It was really rather annoying that after taking measurements from the Rocna website and making a mock-up with which we ran through all the scenarios we could dream up, we still ended up with a problem when we fitted the real anchor to our Moody Eclipse, Aderyn Glas.

There is a law called ‘The Law of Unexpected Consequences’: it’s a law that engineers are trained to avoid by using formal protocols such as FMECA, where every possible failure mode is assessed for critical impacts. This is why, as an engineer well versed in such things, I was doubly embarrassed when our nice new Rocna anchor thumped the Furlex drum the first time we reeled it in. It went on in the same vein: the roll bar of the anchor came perilously close to the navigation light, and the point took a nibble out of the stemhead. I was obviously going to have to carry out some modifications before we were going to be happy with the new anchor.

Non-starters
There were two solutions I discarded quickly: I didn’t want the fuss of moving the bow roller out over the stem. Although an extended roller – perhaps with a self-launching chute – could have cured all the problems, it would raise a few of its own. There would be the hassle of fitting it plus the necessity of remodelling both the bow ladder and passerelle arrangements – and perhaps some strengthening to take the additional stress. The other non-starter was to somehow raise the Furlex to increase the clearance over the deck. There may be ways of doing this, but when I studied the problem it seemed that a major rework would be required and a sail re-cut. So both of these ideas were binned.

What did that leave as options? It left a rather scrappy and inelegant set of individual solutions to each of the individual problems, but in the end it all works and is well worth the effort to have an anchor that now lets us spend peaceful nights in bays we would not have dreamt of visiting before.

1: The Furlex

PROBLEM: The worst interference came during launching where the end of the stock hit the Furlex drum about half of the time and the high angle of the chain tended to make it jump off the gypsy.

The solution was a solidly-built bar under the back edge of the drum which held the chain down and took the knocks as the stock passed under it.

I used thick-walled tubing and fittings held together with the supplied grub screws, but filed slots in the tubing to take the nose of the grub screw for a better fit. Looking at the mass swinging around on the end of the chain, it actually surprises me that it works and doesn’t tear itself apart – but it’s fine.

2: The navigation light

PROBLEM: The roll bar of the anchor lined up perfectly with the centre of the navigation light, so any over-recovery was going to smash the light. It didn’t happen during our tests, but was far too close for comfort.

I kept the bracket but fitted an LED bowlight from Just4Marine.

3: Bow protection

PROBLEM: With the anchor almost fully recovered, the point of the fluke was likely to hit the hull every time.

The solution this time was fairly prosaic – just a stainless protector.