usually anything deeper than 50 ft or so, unless Lewis is on the boat, then I make him drag the 20 Lb anchor up from 200 ft.
Seriously, it just makes getting the anchor in a lot easier. the boat is doing the pulling, the Ball is doing the lifting, and when the hook jumps into the ring, all you are dragging in is weightless anchor line.
BTW Mike, the ball does not prevent getting your hook hung up, matter of fact, when your running along with the ball in the water and the line is spooling through the ring, IF your hook is hung, you will know it, it will pull the bow of your boat around. Your grappnel is a good way to go, I made a few just like yours at work years ago, I didn't follow any directions, just winged it. There are a couple factors which make the store bought ones diferrent than home made (in most cases)
- The tines need to be strong enough to hold in a current, but flexible enough to give under power.
- When the tines give, over and over, they need to be made from an aluminum that will bend over and over in the same place without breaking, for example there are several grades of aluminum, some harder, some softer.
- Weight, the weight of the anchor is critical, without enough weight I found my homemade did not make it to the bottom quickly enough to engage the structure.
I have a couple home made ones in my shop, one looks identical to yours, the other was made from 1/4" rebar (long tines) that one worked pretty well, but you can imagine the rust issue afte a while. I'm anxious to hear howyour's performs in action.
Marc
