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From Deep-Blue-Sea.org Product Evaluations To quote the company literature, “The first time you use this anchor - you’ll be hooked!” This statement is not far from the truth. A design that makes you wonder ‘why not before this’ at first, the Hydrobubble® has the appearance of a conventional plow anchor. Looking closer you note above the ‘plow’ there is a patented device called the buoyancy tank or “bubble”. The bubble creates a specific center of gravity that rights the anchor the moment it is placed in the water.
How many times have you dropped anchor only to find that the fluttering action of the flukes cause the anchor to be either fouled in its chain or landed in such a manner as to not let the flukes dig in? The bubble eliminates this completely. The first thing I noticed is that the anchor drops straight down. The other feature incorporated into the design of the test anchor is a breakaway concept. The holding power of the anchor tested, while deployed in the conventional rode dimension, exceeds 1000 pounds. If the anchor hangs, a release mechanism built into the shank connection to the ‘plow blade’ allows the shank to release from its normal position when a vertical pull of approximately 60 pounds is applied to the rode. The releasing action allows the anchor to fold back, allowing the anchor to be pulled back and releasing it from the snag. I used the anchor for the first time offshore in 125 feet of water. On this particular day the current was ripping. This anchor grabbed bottom on the first contact with the bottom. Only approximately 250 rode was out, well below the normal 5-7 to one ratio of rode to water depth for accepted anchoring conditions. At one point, I pulled in additional rode, moving the boat to another section of the reef. With the anchor rode at an angle that was close to 45º, it still held. While on the Lead Wreck, known for its ability to snag anchors and tons of sinkers, this anchor did snag. As advertised, when over top of the anchor, vertical pull was applied and the breakaway popped open. The anchor pulled out of the snag quickly and was reset with a small amount of pressure to the shank when it was on the deck. The Hydrobubble®Breakaway comes with a small snap to disable the breakaway concept if you want to anchor over night. The manufacturer recommends replacement of the release mechanism parts annually with the kind of use we, here in Florida, would tend to give them due to our longer boating seasons. The costs of the replacements is under $10. One issue that was discovered by JohnB when he was testing the anchor occurred when he was using his anchor puller ball. He was in 60 feet of water in the Gulf and it was a flat day. Because he normally uses a ‘gorilla’ anchor and has to gun his motor to pull his monster hook from the bottom, he gunned the motor with the Hydrobubble®Breakaway. He watched in amazement as his ball disappeared from sight. By running faster he made an oversized ‘planer blade’ out of the anchor since the bubble keeps the nose of the plow digging toward the bottom. An easy solution was to just slow down as he pulled the anchor. For those of you who have fished on JohnB’s boat, he is happy to announce the Hydrobubble®Breakaway fits into the locker with ease and weighs about half of his old anchor’s weight. Another neat feature allows you to turn the blade over on the shank mount and use it as a beach anchor. If you want to go ashore on an island, this makes the anchor really ‘dig for China’ in the sand. Theanchor, as tested, was the 15 pound galvanized model. It is well constructed and quality materials are used. It is rated for boats to 30 feet. All anchors come with a limited lifetime warranty against defects in material or workmanship. There are other models available from small PWC units that come in its own colorful mesh bag to a luxury model 100% stainless steel for vessels from 40 to 200 feet. This product is available to Ship’s Store Members at a discount price. Regular retail for the model tested is $150.00 plus S&H & TAX. © Copyright 2003 by Deep-Blue-Sea.org |
