Is the 'kedge' obsolete?

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

Let's look at this scenario, which sounds very reasonable. "Your engine dies and you can't get sail up in time" this sounds as an error already because you ought to have sails up or at the ready to unfurl or hoist quickly. When I approach a lee shore to enter a boca or river with little room I may douse my sails but will unfurl my jib in a second in case of trouble or even do that anyway, just because we're a sailboat.

"electric windlass won't work when the engine isn't running": that is two more mistakes in one go. First, like you say, the windlass should work without the engine running. Second, I'm pretty sure your windlass will have a clutch and will deploy your anchor without the engine running. If it does not, or the clutch is frozen up, then this should be fixed before sailing again.

"windlass jams": while I don't agree that it's normal to put stuff in plastic bags on the chain inside the locker, the chain itself could tangle and lock up the windlass. However, it would still work the other direction in that case, making it easy to clear. But the windlass could just fail; fall apart etc. Now you are into the 1% of my rule like there is no tomorrow. You do anything to survive.

Now, about your big Fortress: what you have in mind will not work. I know, I once tried it and failed and I've seen it often and it always failed, often with damage and even personal injury as a result. Let me tell you what happens: "You grab the big Fortress and throw it overboard": I have seen that go wrong but let's suppose this works as planned. This means some chain bangs after it damaging the chain locker lid, the deck and the lifelines. Next it all goes down to the seabed. You think. But, if you are moving downwind towards the lee shore fast enough, this only works when you're paying out rode as fast as the boat moves. When you don't, the anchor will not set, or the big flukes and light weight even make it come all the way back up to the surface! Yes I've seen that happen... even with myself once But let's say we pay out as fast as we move. You better have 8-strand rope in it's own chain locker, sail bin or whatever else that makes sure it pays out without entangling on itself. In at least half the times I see this "throwing the anchor out" happen, there is a bunch of 3-strand that looks like a skippy ball that flies up and overboard and is gone a second later. This is the better result because it gets worse: sometimes this paying out rode works well, we're talking less than 50% now, and the time comes to stop the boat. I have see panic where they try tie off the end of the rode but alas, too late and everything is gone and overboard, game over (this actually never happened to me ). Then I have seen people who got it secured or were quick enough to secure it. It ends with lifelines and stanchions destroyed, ripped off the boat etc. because the anchor rode goes over the lifelines instead of over the toe-rail. But, this normally is where the mayhem ends except for some cases where the panic is big enough that they throw off the rode trying to save a destroyed lifeline
Then there are those who think ahead and get the bitter end out before it's too late and bring it over the lifelines back on deck to tie it off to a cleat. This is where personal injury happens. I have seen people get caught into the rode paying out and I have seen people getting their fingers between rode and cleat. Pretty bad results in both cases, I still get sick to the stomach when I think back.

So, no, do not throw an anchor over the side like that. The smartest thing to do is to have no chain, all 8-strand rode, flaked out into it's own bin with the end secured to a strong point. I mean strong enough to lift the boat with. Then the light Fortress anchor on top of that, grab it while sitting on deck and push it out over the toerail after making sure the rode will not touch you as it starts paying out.

Hah, well that's exactly how I have it rigged!

100 meters of nylon octoplait flaked in its own separate compartment of the divided anchor locker, with no other stuff ever stored there. A small bit of chain leader neatly coiled in a bucket. The Fortress laid on top of that. A strong point (the twin to the main anchor rode strong point -- a huge stainless eye-bolt through the watertight bulkhead) with the bitter end of the octoplait rode attached.

Haul up the Fortress and the bucket; set the bucket on the deck next to the rail. Throw the Fortress under the lower lifeline. Et voila. The chain pays out, the line pays out, and snatches you short like a champ.

How do I know? Well, mirabili dictu, I actually practice this maneuver regularly -- what a concept!!

The origin of it is many years sailing in a dinghy with no auxiliary power at all of any kind. Lots and lots of practice getting on and off docks with no power, sculling with the rudder in calms, stopping in emergencies, finding every possible way to control the boat in all circumstances without any power, backwinding the main, heaving-to, sculling, everything. I always had a grapnel anchor close at hand with line carefully coiled in a bucket, and used it frequently. Obviously no dinghy on a sailing dinghy, but I could hurl that little grapnel anchor far enough to kedge off with it.

The same technique works on big boats too, but you do need the right gear stored in the right way, and it really helps a lot to -- practice.

[Jim Cate]

[QUOTE=Randyonr3;1201006]

Originally Posted by rtbates

A kedge anchor is not an anchor type, ie, adjective, it's an anchor activity, ie., verb.[/QUOT.E]

Im thinking the kedge anchor ranks right up there alongside the full keel heavyweight for those that believe the boat was built to run aground ..
For the rest of us, good charts and à cautious mind work just fine.

Randy, it sounds like you've been stuck there in one area too long! We're sure not in the full keel heavy weight contingent, but we go to lots of places where there are no good charts (or even any charts at all beyond oceanic scales) and despite a cautious mind and a forward looking sonar we have run aground numerous times. Use of a kedge may not always get you off the putty, but it can keep you from being pushed further up the bank as the tide comes in.

I have to agree that it should be a well thought out and maintained part of any cruising boat's gear.

Cheers,

Jim

[Kettlewell]

A kedge anchor, as I always understood it, is an anchor rigged for immediate deployment from the stern.

There are obviously several definitions in use around the world, and to add to the confusion many use the term "kedge anchor" to refer to an old-style, classic fisherman's type anchor.