T&T: ANCHORS

[Faure, Marin]

>Someone mentioned that the rollbar was hollow, open at both ends and
had a central drain hole. And that it too should be flushed internally
with a hose when weighing. I can understand it being hollow, but why
leave it open to collect muck? Why not seal it off? Bouyancy?

According to the Rocna folks I talked to one reason the roll bar is left
open is to prevent moisture from collecting inside and eventually
rusting out the tube.  The Rocna is galvanized but it's not stainless,
so it's conceivable that over time if moisture was to get inside it
could be damaging.  I suppose a sealed, air-filled tube could also
reduce the weight of the anchor underwater although I can't imagine it
would be by enough to make any difference..  Sealing the tube would
require welding caps onto the ends, another manufacturing step.  Leaving
the tube open seems to me to be the most logical design.  As I said, the
mud that gets packed into it doesn't affect the anchor's performance.
And we don't flush the tube out every day on a cruise---- on our three
week cruise to Desolation Sound last year when we anchored out most of
the time I didn't flush out the rollbar until we were back in our slip
in Bellingham and I was washing down the whole boat.  The instructions
that come with the Rocna don't say anything about flushing out the
rollbar--- it's just something I do because I don't want something in
there to hold moisture over a long period of time.

______________________________
C. Marin Faure
GB36-403 "La Perouse"
Bellingham, Washington