I have been using the automatic swing up dangling anchor thingy with the line spool for a long while now and It's the most trouble free system I have had so far. Yes we have tried grapnel anchors, anchors in bags, trolleys, multiple anchors, anchors stored in hatches (a PIA), etc, etc, etc, and have had to chase our boat down more than once.
We store our TI in the garage on the trailer fully rigged, it takes me all of two minutes to back the trailer out of the garage, hook up to my roadster and I'm off. We leave all the seats, pfd'd, mirage drives, dive flags, Gopro camera poles, and all the massive sails and rigging just laying in the boat. I have heavy duty spray skirts made from heavy duty pet porch screen material that fold over the bow and hold all the rigging in place. We had previously shredded 3-4 sets of spray skirts driving on the interstate going to our other place in Key West (about 350 miles each way). Plus they are heavy enough to sit on or stow gear on, which we like.
I particularly like the anchor line spool thingy that fits in the rod holders ( 100-150 ft of 3/8 anchor line almost fills the passenger area and easily gets all tangled up into a useless mess). Yes it took me a couple hrs and about $20 bucks in materials to make it originally with a cordless drill ,hack saw, and a little spectra string (to hold it down to the deck, no mods to the boat itself, this is the third TI we installed basically the same system on, many of the parts are almost 6 yrs old now, when we get a new boat we just plug everything in (no mods have ever been made to any hulls)) but that was like 2-3 yrs ago last time we touched anything, I haven't lifted a finger since.
The anchor system just dangles harmlessly above the stern of the boat ready to use any time I need it. I usually tie it off to either the rear carrying handle or the rear aka center brace with a slip knot so I can deploy or retrieve from the front seat. Sometimes when we are out we will deploy and retrieve the anchor 5 or 6 times in a day. There is no maintainence, just rinse it off along with the rest of the boat before unhooking and pulling into the garage (less than 5 minutes, thats it). I'm pretty sure a Cooper anchor would hang just as nicely back there. The boat comes with a bungy to keep it from waving around while on the road. 99 percent of the powerboat anchors I have seen here in Florida are the Fortress type sand anchors (just an observation on my part (I have only seen one Cooper on a powerboat)). I don't think there are any hard rules on if the anchor mounts to the front or the back of the boat, I suspect the only reason the anchor is in the front on powerboats is because there is a handy storage area built in for anchors. (Granted the bow of my TI is already pretty busy with 260 sq ft of sails (W/135 sq ft spinnaker) which I don't always bring along), wings, bow sprit, and rigging). I actually prefer my anchor off the stern because it adds weight to the back of the boat (preferred on a TI), and it can be deployed during rough surf landings if needed. The only time the system is removed is annually when I strip the boat down, I flip the boat over and check and clean the bottom, if I find any deep gouges in the hull bottom I repair them with the Hobie welder (a lot of Oyster beds and coral heads around here). I used to scrape all the little scratches on the bottom to make it like new again, but I don't even bother with that anymore, I just fix the bad ones and call it good, doesn't seem to effect speed at all if the bottom is clean or scratched (at least I can't tell any difference). I'm all about zero maintainance. A typical day in my Hobie life (lol) Bob
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