This invention relates to lightweight anchors. More particularly, this invention relates to a device for mounting a lightweight anchor on the rail of a boat.
A lightweight anchor is a type of marine anchor that is well known in the art and widely used with boats of all sizes. The component parts of a lightweight anchor include a stock, a crown, a pair of flukes which are fixed relative to the crown and a shank which is mounted for pivotal movement relative to the flukes. In my copending patent application Ser. No. 746,100, filed concurrently with this patent application, the subject matter of which patent application is incorporated herein by reference, there is described one type of lightweight anchor construction. Other examples of lightweight anchors can be found in U.S. Pat. Nos. 3,780,688; 3,782,318; and 3,783,815.
When not being used, lightweight anchors are usually either stashed away underneath the deck, secured to the top of the deck or attached to some part of the boat, such as the rail. Hitherto, lightweight anchors have been mounted on the rail using a pair of metal straps, one of the straps having a hole and the other strap having a slot. The straps are secured to the rail and the anchor is mounted on the straps by inserting one end of the stock into the hole and then dropping the stock on the other side of the flukes into the slot. One of the disadvantages of this type of mount is that the stock is free to rotate within the hole and slot about its own longitudinal axis. This results in an undesirable swaying or pendulum type movement of the flukes, even under mild sea conditions. To prevent this rotation the flukes must be lashed down. Another disadvantage of this type of mount is that the shank is also free to swing back and forth in a pendumum type movement since it is pivotally mounted relative to the stock. To prevent such rotation, the shank must be tied down.