What to do if anchor drags?

[hd002e]

Originally Posted by wingssail

Seems like you made it through the night and hopefully the storm passes. I know how fearful it is to have land behind you and a storm pulling the be-jesus out of your anchor.



When in conditions like that, or any doubtful anchoring conditions where dragging could be catastrophic, we take a few measures:



Use the biggest anchor. We carry a storm anchor for a reason. It has been used only once or twice but it is comforting to have it down.



We always set our anchor with strong reverse power, with one foot on the chain where it goes over the bow. You can tell positively what is the condition of the bottom and the set of your anchor if you do that.



Set an anchor alarm and if it is really scary, stand an anchor watch.



Set an exit strategy. This means which direction to steer if you decide to leave. In the darkness it is easy to get turned around.



We always raise our anchor and reset if it is dragging. Always. If we can't, we leave.

I will try the foot on the chain trick. How does it feel if its not setting right?

[Don C L]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

I figure if I end up on the rocks I’d rather be well rested to deal with the crisis, rather than staying away, fretting, and not really doing anything.

...and sometimes yer just so tired ya just don't care about the rocks anymore!

[hd002e]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

Hope all is well. Sounds like you’ve hung in through the worst. At this point it’s unlikely you’ll drag — unless you get a big wind shift as the storm passes by. Watch for that.



I wound’t drop the tiny dingy anchors — that would do no good. After all this is over it’s probably time to assess your ground tackle. No point in saying this earlier, but I too would junk the CQR in favour of a new-gen anchor (rocna, mantis, spade, manson, etc…). Get the biggest one you and your boat can reasonably manage.



And look to getting at least one other anchor which can be deployed from the stern. The yaw angle of your boat sounds pretty extreme. Tests show it is at these exteme points that the anchor feels the greatest strain, and is most likely to become compromised, so doing what you can to reduce the oscillation is good.



I always run snubbers in a bridle fashion. Boatie’s suggestion is excellent. And it sounds like you’ve already done well reducing windage. Sounds like you’re doing well.



Now, hopefully this passes so you can get some sleep .

Tonight the yaw angle is more manageable, we swing from 250 to 330 degrees, so an arc of 80 degrees. It may be due to the boom lowered and strepped on deck.

[Mike OReilly]

Originally Posted by hd002e

Tonight the yaw angle is more manageable, we swing from 250 to 330 degrees, so an arc of 80 degrees. It may be due to the boom lowered and strepped on deck.

Sounds like you’re doing great. Everything you’ve done, and everything you’ve observed about your anchor tells me you’re just fine. Get some sleep .

[hd002e]

The dragging motorboat before ithit the island



The chain/rope splice as it came from lewmar.



Rode enters the water 20’ from the boat.

[sv Noodles]

Start the engine, pull anchor and reset.

[wingssail]

Originally Posted by hd002e

I will try the foot on the chain trick. How does it feel if its not setting right?

You will know. it is extraordinary what your brain can figure out from the messages it will get from your foot.

[hd002e]

Originally Posted by wingssail

You will know. it is extraordinary what your brain can figure out from the messages it will get from your foot.

That is a funny statement! I will definitely give it a try.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by hd002e

I will try the foot on the chain trick. How does it feel if its not setting right?

You can feel it jerk a little, the rode telegraphs up the line and shock the anchor feels you will feel. Sort of like a kids string telephone, if it’s well set you won’t feel a thing, no jerking at all, cause of course the anchor isn’t moving.

Having rode out all of that wind and veering etc, I hope that means your well set, now maybe you biggest enemy is chafe, but you know that and have a plan on how to deal with it.

Lord forbid if another boat starts to drag down on you, but if you have enough rode out, you can usually start the engine and steer to one side enough to clear if you have to.
Starting the engine is I think a good plan, and as you found out it doesn’t take a whole lot of throttle to take almost all the force off of the rode, maybe 1000 RPM.
But assuming you can raise the rode from the cockpit, with the engine running and you in the cockpit, your prepared.

I made an anchor riding sail from the Sailrite kit, it doesn’t do much of anything on my boat, but apparently does for some, so I guess it’s boat dependent.

What does work for me is the additional line coming from the mid ships cleat to the rode to pull the bow about 15 degrees off to one side, you can shorten or lengthen this line by taking it back to the sheet winch and fine tune it as well.

[JPA Cate]

Hi, hd002e,

You should be carrying at least one more 'real" anchor. A Danforth, or better, a Fortress type, is pretty easy to deploy. If you lie to the two anchors, set the Danforth type well to the side of the CQR, making a V shape to your bow with the two rodes. That considerable lessens our yawing, and it should help you.

Another thing you can do is to place your drogue hanging just off the bottom, and it will slow the bow blowing down, as well.

Finally, when 40 kn. are predicted, you can have gusts to 60, It is a good time to remove the headsails, and store below decks, like people do for hurricanes. It's a pita, but helps the boat.

Ann

[nic26]

For buying an anchor in your area go to

SVB. DE

Biggest in Europe

[moseriw]

Hmm, did you know that the CQR was invented by the Royal Marine as dragging anchor at river Thames??


So WHY use a CQR? What is your prefered ground? Sand, Mud, so why not use a Danforth alike anchor? and a 25# anchor - for me - is to lightweight.

OK mine is a 47 with 20 tons and I use an 85# Jambo

I would consider to buy a 50 lbs anchor for your boat.

40 knots is not too much, waves are not a problem so consider to reembed your anchor and move to a location where you have enough way to leeward.

[Scotty Kiwi]

Late to the thread. Did a lot of very high winds anchoring. I remember the angst, at first.

With breeze gusting close to max, take a couple of bearings (ie accurate position), engine into reverse, full noise backward, and if it doesn't drag with the max wind and reverse for a minute, then its a good bet that it won't. Once you've given her a minute in reverse, she should come up to windward as the chain sags again.

Repeat again if the gusts gets to + 10 ... _ 20.

Don't skimp on rode length.
Understand how quickly the depth changes just in case of drag. If the depth is constant, you can sleep even better. If not, let more chain out.

40's not particularly windy really, esp if no chop.

So get your sleep.

In the very unlikely even she breaks free, the change in the motion will most likely wake you.

But by the time this is posted, you'll be back to a light summer breeze again?

[boatman61]

With your anchor as well set as you say raising and reanchoring is to my mind the wrong thing to do.. all it achieves is another few hours of raised stress hoping its bedded in again at the new location.
I would only do it if I had a spot to move to that offered more shelter from the wind, in the lee of a cliff or something where the main force is above me.
Stick it out, Predict Wind has the strong wind moving W and going down to 15kts in your area.

[Scotty Kiwi]

Originally Posted by Scotty Kiwi

Late to the thread. Did a lot of very high winds anchoring. I remember the angst, at first.

With breeze gusting close to max, take a couple of bearings (ie accurate position), engine into reverse, full noise backward, and if it doesn't drag with the max wind and reverse for a minute, then its a good bet that it won't. Once you've given her a minute in reverse, she should come up to windward as the chain sags again.

Repeat again if the gusts gets to + 10 ... _ 20.

Don't skimp on rode length.
Understand how quickly the depth changes just in case of drag. If the depth is constant, you can sleep even better. If not, let more chain out.

40's not particularly windy really, esp if no chop.

So get your sleep.

In the very unlikely even she breaks free, the change in the motion will most likely wake you.

But by the time this is posted, you'll be back to a light summer breeze again?

Whoops as alluded to by boatie only do the forgoing if the breeze is f/c to build. If it's not f/c to build, and you're holding, then of course you'll be fine.