How do anchors on yachts work and how can they hold a whole boat when they lay on flat sea ground?
In: Technology
Most anchors have “wings” that dig into the bottom and that is how boats are held. On some anchors, the wings are movable so that instead of a flat piece, it becomes a piece with a 90 degree angle.
Unless you have a very small boat, it is not dependent on the weight of an anchor (or its chains) to hold it. It is dependent on the anchor digging into the bottom. That’s why they call it “good holding ground”. You don’t want to anchor over really soft mud or rocks, for instance.
The theory about “chains” and “heat” is just a mystery to me, a person who has owned boats and worked on and around boats for many years.
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