We love our Spade Anchor. It let us sleep soundly at night over the past 15,000 miles, 9 countries, innumerable northers and current switches – from Annapolis, MD to Cartagena, Colombia … and back to SW Florida.
Returning to the US and refinishing it once, we decided it might be time for a new anchor. SeaTech USA, Spade Anchor’s USA Distributor, volunteered to replace our 15 year old rusty S100 galvanized steel spade anchor with a brand new one – under warranty! Not every 15 year old Spade anchor qualifies, but apparently there were a few that were purchased at West Marine in 2001 (ours was) and Spade replaced it no questions asked — I didn’t even know about the issue, we just sent photos of our rusty Spade to Vince, the US Spade Sales Manager and he called saying he’d replace it under warranty. Think customer service is dead? Think again! If you need a new anchor, contact Vince for your Spade Anchor at (321) 409-5714.
Here’s our old Spade – this anchor has caused us so many nights of good sleep – all because it does what’s it’s supposed to do – set quickly and reliably and THEN (and MOST IMPORTANT), reset when the wind or current switches hard 180 degrees in the middle of the night. It just works.
The year we anchored 157 nights straight returning from Panama, it never let us down. In fact, the ONLY time our Spade anchor has drug (twice in 15 years) is when we didn’t take the time to properly set it and back it down.
So we are beyond our wildest dreams excited to have a brand new Spade S100 (44#) steel anchor on our bow. If you’re contemplating buying an anchor for cruising, be sure to include the Spade on your wish list – below the video is our rationale, specifically versus the Rocna (which we also considered originally and are glad we chose our Spade)
Note in this video from Spade, the original test had the anchor turned around backward and it still stopped the Dodge Ram 2500 truck in its tracks. Keep watching, it’s only a little over 2 minutes long … toward the end the Spade is dug in and the truck simulates what happens when the wind or current violently switches (always in the pitch black in the middle of the night, of course…). David even went out in a Norther one time in Belize to watch what happened when the wind violently switched from SW to NW and this is an accurate depiction.
Spade oh Spade, how do I love thee? Let me count the ways…..
That’s a a great video! THe old saying is, “The quality of your sleep is proportional to the trust in your anchor.” Sweet dreams!
Great anchor. I had experience with the aluminum Spade, however, and it failed to penetrate a hard packed bottom so we couldn’t get a good set. I’ve read that the steel Spade is better at penetration because it has higher density. The Manson Supreme was able to penetrate in that same place. One difference is that the triangular cross section of the Spade tip (shown well in your pictures) presents a broader cross section than the sharper (flat) tip of the Manson. It’s like comparing a shovel tip to a wedge tip.
They’re both great anchors, just trying to point out a key performance difference in one circumstance.
[…] to secure anchorages – often dictate the lifestyle. While we’d prefer to be swinging to our trusty Spade Anchor in gin clear water with a snorkeling reef close by, we’d also prefer to be anchored somewhere […]
Unfortunately I bought a brand new Spade a140 anchor
And where the lead is encapsulated inside the anchor
it started erupting with corrosion and finally buckled out and split the anchor and half almost in half
I’m afraid to use it now
I’m wondering did you have the receipt for your anchor that Spade replaced under warranty
?