High efficiency marine anchor system

Abstract

An improved high efficiency mooring anchor is light-weight and when opera in tandem provides holding capacity equal to or greater than twice the holding capacity of a single anchor. The shank is designed to hold at least 21/2 times the anchor capacity. Hollow streamline flukes are used and stoppers are mounted on the palms at a maximum distance from the trunion located at the apex of the anchor crown.

What is claimed is: 
     
       1. A light-weight, high efficiency mooring anchor for general use in a variety of seafloor materials and for effectively developing a system capacity greater than twice the capacity of the anchor when connected in tandem, comprising: a. a shank having a forward end with a shackle means for attachment to a mooring cable, an aft end with a trunion bar receiving bore, and a heavy duty padeye means aft of said trunion bar receiving bore;   b. a unitary fluke assembly consisting of a generally angular open box-like crown portion having main sides which also form the palms and which meet at an apex pointing toward the forward end of said shank with twin hollow elongated box-like flukes secured to the apex of the crown portion; said crown portion being disposed equally on either side of said shank with said apex parallel to the traverse axis passing through said shank bore and disposed toward the aft end of said shank with relation to said traverse axis;   c. said hollow box-like flukes being tapered and streamlined, disposed on opposite sides of said shank and extending toward the forward end thereof;   d. a trunion bar extending transversely of said shank through said bore, and means in said crown portion of the fluke assembly for receiving said trunion bar for pivotally securing the aft end of said shank to said fluke assembly;   e. a pair of socket means extending into the crown portion of said fluke assembly from either side thereof and axially aligned with said trunion bar; the length of said trunion bar being limited by the inner ends of said socket means;   f. a pair of anchor roll stabilizer bars, one each removably mounted in said socket means;   g. stopper means mounted on the palms of said unitary fluke assembly at a maximum distance from the transverse axis of said trunion bar receiving bore and aligned to limit the rotation of said fluke assembly and thus the angle of the flukes with respect to said shank and reduce the bending moment on the shank; wherein, said high efficiency mooring anchor, on being used as a first and forward anchor when connected together in tandem from the aft end of its said shank to the forward end of the shank of a second same-type high efficiency mooring anchor, will operate to cause said second anchor to penetrate deeper into seafloor soils than the second anchor would when operating as a single anchor alone due to the action of said forward anchor dragging the second anchor at a lower level in the seafloor, thereby, because of added depth thus attained by the second anchor, effectively increasing the combined holding capability of the first and second anchors used together in tandem to greater than twice the combined holding capability of the two anchors used singly in seafloor soils.   
     
     
       2. An improved mooring anchor as in claim 1 wherein means is provided to connect similar anchors in tandem at the aft end of said anchor shank. 
     
     
       3. An improved mooring anchor as in claim 1 wherein wedge pieces are fastened to the forward ends of said stopper means to further limit the rotation of said fluke assembly and reduce the angle of the fluke to said shank. 
     
     
       4. An improved mooring anchor as in claim 1 wherein said stabilizer bars are formed from standard heavy duty pipe. 
     
     
       5. An improved mooring anchor as in claim 1 wherein the stabilizer bars when mounted in said socket means provide a backup means for retaining said trunion bar in place. 
     
     
       6. An improved mooring anchor as in claim 1 wherein a heavy duty link is attached to said padeye at the aft end of said shank for connecting anchors in tandem; said heavy duty link acting as an extension of said shank while being rotatable about an axis parallel to the axis of said trunion bar within the limits of the palms of the fluke assembly. 
     
     
       7. An improved mooring anchor as in claim 1 wherein the exterior surface of said flukes is smooth to reduce the coefficient of friction between the flukes and seafloor soil. 
     
     
       8. An improved mooring anchor as in claim 1 wherein said flukes are provided with chamfered edge plates along the forward edges and side edges farthest from said shank. 
     
     
       9. An improved mooring anchor as in claim 1 wherein said stopper means are removably mounted on said palms. 
     
     
       10. An improved mooring anchor as in claim 1 wherein first and second such anchors are connected together in tandem; said second anchor being connected to the aft end of the shank of said first anchor; said first anchor operating to create a trough when dragged along the seafloor such that the second anchor when dragged into the tough created by the first anchor penetrates deeper into the seafloor thereby causing the holding capacity of said first and second anchors in tandem to increase and exceed the total holding capacity of said first and second anchors individually, whereby smaller anchors can be used to satisfy large mooring requirements. 
     
     
       11. An improved mooring anchor as in claim 1 wherein said trunion bar is retained in place for securing the aft end of said shank to said fluke assembly by keeper plates bolted onto each end of said trunion bar. 
     
     
       12. An improved mooring anchor as in claim 1 wherein each of said stabilizer bars are removably mounted in said socket means by means of a removable bolted-on collar flange.