~ The first beach side 'test' trials ~

For our own interest, we took the ARK 'Crown' - 23 kg to the beach at St.  Helens Tasmania.  

 The first test was simply the 'throwing' of the Ark into the waters edge, its 'rope' was attached to a Toyota in the car park with the spring lineal tester attached to the line.  As the vehicle drove off the anchor was 'videoed' with my digital camera.

This test was done in  fairly soft, deep and wet sand as the tide was running out.   The lower fluke was seen to set very quickly and become completely embedded (set) within a distance of one metre.   

The 'tow' vehicle continued to drag the anchor through the soft sand to enable us to record the lbs resistance in the ground conditions, and the spring tester attached to the vehicle recorded a resistance 'force' reached of 2000 lbs resistance to forwards motion, naturally in 'harder' or firmer substratum there would be greater resistance to forward motion.  

The video can be seen here:

'Video'

The second test was done with the smaller 8.5 kg ARK and it also set immediately in the wet sand recording a 700 lb resistance figure.  Later we will do trials in deeper water with a harder 'sea bed' and give the recorded lbs resistance. 

The third test was carried out together with 2 'plough' style anchors having a similar size fluke area of approximately 92 sq inches.  The first thing we noted was that the plough anchors were manufactured to different specifications, and one of them was obviously an 'incorrect' copy manufacture as it failed to 'set' at all, and simply dragged along the beach when hand pulled with a rope and chain attached.  The second unit began to set within a metre or so, and this showed me the importance of the beach side testing of your own anchors, for some may have been 'copied' incorrectly and could fail you in windy conditions.

The next 'comparison' was carried out using a large 8" pulley attached to the rear of the automobile.  The ARK 'Crown' - 23 kg and the 'better' of the two plough anchors of same fluke area were placed on the beach a few feet apart in the wet sand left as the tide was out, and joined by one rope 'passing' through the pulley attached to the rear of the vehicle. 

This test was to see which anchor would set first, for it would then stop being pulled by the vehicle as the other would still be dragged by the rope passing through the pulley.

In this test the Ark anchor 'set' within a metre and dug deep enough to 'hold' its position.  The plough anchor also 'set' but was dragged forwards for some distance before the vehicle was stopped.  

Note: This test also shows that ocean travellers would be well advised to test their anchors on the beach, in order to see whether they are in fact 'working' properly.  For the 'poorer' plough that failed to set at all was borrowed from a 45' yacht, and it was their 'standby' anchor.!

Note: If you are unable to download the video section due to 'line speed,' you may wish to acquire a CD of the entire web site.

The 2500 lbs lineal spring tester.

Note - As time passes we will add to this 'testing' section.