Does your marine have an anchor? If so, is it of sufficient size and strength to hold your marine in place? Believe it or not, many marine owners decide on which anchor to buy based on convenience and storage space. Before you select a marine anchor, read these tips to get started making the best choice.

Weight

Bigger is better when choosing anchor weight. You won’t need as much for holding the marine in a quiet cove, but you will need much more weight for an emergency situation in the wind. You can also carry two anchors of differing weights. A smaller “lunch hook” is adequate for short anchorages in calm water when you will be keeping watch on the anchor. You’ll also want to have a larger “working anchor” for overnight trips or when going ashore in gusty winds. Using two differing anchor styles can also be beneficial, especially with high-profile marines like pontoons.

Bottom conditions

Holding power and weight is only as good as the anchor’s ability to penetrate the bottom. Anchors easily penetrate hard sand bottoms, which offer consistent holding power. You get less in mud, which the anchor must penetrate to reach a harder secondary bottom material. Anchor weight is more important than design in difficult grassy bottoms.

Holding power

It might make sense to choose an anchor based on the weight of the marine. However, anchors are rated by their holding power, or the amount of pull force the anchor must withstand to hold the marine in place. Holding power is formulated based on environmental factors, like wind speed. As a general rule, holding power of 90 pounds is sufficient for safely anchoring a 20' marine in winds up to 20 mph. For the same wind speed, a holding power of 125 pounds is adequate for a 25' marine. This is why high holding power anchors that rely strictly on their weight—such as a space-saving, plastic-coated 10-pound mushroom anchor—are only capable of generating more than twice their weight in holding power. A 20' fiberglass bass marine using a 20-pound anchor will always drag if the design is the only buying consideration.