The anchors, and how they set

The benchmark of the new generation. A concave, spade-shaped fluke buries deeper the harder it is pulled, and the roll-bar hoop guarantees it lands the right way up however it hits the bottom. It sets almost at once and holds far above its weight.

Sets: A hoop over the back rolls it upright; the concave blade then knifes deep.

Holds in

Sand, mud — most seabeds

Skates in

Hard rock, very heavy weed

The modern primary anchor — the high-holding shape now recommended for serious cruising.

A concave scoop that reaches the same deep, high hold as a roll-bar anchor but rights itself by a heavily ballasted toe rather than a hoop — so nothing protrudes to foul the rode. Many demount into shank and blade for stowage.

Sets: A heavily weighted toe rights it without a roll-bar, then drives in deep.

Holds in

Sand, mud — most seabeds

Skates in

Hard rock, heavy weed

A new-generation primary — proof that self-righting needn’t mean a roll-bar.

A roll-bar scoop built to bolt apart into flat pieces for stowage, with a notably sharp toe that bites quickly on a short scope. It belongs to the same high-holding new generation as the roll-bar and ballasted-toe scoops.

Sets: A tall roll-bar flips it upright; the sharp toe sets fast on a short scope.

Holds in

Sand, mud — most seabeds

Skates in

Hard rock, heavy weed

A new-generation scoop — handy where stowage space is tight.

The anchor that taught a generation to trust a bow roller. A genuine ploughshare on a hinged shank: the hinge lets the share keep biting as the boat swings to a new wind, instead of being levered out. It is forgiving and well-proven, if slower to set than the scoops that followed.

Sets: The share rolls upright and ploughs a furrow until it is buried.

Holds in

Sand, firm mud, shingle

Skates in

Soft mud, thick weed, rock

The classic cruising bower — the shape most RYA students picture when they hear “anchor”.

A plough cast in a single rigid piece, with no hinge to jam. The ballasted tip drops the point to the seabed so it sets quickly, and the straight shank self-launches cleanly over a bow roller. The everyday bower on a great many modern cruisers.

Sets: A weighted tip tips it nose-down so the one-piece share digs straight in.

Holds in

Sand, mud, gravel

Skates in

Heavy weed, rock

A common modern bower — the anchor on the bow of many charter and club boats.

Two broad, flat flukes pivoting at the crown give an enormous bearing area for very little weight — the best holding-to-weight of any common anchor in the right ground. It folds nearly flat to stow, which is why it is the kedge of choice in a cockpit locker.

Sets: Twin flat flukes pivot and slice in side by side until fully buried.

Holds in

Sand, firm mud

Skates in

Weed, rock, shingle, soft ooze

The classic kedge — the second anchor you lay out to haul off after a grounding.

A single-piece claw with nothing to hinge or jam. It sets quickly at almost any angle, resets well when the boat swings, and copes with a wider range of bottoms than most — including rock and weed. The trade is a lower hold for its weight, so it is sized up.

Sets: The broad claw scoops in at almost any angle the moment it touches down.

Holds in

Sand, mud, rock, weed

Skates in

Soft mud (lower hold for weight)

A forgiving, easy-setting bower — popular on smaller cruisers and many charter fleets.

The age-old anchor of the storybooks: a long shank, a stock across the head to capsize it onto one arm, and two arms ending in narrow palms. It is the one traditional pattern that will hook into rock, stone and thick weed where burying anchors skate — at the cost of a poor hold for its weight, awkward stowage, and one fluke left standing proud for the rode to foul.

Sets: The stock rolls it over so one sharp arm hooks down into the ground.

Holds in

Rock, stone, heavy weed, kelp

Skates in

Sand, mud (low hold for weight)

The weed-and-rock standby — carried when the new-generation anchors would only skate.

A cluster of curved tines on a central shaft that folds away to almost nothing. It holds by hooking rather than burying, which makes it the dinghy and tender anchor, a useful tool for snagging rocky ground, and the classic device for grappling a lost mooring chain off the bottom.

Sets: Several curved tines splay out and snag on whatever they can grip.

Holds in

Rock, coral, dinghy work

Skates in

Sand, mud (little hold)

The dinghy and kedge-of-last-resort — and the tool for recovering a dropped chain.

An inverted bowl on a shank that works by sinking into soft ground over weeks until the silt closes over it and grips the whole cap. Superb for a permanent mooring in mud; useless for anchoring under way, because it needs time, not a pull, to set.

Sets: It settles and is slowly swallowed by the silt until the bowl is buried.

Holds in

Soft silt, mud (permanent moorings)

Skates in

Anywhere you need to set and weigh the same day

A moorings anchor — the lump on the bottom of the buoy you pick up, not one you deploy.