Corkscrew Spiral Ground Anchors - The Origins

The Birth of an idea!

Shortly after "Lockdown 1" eased in the summer of 2020 I was lucky to grab a short holiday on a relaxing canal boat on the river Thames. Well, that is what I was promised by my wife and mother-in-law who had both been on canals many moons ago. I thought it was going to be relaxing until I realised it really was on the RIVER THAMES!

A very long canal boat with little power, very little steering capability and assailed on all sides by swimmers, yachts, canoeists, motorboats, currents, winds and many other regular users all looking on in disdain as we duly capsised the canoeists and grounded on sandbanks!

Whoops :(

The Forming of a Product

And that was the first few hours on the first afternoon. So the time gets to about 5 PM and we start looking for a birth, only to be told by smirking lock keepers - "oh no lad, to get a birth you need to be here about 3 PM! You will have to nestle by a field somewhere".

Well, we found a field and proceeded to moor up, only to have the hassle of trying to hammer what can only be described as giant nails into the ground with a broken hammer to fasten the mooring rope to. Now, I can tie a shoelace, but a mooring knot?

Well, the night went well, as did the rest of the holiday which I have to admit ended up rather enjoying.

And it was when I was recounting this story to Martin (Managing Director - Graphskill Ltd), looking through the tears of laughter in his eyes that I could see the cogs were whirring even then.

Introducing the Corkscrew / Spiral Ground Anchor

Doubting Thomas

So, a few days later Martin called me over to show me the brand new design - the Corkscrew / Spiral Ground Anchor. He was full of pride - until I asked "What on earth is that?"

He then proceeded to explain the object to me and how it would work. "Instead of hammering those giant nails into the ground, you simply screw them in, then you can tie your guide rope to it. In the morning you just unscrew and away you go"

It started dawning on me, but I am a doubting Thomas so I was taking some convincing.  I did not think it would simply screw into the ground, or be sturdy enough. I took one home with a connector nut and eyebolt. Fasten them all together and look.......

It works! I never doubted, honest!

I only screwed in a little way to show you how it works. The more you screw it in the sturdier it will become. You could pop a screwdriver through the eye to help to twist it in if the ground is very firm.

But what a brilliantly simple idea and shows exactly what Graphskill At Home is all about. Utilising our amazing design engineers to think of different ways of doing things - but keeping them flexible. By which we mean, one object can be used in lots of different ways.

Because this spiral anchor has a thread at one end, you can attach many different things to it, I attached an eye bolt so that I could fasten a rope to it, but I am sure you could think of many different ways. Anchor a Christmas tree in the garden, tie up a dinghy, moor your canoe while enjoying a picnic, erect a tent in the garden for the kids on a hot day, or mooring a canal boat on the river Thames. the possibilities are only limited by your imagination.

So when you get yours, send us a photo of how you are using it. Just add them to the comments below, or email them and we will add them for you. I am sure your photos and ideas will not only look far better than mine but also show others how versatile the anchor is.