[Public-List] value in storm tri sail

[brooks.glenn at comcast.net]

Very interesting discussion about anchors and West marine... Sad to say they've become a big box supplier here on the West Coast also. Mostly I go to a cheaper independent marine supply store if possible, although they all seem to charge a premium - particularly the electronics dealers, now that the commercial fishing industry has died. Just not the market volume or competition there used to be, I guess. 


In Alaska I always carried several anchors, but liked to use a fisherman's anchor usually 20 to 25#'s for rocky bottoms. ( flukes set on curved shanks with cross bar inserted through the stock at 90 degrees to the flukes). Also used 50' chain and lots of scope for the ground tackle. Never had one drag when set, even in muck w /shell bottom. Also these are great for cutting into weed - particularly the giant kelp forests found along the NW coast. Also never really had a danforth style drag in mud or sand or turn over with the tide, and we got strong winds and 15' tidal range, IF the anchor was big enough... it has to be big enough to work properly given boat displacement and strength of the wind. otherwise not worth having except for very quite and sheltered bays. BTW, am now looking for a plow of some sort, based on what the skippers have been saying on the list. 

Also I carried a light 8# danforth with 40' of 1/4" line on my gill netter to kedge off sandbars when fishing for salmon in the Copper river Delta outside of Prince William Sound. The Delta is maybe 100 - 130 miles miles long end to end and has a myriad of ever changing channels and sand bars lying inside the breakers, where the delta empties into the North Pacific. The inside area of the fishing district goes dry with each low water, leaving only these 3' -10' deep channels open during minus tides. So if you got socked with to many fish on a lee shore during a blow and ended up grounding on a sandbar for one reason or another, you could toss the kedge a few feet off the stern and snug it up a bit to hold the boat from bumping higher up the beach during an incoming tide - give you enough depth in a few minutes to pull back off. hahaha, going dry on a sand bar during an ebb is no fun either, particularly with friendly competitors drifting by a few yards away, smiling and waving at you with salmon spashing in their nets. Those who got stuck always picked up a variety of compliments about "being a monument to navigation" in one form or another - particularly if it was the high tide of the month, ( 18' tidal range once a month) and you were there for 30 days. Fortunately my longest stint on a beach was only one tide. but early in my fishing 'career' the kedge was very handy to have around. 


Glenn P 
S/V Dolce 


 1328562460.0