What are Mooring Anchors?

When it comes to ships, anchoring is an important aspect that should be taken seriously. In the absence of anchors, ships would continuously adrift leading to huge wastage of resources like energy and also increase chances of accidents. In order to avoid these problems, mooring anchors are used to enable the ship to halt effectively whenever required in the port or harbours and if required, even in the middle of the ocean or the sea.

Types of Mooring Anchors

Initially, only one major type of mooring anchor was used. However, there have emerged several other types of mooring anchors as well.

The different types of mooring anchors are as follows:

Conventional Type (Upside Mushroom Type): As the name suggests, these mooring anchors are shaped like inverted mushrooms that provide them with the ease to penetrate the surface of the ocean floor. They can be used for any type of underwater surface and their weight holding capacity is also good.

Dead-Weight Type: Dead-weight mooring anchor types are the simplest and the most uncomplicated anchors to be used in today’s times. These anchors are known for their utility more in rough underwater surfaces. The anchors are quite bulky and are capable of being used for heavier ships. This type of mooring anchor is also cost efficient.

Screw-in or Blades Type: In this type of mooring anchor, the blades or wings are fitted to the sides of the anchor which help in deeper sinking of the anchor. Anchoring of this type is quite popular in today’s times as these mooring anchors are faster to reach the ground depth as compared to the other variations. This factor could be regarded as the main selling point for such anchors. In addition, this type of mooring anchor is also quite cost-efficient and smaller as compared to the other variations of mooring anchors.

Multiple Mooring Anchors Type: These types of mooring anchors have multiple anchors that are raised from a common rode (the anchoring cable) and then used for penetration into the subsea areas. The amount of anchors used in the mooring anchor system varies between three and more. They offer prompt anchoring services that has made them quite popular in today’s times.

Unlike other means of transport, ships function on an unpredictable natural resource, making it important that the method of stopping a ship can more than adequately tackle the unpredictability of water at any given point of time.

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About Author

Shilavadra Bhattacharjee is a shipbroker with a background in commercial operations after having sailed onboard as a Third Officer. His interests primarily lie in the energy sector, books and travelling.