Journal · Gear Review
Two bow anchors, a proper snubber, and a spare kedge held in reserve — ground tackle sized and maintained like the investment it's protecting.
Ground tackle is one of those things that's easy to under-invest in and expensive to regret — it's the only thing holding a boat in place overnight, often in an anchorage with plenty of other boats nearby. Gran Blau carries two bow anchors plus a third held in reserve, each sized generously rather than to the bare minimum, on the view that anchoring gear is genuinely non-negotiable when it's protecting a boat like this.
What's Fitted
The main bower is a 33kg Vulcan, fitted in 2021 with a Mantus swivel, on 100 metres of 14mm galvanised chain spliced to a further 25 metres of rode. Hauling that much chain back aboard is no small job, which is exactly why it comes up on a genuinely powerful windlass rather than being left to strain a smaller one.
Backing up the primary is a second 25kg Vulcan, fitted in 2024, also with its own Mantus swivel and chain-and-rode rig. Carrying two bower anchors rather than one means a genuine second option is always ready to go — not a backup that needs assembling first.
A Mantus Chain Hook Mk3, fitted 2025, takes all the shock loading off the windlass once the anchor is set — the windlass is built to haul chain, not to absorb the boat snatching against it in a swell overnight, and the snubber is what keeps that load off it entirely.
A spare Delta anchor is carried aboard as a dedicated kedge — a third option for working a boat off if she ever runs aground, or for a stern anchor when a mooring calls for one, kept ready rather than borrowed from the bow gear when it's needed.
The windlass itself was also reinforced in 2025 with new backing plates, spreading the load from two heavier anchors and 100 metres of 14mm chain properly across the foredeck rather than concentrating it on the original mounting points — the kind of unglamorous structural work that matters most exactly when the ground tackle above it is being asked to do its job in anger.
Why It Matters
An anchor that's undersized, or chain that's the wrong grade, is the kind of false economy that only shows up at 3am in a blow, when it's far too late to do anything about it. Ground tackle is what stands between a boat and a lee shore or a collision with a neighbour overnight, and it's genuinely non-negotiable — sized generously, maintained properly, and backed up rather than relied on as a single point of failure.
Living With It
In 2023 we were anchored in Port Pollença, Majorca, when a summer storm hit the anchorage with sustained winds of over 50 knots. An Amel 54 anchored next to us got into trouble and ended up dragging across our bow and down our side. Our 33kg Vulcan didn't just hold Gran Blau through a genuine 50-knot blow — for about ten minutes, it held the Amel too, while we worked out how to get the two boats untangled. It wasn't the test we'd have chosen to run, but it's a far more convincing one than anything we could have planned, and the anchor came through it without a moment's doubt.
More From the Refit
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