I keep my anchor in the locker. It's a tight fit, but I use three peices of a foam noodle, the kind with the hole in the middle. One piece slides on each end to pad "rods" that stick out on either side. The other piece is cut open length wise and slides over the end of the anchor. I also have a piece of trailer bunk carpet that I still put behind it to protect things but this set up works good for me. Both my anchor and chain are plastic coated so that helps some too.

The Formula anchor lockers works fine. It has the ability to hold a one pound coffee can filled with concrete, and approximatly twelve feet of quarter inch line.

I used to keep a 20lb mushroom style river anchor in the front storage locker until we hit a big wave at LOTO one year and I saw it blow the door open and drop back in! That was enough to give me nighmares about what would or could have happened if it came all the way out of there!

Now I have a box anchor under the bench seat and a fluke in the side compartment! I use the front one for shaken Martini's!

O8 Fastech 292......

What size anchor are you using?

This is what we do. I keep a Fortress FX-11 anchor in the passenger side compartment. It has a shackle attached to it shown in the pic. I keep the anchor line with the steel eye in the bow locker which has a large stainless steel C-clip attached.

When it is time to anchor the wife gets on the bow and prepares some line out of the bow locker. I hand her the anchor which only weighs 7 lbs. She'll clip on the anchor line, drop it overboard and tie it off when there is enough scope.

When leaving she will pull the anchor up while I position the boat. Dip the anchor a few times to clean, disconnect and hand to me. The soggy anchor line stays in the bow locker. If necessary I'll do any final cleaning of the anchor off the swim platform and put it back in the side storage. Works great for us.

Its a fluke anchor, weighs around 12-15 lbs. Holds real well. We had 25 mph winds the other day and no problems.

Like many others, I use a box anchor, and store it in the side compartment, but I do pad it. I have boated on Lake Cumberland for over 20 years, and a box anchor is just about the only anchor that will hold there, it's a very hard lake to keep anchor.

Great topic somebody link it to Formula, lol this is and has been my only compliant on both Formula's, in the 271 theres not a ton of room so side anchor is a pain especially with company but oh well, haven't found a better way yet, For the life of me I cannot understand why there's not storage under the couches in the cuddy, that would rid me of all my space issues

I agree on the no storage under the couches.....There is a ton of space there going to waist.....

I kind of like the idea of leaving the rope in the anchor locker...I'll have to run that by the anchor bit@#....