During commissioning this year in April, we decided to replace our anchor with a new 33kg Rocna – after years of swearing by our Jambo and being one of it’s loudest advocates! We came loose a few too many times last year with side pulls and sand, and for us one of the most important things is being able to sleep comfortably at night and not to worry about our anchor.
We’ve had many really good experiences with the Jambo – particularly in weed where we have watched all the other boats in the bay come loose, but we stay steady as a rock. Serifos was a great example of this last summer, where we lay at anchor in a meltemi for days on end with some fantastic cabaret going on all around us with boats coming loose. However, we’ve also had a few bad experiences where we expected to hold, and didn’t – and we’ve heard so many fantastic things about Rocna that it seems the way to go.
The bow roller needs to be redesigned and extended to accommodate the Rocna – which we did at Cleopatra Marina over the winter. The new anchor feels very heavy although it’s only a few kilos more than the Jambo. Chris was concerned the windlass wouldn’t cope but in the end it just meant using a different technique for launch and recovery and the windlass coped just fine! The issue is more that the extension of the bow roller means the anchor is further away from her when she launches and recovers, and it does not sit in the same position on the bow – so just a case of getting used to it and adapting our routine. We use an anchor bridle rigidly to make sure that when the boat turns, the chain can’t get caught on the extended bow roller.
The first night we used the Rocna, we dropped in sand/mud in Astakos after battling through a storm (on our first day on the water!) …. we followed our usual careful routine – survey the area, choose the best spot, anchor into the wind, drop the anchor standing almost still, when it’s on the ground set the TimeZero anchor alarm, slowly allow the boat to reverse while paying out the chain until there is 4-5 times out, slowly reverse the boat to set the anchor ….. BANG! Chris nearly went head first over the bow!!!! The anchor set SOLID first go, without even applying power to pull it in and with such a certainty it was amazing. Of course, we did apply full power (which is always our last step) to make sure it was properly dug in – but it was going nowhere.
So, seems like all is well as we’ve never experienced such a certain set with the Jambo in any conditions.