We celebrate the life and work of John H Knox, inventor of the Knox Anchor, who passed away on 15th October 2018 at the age of 90 in his Edinburgh home.
About Knox Anchors
At Knox Anchors we specialise in the design, testing and manufacturing of New Generation Anchors. We have developed a test regime which has enabled us to determine accurately the performance and efficiency of a range of anchors. Through 20 years of field tests on the range of anchors available on today's market, we have been able to measure the holding force and performance of different designs in real seabed conditions.
The Knox Anchor applies this experience, bringing together the key design features for anchor burial and holding strength. We applied the same rigorous performance tests used on other designs to measure and refine our own over ten years of iterations. Today we pride ourselves on a product our evidence shows is the safest, strongest, most secure anchor available on the global market.
Our company is based in Scotland and our anchors are manufactured in the UK.
The design story
The start of the Knox Anchor story can be pinpointed to 24 July 1986 when John Knox was caught in a storm in a sheltered anchorage on the west coast of Scotland. He deployed a 35 lb CQR and 15 kg Bruce anchor and kept the engine running. Winds rose to Force 10 over the 24 hour period of the gale. He was lucky not to drag as the anchorage was bordered by reefs and cliffs.
At the time he were relatively inexperienced in the art of anchoring and this sleepless night led him to ask himself whether he had the best possible safety equipment.
From here John began to test and compare the performance of a range of commonly available anchors, and so began his work to develop an optimised design.
The inventor
The Knox Anchor was designed by Professor John Knox following 20 years of scientific testing on anchor performance.
Professor Knox held a Personal Chair in Physical Chemistry at the University of Edinburgh and was a Fellow of the Royal Society. In retirement he turned his scientific mind to his lifelong interest in boats and anchoring. He had extensive sailing experience on the West Coast of Scotland on a range of yachts, and he sailed the family Rustler 36.
