Anchors, etc
I'll try to answer ...
My wife and I qualify as "chicken sailors" that is we don't go unless conditions are expected to be good ... i.e. no windward work, winds less than 20k and seas under 10ft... no squalls, etc. We often motorsail ... off the wind sometimes we just roll out the genoa and forget the main ... we sailed from Nassau to Frazers Hog Cay (50 miles) on the genoa alone and made 6.5k all the way in a 15k easterly (90-110 apparent) with a 6ft sea running ... for example.
We don't often do "overnighters" although we are radar equipped ... about the longest sail we've done is Providenciales, Turks and Caicos to Rum Cay or Nassau to West Palm Beach ... on the order of 150 miles give or take.
Our ground tackle is minimal for the boat although we have often relied on it and it has never failed to hold us ... Our everyday anchor on the bow roller is a 33lb Bruce on 100ft of 5/16 G4 high test chain and 200 ft of 5/8 twisted 3 strand nylon ... we almost always put down all of the chain plus 25ft of the nylon ...
We also carry (in the bow locker) a 22lb Danforth on 30ft of chain and 150 ft of 5/8 twisted nylon. We rarely use this anchor as we seldom employ a Bahamian moor or any other two anchor drill. Why deploy two anchors when one will do?
In the bottom of our lazarette, we have a Fortress FX37 on 50ft of 3/8 BBB chain and 200ft of 5/8 3 strand nylon. (our storm anchor) ... we have used this anchor only about three times. During the 2004 hurricane season, we anchored Kismet out in Clearwater Bay once, in canals off the Gulf ICW twice, in the vicinity of Clearwater, Florida.
Kismet survived Charlie, in a canal...no damage. All 3 anchors deployed and tied off to seawalls. Max winds may have been 50k
She made it through Frances anchored on the Fortress alone (and all the rode we had) in Clearwater Bay where she had to endure 3 days of 50k plus winds and horrendous chop ... broken rudder cables were the result of the pounding she took. Max sustained winds were in the 70k range (tidal surge was expected to be in excess of 14ft ... actual was more like 6ft)
Then we anchored her in another canal for hurricane Jeanne on the Fortress and the Bruce set in mud at about 120 degrees to each other, facing the expected wind... no damage. Max winds again in the 70k range.
Our to-do list for this year includes a power windlass and maybe a 44lb Bruce and maybe new chain/rode depending on the windlass requirements. Right now we're still on the old armstrong system ... and the 33lb Bruce/chain can be a bear if we anchor in anything more than about 20ft of water.
I love the Bruce, it always sets and never breaks out ... almost always we have to break it out with engine power. The only time it has had difficulty setting is in dense grass. I've been using Bruce anchors now on my last three boats and would find it hard to change now.
We're thinking about going either down the islands (Puerto Rico maybe) or a west about cruise (Belize, Honduras) for this coming season but well see ... we like the Bahamas just fine and don't really have much reason to go further.
Love to get with you when we get to Annapolis or somewhere up there ... you don't happen to know where a retired MBA type could find seasonal employment do you?
FWIW, we went through an exhaustive search for a cruising sailboat in 2003 after we sold our 35ft catamaran (Edel 35) ... after cruising the Bahamas one season in the cat we knew that a cat had to be in excess of 40ft to be big enough to carry all the stuff you need to have on a cruising boat.
We wanted seaworthiness first ... an ocean capable boat even though we do not plan to cross oceans ... sailing performance was very important and comfort about even with performance. If I had it to do over I might put comfort at the top of the list ... not that the E38 is uncomfortable by any means ... we also had to be able to handle the boat with just two of us on board and we wanted draft to be 4ft or less and an engine capable of pushing the boat to hull speed at cruising rpm.
For the money we had to spend, the Ericson 38 fit the bill the best. After studying every physical dimension of every boat ever made our short list came down to maybe a half dozen great designs ... the Pearson P40, the Hood/Waquiez 38, the Tartan 37, and I forget the others. The P40 interior was too much like a cave, the Hoods on the market were way over priced, the Tartan 37 just seemed too small. We loved an O'Day 40 we saw, but once I studied the construction, I decided it simply wasn't offshore capable ...
I would have prefered a bigger engine (although the old 5432 works just fine) and a large aft cabin perhaps but not at the expense of sailing performance.
We hit it right ... the E38 sails like a dream, fast and responsive ... balances well on all points of sail without much regard for whatever canvas I give her. She performs better than many much bigger and highly regarded boats although we pay for it in PHRF rating ... in Georgetown this year we had to give time to an Island Packet 45 for example ... does that sound fair? We can hang in there with the Saga 43 upwind in 12k apparent.
We traded away the draft issue (Tartan 37, P40 and Hood 38 are c/b boats), small engine and an aft walk around queen berth (O'day 40) for seaworthiness, solid construction and sailing performance.
Sorry about being long winded ... ask away at your own risk
