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~ The first beach side 'test' trials ~

For our own interest, we took the ARK 'Crown' - 23 kg to the beach at St.  Helens Tasmania.  

 The first test was simply the 'throwing' of the Ark into the waters edge, its 'rope' was attached to a Toyota in the car park with the spring lineal tester attached to the line.  As the vehicle drove off the anchor was 'videoed' with my digital camera.

This test was done in  fairly soft, deep and wet sand as the tide was running out.   The lower fluke was seen to set very quickly and become completely embedded (set) within a distance of one metre.   

The 'tow' vehicle continued to drag the anchor through the soft sand to enable us to record the lbs resistance in the ground conditions, and the spring tester attached to the vehicle recorded a resistance 'force' reached of 2000 lbs resistance to forwards motion, naturally in 'harder' or firmer substratum there would be greater resistance to forward motion.  

The video can be seen here:

'Video'

The second test was done with the smaller 8.5 kg ARK and it also set immediately in the wet sand recording a 700 lb resistance figure.  Later we will do trials in deeper water with a harder 'sea bed' and give the recorded lbs resistance. 

Note: This test also shows that ocean travellers would be well advised to test their anchors on the beach, in order to see whether they are in fact 'working' properly. 

Note: If you are unable to download the video section due to 'line speed,' you may wish to acquire a CD of the entire web site.

The 2500 lbs lineal spring tester.