 or 4 inches.
Bent back will have no effect on it’s purpose.Your wallet will be happy and so will
the stainless rail.
I do not think that would be a better solution.
Thanks for the info! I have had a Mantus for about a year and didn’t know the roll bar could be taken off and work reliably. If you think about it, that is basically the same concept as the Spade anchor. I have to store the anchor below on my boat so removing the hoop sounds good.
I’ve done a lot of testing with Mantus anchors, some with the bar and most without (the dingy version does not have a bar).
a. If the anchor lands on its back–rare, 2% sounds about right–the complete lack of set is totally obvious.
b. I never succeed in tripping the anchor (aft set) in such a way that it ended up on its back. A perfect reversal, I suppose, but it never happened. It just tracks around, pretty as a picture.
c. In rocks the hoop can be your friend. More than once, when testing on shingle and oyster rock, the hoop is what caught! This was true of Ronca and Manson also. While the hoop may interfere with deep burying, when I saw it catch and hold on rocks I decided a strong hoop was a good thing.