We are the new proud owners of Pegasus Parker 31 ,Pegasus. We would like advice as to what is the best anchor for East coast mud . We have a 10kg Bruce anchor 20m of chain and 30 m of rope in the locker at present . Should we be looking at a newer style of anchor such as a rocna? What fits in your anchor locker?

I had a small Bruce [genuine] many years ago on a 22 footer around the E coast , and it always worked well. When I got a P275, I replaced the old plough-type anchor [not a CQR] that was very rusty with a Delta. After a few incidents of unnecessary excitement I replaced it with a Fortress, which sets very quickly, buries very effectively, and usually requires a reassuring amount of "soak" time with the cable up and down before it can be persuaded to let go of the bottom. Being so much lighter, the Fortress is also much easier to recover and handle in and out of the anchor locker. Obviously it works well in mud or sand, other bottoms may be more of a challenge.

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Congratulations on buying Pegasus. I have P31 Phun and a few years ago decided to upgrade from the original 25lb CQR. It had never let us down but I thought that one of the new generation anchors would be more effective. I eventually bought a Kobra 2 14kg, which is the biggest Kobra 2 which will still go in the anchor locker. It was cheap and has worked well for several years.

At the start of last season I bought an additional anchor to serve as a stern anchor for mooring Baltic-style (the boat is currently in the Baltic and I failed to get my Fortress stern anchor to hold!). During research for this anchor I realised that the Kobra 2, although much better than the CQR, is still a plough-type anchor and it appeared that a spade-type anchor is better in all respects. So I got a Rocna Vulcan 9kg. Rocna anchors originally had a roll bar on top, making them hard to store but the Rocna Vulcan has been redesigned without the roll bar. So far I have only used it once, when moored bow to a pontoon. It worked very well and continued to hold well after the wind turned and blew onto the stern.

If I was looking for a new bow anchor I would measure carefully and see what is the biggest size Rocna Vulcan that would go in the anchor locker. Looking at the rocna vulcan sizing guide online it seems that the 9kg one would just about do for a P31. I would suggest you measure up for the 12kg one.

Pat Morgan

Thank you very much Pat for your help. I will now make a 3 d paper model as per the
Rocna website and check it out as regards locker space. Very helpful. Thanks Penny