Anchoring nightmare this week

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Renegde_Sailor

Regularly no, but from time to time yes.

Up in the North West there are a whole lot of deep anchorages, having that extra chain will open up a lot of options.

Also on a 42' boat that weighs 26,000 lbs, you're not manually pulling anchor in any kind of a current.

I have had to do it before, and in that situation I ran a line with a hook to the chain, and used a winch in the cockpit to pull it up 12' at a time.

Amen!


In places like Alaska with steep sloping seabeds you can't have too much chain. 60' of water? In places like that you might need to anchor in 100' or even 150' of water -- I have. Because you can't anchor on the slope -- you have to find a flat bit, and that often requires going to the deepest spot in the cove.



I have 100m (330 feet) weighing 330kg and have wished for more, maybe not often, but on a few occasions. Enough chain is something that when you need it, you REALLY need it.


The weight in the bow is undesirable but I have found from experience that my boat is ok with that much. I take all the ground tackle off for racing sometimes and don't notice the difference in performance and may not bother next time.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by Rohan

What about absorbing shock? Plus isn't it extremely noisy? And doesn't it wear out the bow roller? Honestly, when lowering the anchor, the sound of chain going over the bow roller always stressed me out.

That's why God made snubbers my friend.


Noisy? Who cares when you're in the process of anchoring? It's not noisy after that.


All chain is better in every way except weight in the bow.

[desodave]

You want galvanized windlass chain, not any old hardware store chain. It also has to fit your windlass gypsy. I suspect that it's the same windlass as on my old H38, Simpson Lawrence, who have bee out of business for many years ... but if so it will take 5/16 G4 chain. Take your gypsy into a marine chandlery and make sure it fits the G4.

[Montanan]

Been there, done that:

[JPA Cate]

Originally Posted by Montanan

Been there, done that:

Hmm! Once we tangled a dinghy painter.* Since then, it is one of two floating lines on the boat, gets changed every other year, too. [The other line was bought for a bridle to tow a friend's boat, that was eventually re-purposed to a brake line midship cleat on boat to furthest out cleat on dock.]

*Jim had to dive on it to cut it free. Fortunately it was not sharky there.

Ann

[Kettlewell]

Fortress and Danforth-type anchors are great if the direction of pull remains relatively constant, otherwise they are prone to rolling out of the bottom with a drastic wind or current shift, and then they are prone to sail over the bottom without resetting. I have seen this happen a million times. Danforth and Fortress both recommend using two anchors in a Bahamian moor in situations where the wind/current is likely to shift. For some reason today's sailors almost never do this. I have set Bahamian moors many, many times in these situations and they work perfectly. One trick is to keep the second anchor line stowed in a sailbag, making it very easy to unwind the two rodes when necessary. If you are onboard you do this once per tidal change and all is good. Lead both anchor lines to the bow so the boat can swing properly into the wind and current.

[Winston Smith]

Originally Posted by aberglas

I think you mean Rope, not Rode. "Rode" is the whole lot as I understand it, chain + rope.

But good point about avoiding Rope. I have 65m chain, plus 50m rope for very deep anchorages.

Well since you're being all technical and such..... that "rope" you have attached to your chain? If it's attached, it's a "line".

I'm sure this is as helpful to you as your post was for Rohan.

Until next time......cheers

[Talbot]

In the early stages of this incident, I would have turned my rudders that the current passing it would have given leverage to turn the boat away from the rope. Of course if your prop had been spinning and had already twisted the rope, it may not have worked.
Lessons
If anchoring overnight, get proper gear. A lunch hook is nice for a quick stay, but not a secure solution for overnight.
Get rope cutter on shaft.

[jheyland]

In the Chesapeake Bay, I understand going with chain + rope. I've been in a similar situation (shifting currents had wrapped the line around my winged keel), luckily in no hurry, in day time, and with others on board. Here's what I did and it worked well for me:
I untied the bitter end of the rope, and tied it to a large fender. I made sure my second anchor was ready to be deployed should I need it. Then I uncleated the line and threw the fender overboard. No free of the rode I drifted away for a boat length or so, started the engine, used a boat hook to pick up the fender and retrieved the anchor.
I think the biggest difference was that I was not worried about drifting towards a lee shore, had time, and crew mates to talk things over with.

[GerryL]

We bought our 32' boat this spring from Long Island where it was mostly used for day sails with a few overnights. It did have a nice oversized Rocna and electric windlass, but only 30' of chain and about 250' of 5/8" line. While it was certainly secure, I knew boats on rope swing more. We were taking the boat to Maine, primarily for exploring and anchoring out, so I knew we'd be in some tight spots at times. We decided to quickly swap to 200' of 5/16' chain (which wasn't cheap, but is worth it for peace of mind for both of us). We kept at least 125' of line along with the new chain. We were there all summer, and the most I let out was about 135' of chain when I had to anchor in about 32' of water on a windy night. We've had no dragging issues so far (once well set; we were in one spot where I kept moving every time I tried backing down. I think the anchor was on a smooth rock ledge. We moved over one island and were good to go). Now I have to install a washdown pump. We do pull up a lot of mud at times, and it has taken as long as 45 min to clean with a bucket on a rope. That will be in place next year. But we did get comfortable with the performance of our anchoring gear, and very little swing on chain. Like others, I just use a piece of line as a snubber; I tie it around the chain, cleat off on deck, and let the chain out until there is a slack loop hanging under the snubber knot on the chain (which is usually just above the waterline).
Good luck on your repairs!

[Seabeau]

In narrow tidal rivers with strong currents, I anchor with a bow and stern anchor all the time. No need for a dingy. Approaching my intended anchorage, I drop the stern anchor, just say 50 yards out, let the rode, run free. I then pass the spot when I want to end up, continue another 50 yards from that spot, drop the bow anchor, letting the rode run free again. Return to the stern and, with the aid of a primary, winch my self back to the intended anchorage. Go to the bow, and repeat the evolution.

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by Seabeau

In narrow tidal rivers with strong currents, I anchor with a bow and stern anchor all the time. No need for a dingy. Approaching my intended anchorage, I drop the stern anchor, just say 50 yards out, let the rode, run free. I then pass the spot when I want to end up, continue another 50 yards from that spot, drop the bow anchor, letting the rode run free again. Return to the stern and, with the aid of a primary, winch my self back to the intended anchorage. Go to the bow, and repeat the evolution.

That works, or if you have a sufficiently long anchor rode on the bow anchor and a windlass, it may be easier to set the bow anchor first, back down to where you want the stern anchor, drop it, and then take up rode on the bow anchor while paying out rode on the stern anchor to position the boat as desired between them.

[sengland]

So for the rode to get anywhere close to the prop, the 7-1 must have increased. My guess is as the tide switched and winds changed, the anchor dragged to higher ground and your ratio got bigger 12 or 15-1. Being a rode and not a chain the currents flipped it in contact with the prop.
You 'may' have been able to figure all this out on your navs depending what you have, which would show you pivoting from the stern, not the bow.
So more chain, don't go beyond a 6 or 7-1 ratio, reduce your anchor watch radii.

[Auklet]

A similar situation occurred for me whenever I anchored at a particular spot along (shoreward of) the Manatee River in Florida. Almost invariably the boat, anchored on 3-strand nylon rope, 15 ft of chain, and a Danforth, would turn or move during the night putting the rode tending under the boat toward the stern. Sometimes the boat would become pinned against the rode broadside to the tidal flow. We were not close to shore or to submerged shoals, so no sense of urgency directed my actions. After ASSESSING the situation, the quick fix was to rapidly veer out more rode allowing it to drop below the keel and/or rudder so the boat could freely swing to the current or wind. Don’t try to pull it in until trying that maneuver. The slow fix is to wait until the conditions that caused the situation reverse; it might fix itself. Obviously you should not back-up if the rode is tending beneath the boat toward the stern.

Also, there’s nothing wrong with using two anchors, bow and stern, to “moor” the boat as long a you know how to set them, etc. Not difficult but requires practice. The weight of an anchor is not the principal component of setting; rather, the anchor’s design. It must actively “dig in” or become buried in another manner as with the mushroom designs. Folks like to use the Fortress on a short shot of chain and nylon rode as the stern anchor b/c usually there is no anchor roller or windlass mounted astern. Thus, manual lift is usually the only way to get it back aboard.

The total length of chain veered as no effect on the power of the windlass to recover unless it is very deep; say, over 150 ft. The “dead lift” up from the bottom is what the windlass “sees.” If it’s 50 ft to the bottom, then that’s the dead lift. Does not matter if there is another 200 ft resting on the bottom as well.

[rhubstuff]

[QUOTE I don't like the idea of a second anchor, because I'm worried about the two getting intertwined as the boat flips around during the night.[/QUOTE]

I wouldn't worry about the rodes getting intertwined. In a situation where wind and tide may spin the boat in a 360, yes, the rodes may wrap around each other. Having spent a lot of time in the Bahamas using a Bahamian moor (one anchor upstream and one down, boat in the middle), I just accepted the fact that I would have to untangle them. Sometimes we would anchor for 3-4 days and there would be 3-4 wraps to undo. Sure, you might want to clear a wrap in unsettled weather, but sometimes the boat will spin the other way and unwrap itself. To unwrap a rode, I would coil up the lighter of the two and simply pass that coil around the working rode from the deck or from the dinghy.