Different types of boat anchors

Different types of boat anchors suit different environments. Anchors for sailing yachts have evolved significantly over the past century, driven by advances in metallurgy, hydrodynamic design, and real-world operational testing from cruisers and offshore sailors. While the basic purpose remains constant—providing reliable holding power by embedding into the seabed—the methods by which anchors achieve this vary widely. Today’s yacht anchors differ in geometry, setting characteristics, seabed compatibility, and behaviour under shifting loads. This article provides a detailed technical review of the primary and different types of boat anchors and anchor categories used on modern sailing yachts.

Anchors come in many types, each suited to specific seabeds and vessel needs. Plow and spade anchors penetrate deeply, offering strong holding in varied conditions. Danforth anchors excel in sand and mud with their flat flukes. Mushroom and deadweight anchors provide secure, long-term moorings where penetration is limited. Grapnel anchors grip rocky or coral bottoms, ideal for small craft or temporary stops. Kedge anchors are portable, used for maneuvering or kedging off when grounded. Modern scoop-style anchors combine concave flukes and weighted tips, ensuring rapid setting, reliable resets after shifts, and compact stowage, enhancing safety and operational flexibility.

Traditional Anchors (Admiralty & Fisherman-Style)

Design and Method of Operation. Classic Admiralty or Fisherman anchors consist of a long shank, two tapered flukes, and a crosspiece (stock) at the crown that forces one fluke downward. They rely on mechanical penetration, not surface area, for holding. The main strengths are:

  • Excellent in rocky, kelp-covered, or very hard seabeds
  • Can hook into crevices where modern burying anchors may skip across the bottom

Limitations

  • Poor holding in sand, gravel, and mud
  • Difficult to stow on a bow roller due to irregular shape
  • Limited fluke area reduces ultimate holding power

Because of these drawbacks, traditional anchors are rarely used as a yacht’s primary anchor but may be carried as specialised kedge anchors.

Fluke Anchors (Lightweight/Danforth Type)

Fluke anchors, exemplified by the Danforth, Fortress, and HydroBubble designs, use broad pivoting flukes attached to a stock. Their high surface area-to-weight ratio provides exceptional holding in certain seabeds. Fluke anchors are often used as secondary or stern anchors on cruising yachts, and I have one myself in this application. The main strengths are:

  • Very high holding power in soft mud and fine sand
  • Lightweight, easy to deploy and recover
  • Fortress versions use aluminium, delivering enormous holding relative to weight

Limitations

  • Poor in weed, rock, coarse sand, or shell
  • Limited ability to reset after wind shifts or tidal reversals
  • Poor performance in mixed or hard bottoms due to difficulty penetrating

Plow Anchors (CQR and Delta Families)

Plow anchors were the primary yacht anchors from the 1950s through the early 2000s. The CQR (Articulating Plow). The classic CQR uses a hinged shank, allowing the plow blade to pivot during setting and veering.  The main strengths are:

  • Good general-purpose anchor
  • Reasonably reliable in sand, mud, and moderate weed
  • Tolerant of moderate wind shifts

Limitations

  • Slow to set
  • Hinge can reduce penetration efficiency
  • Limited holding on very hard sand or rocky bottoms
  • Heavy for their holding power

Delta (Fixed-Shank Plow)

Developed as an improvement on the CQR, the Delta has a fixed steel plow blade with a more hydrodynamic profile. The main srengths are:

  • Faster setting than a CQR
  • Strong and simple
  • Works well in sand and mud

Limitations

  • Lower surface area than modern anchors
  • Mediocre performance in weed or very soft mud

Plow anchors remain common due to affordability and widespread OEM fitting on production yachts.

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Claw Anchors (Bruce and Bruce Derivatives).

Claw anchors use a three-lobed, curved shape originally developed for North Sea oil rigs. The geometry encourages the anchor to self-right and grip rapidly. The Bruce/Claw is still popular among cruising sailors seeking dependable behaviour, though it is rarely chosen for offshore voyaging today. The main strengths are:

  • Very quick initial set in many seabeds
  • Good resetting ability during veering
  • Reliable and predictable behaviour, especially for liveaboards anchoring in tidal areas

Limitations

  • Poor ultimate holding power due to limited fluke area
  • Weak in hard sand or thick weed
  • Heavy relative to their holding strength

Scoop Anchors with Roll Bars (Rocna, Manson Supreme)

These anchors use a concave scoop-shaped fluke combined with a roll bar to ensure correct orientation during landing and setting. A major advancement over traditional plow anchors, new-generation anchors are engineered to bury deeply and maintain secure hold under significant load. These are now considered the optimal primary anchors for the majority of sailing yachts.  The main strengths are:

  • Rapid, reliable set on nearly all seabeds
  • Deep burial offers excellent ultimate holding power
  • Outstanding performance in soft mud, sand, and mixed bottoms
  • Self-righting due to roll bar
  • High resistance to unseating during wind shifts

Limitations

  • Roll bar may interfere with some bow rollers
  • Weed and sea grass can sometimes impede penetration
  • Difficult to store on some yacht designs

Rocna and Supreme anchors are now widely adopted by cruisers worldwide.

Roll-Bar-Free Scoop Anchors (Sarca Excel, Spade, Mantus II)

To overcome roll-bar stowage issues, several manufacturers developed deep-setting scoop anchors without roll bars. Roll-bar-free scoop anchors employ a concave fluke geometry and weighted tip to achieve rapid seabed penetration without the need for a stabilizing roll bar. Their streamlined balanced shank design ensure consistent orientation, an achieve self-rightingallowing the anchor to dig deeply and maintain secure holding across sand, mud, and mixed substrates. By eliminating the roll bar, these anchors reduce deck storage issues and improve compatibility with bow rollers. Reinforced construction resists lateral loads, while the scoop profile maximizes surface area for suction and grip. Reliable reset capability after wind or tide shifts enhances safety and operational performance.

Spade Anchor

The Spade Anchor employs a concave fluke and weighted tip for rapid seabed penetration. Its balanced geometry ensures deep burial and exceptional holding power across varied substrates. Built from high‑strength steel or aluminum, it resists lateral loads and reliably resets after wind or tide shifts, enhancing yacht anchoring security. Hollow or solid shank, weighted tip, excellent penetration, Performs exceptionally in mud, sand, and mixed seabeds.

Mantus II Anchors

The Mantus II anchor operates by driving its weighted nose into the seabed, ensuring immediate penetration without rolling. Its concave fluke geometry maximizes surface area for holding power, while reinforced shank and welds resist lateral loads. Modular construction enables efficient deployment, retrieval, and compact stowage for demanding yacht operations. Fast setting and high holding comparable to Rocna.

Sarca Excel Anchors

The Sarca Excel anchor employs a concave fluke and precision shank geometry for rapid seabed penetration and secure holding. Its design eliminates roll bars, ensuring consistent setting across sand, mud, and weed. High‑strength steel construction, reinforced welds, and self‑reset capability provide reliable performance for cruising yachts in varied conditions. Certified high performance in a wide range of seabeds, Excellent at clearing weed during penetration. They have a very smooth resetting behaviour.

Different types of boat anchors - Kedge Anchors

Kedge anchors are lightweight, portable anchors traditionally carried as secondary gear on sailing yachts. They are used for maneuvering in confined waters, kedging off when grounded, or adjusting a vessel’s position without engine power and stern anchoring. Their design allows easy handling from a dinghy, enabling sailors to set or retrieve them quickly. Kedge anchors provide tactical flexibility, enhancing safety and control during anchoring operations in challenging or restricted environments. Kedges are usually fluke or lightweight aluminium anchors.

Grapnel Anchors

Designed for rocky bottoms where the anchor must hook onto structure. Grapnel anchors are ideal for small boats, kayaks, and dinghies in rocky or coral seabeds. Their folding prongs grip uneven terrain, making them perfect for temporary stops like fishing or shore excursions. Lightweight and compact, they’re easy to store and deploy, offering reliable hold in challenging bottom conditions. I have a folding grapnel on board myself. Good for temporary dinghy anchoring and not suitable as a primary anchor for yachts

Mushroom and Deadweight Anchors

Used primarily for permanent moorings, not onboard use. Mushroom anchors rely on suction in soft mud or silt, making them ideal for permanent moorings. Their broad, concave shape buries deeply, offering strong holding power over time. Deadweight anchors use sheer mass, often concrete or steel blocks, to secure vessels where seabed penetration is limited or unsuitable.

Selecting an Anchor for a Sailing Yacht

For modern cruising yachts, considering the different types of boat anchors and high-quality new-generation scoop anchor sized one step above manufacturer recommendations provides the most reliable holding.  Key selection criteria:

  • Primary seabed types in cruising region
  • Boat displacement and windage
  • Stowage and bow-roller geometry
  • Expected weather range
  • Reversing loads from tide or wind shifts

Different types of boat anchors summary

Anchors for sailing yachts range from traditional fisherman designs to modern high-efficiency scoop anchors. Each anchor type achieves holding power through distinct geometric and mechanical principles, and each performs differently depending on seabed type, load direction, and environmental conditions. Different types of boat anchors, while plow and claw anchors remain common, new-generation scoop and roll-bar-free designs now provide substantially higher holding power, faster setting, and more reliable performance under varied conditions. For sailors operating in diverse anchorages and challenging weather, careful anchor selection is critical to safety and comfort, making understanding these different anchor types an essential part of seamanship.