Bad Day

jeffnick · Oct 23, 2012

While we're sitting at our desk in front of the computer it's easy to not consider how things can really be out there.

It's blowing 40 in a crowded anchorage. The seas are only 2-3 but the wind is blowing them over the bow. The rain stings your face... You can hardly keep your eyes open. There's a massive boat dragging sideways down on you. If you loose your grip on the bottom, you might end up on the rocks. What do you do?

Power towards the drifting hulk, hoping your motor can dislodge your well set heavy anchor before the hulk makes contact?

Go below to fetch a rusty hacksay and low battery flashlight and try to hack your all chain rode loose under load and blinding rain?

Stand on your head in the dark pounding rain and try to untie your nylon rode's bitter end from something in the chain locker?

I'm just sharing my experiences. They may be of no value to you, but others may appreciate the perspective.

My MO to date:
A Rocna Fisherman for retrieving a conservatively sized fouled lunch hook.

An 'local' anchor about twice the recommended size for overnight or unattended anchoring. Neither scenario uses any chain.

My 3 strand nylon rode is sized at the recommended diameter for the first 150 feet. That bitter end is spliced onto 250' of double that diameter, following that is poly that I have tested to float in 50' of water.

My 'windlass' is a manual sailboat sheet winch. On my boat I can haul in the rode with one hand on the shifter...bumping her as I go. I get a kick out of crewing for my buddy with his electric winch...someone has to be forward to clear it when it jams.

psneeld · Oct 23, 2012

jeffnick said:
While we're sitting at our desk in front of the computer it's easy to not consider how things can really be out there.

It's blowing 40 in a crowded anchorage. The seas are only 2-3 but the wind is blowing them over the bow. The rain stings your face... You can hardly keep your eyes open. There's a massive boat dragging sideways down on you. If you loose your grip on the bottom, you might end up on the rocks. What do you do? Get fenders and boathook ready

Power towards the drifting hulk, hoping your motor can dislodge your well set heavy anchor before the hulk makes contact? Not until I have to

Go below to fetch a rusty hacksay and low battery flashlight and try to hack your all chain rode loose under load and blinding rain? No..if that is your backup plan you deserve what you get

Stand on your head in the dark pounding rain and try to untie your nylon rode's bitter end from something in the chain locker? No let it run free if you have the engine running and a sysnthetic tie off at the end of your chain that is easily cut with a knife

I'm just sharing my experiences. They may be of no value to you, but others may appreciate the perspective. It might to those who panic in foreseeable and fairly simple problems when cruising..

My MO to date:
A Rocna Fisherman for retrieving a conservatively sized fouled lunch hook.

An 'local' anchor about twice the recommended size for overnight or unattended anchoring. Neither scenario uses any chain.

My 3 strand nylon rode is sized at the recommended diameter for the first 150 feet. That bitter end is spliced onto 250' of double that diameter, following that is poly that I have tested to float in 50' of water.

My 'windlass' is a manual sailboat sheet winch. On my boat I can haul in the rode with one hand on the shifter...bumping her as I go. I get a kick out of crewing for my buddy with his electric winch...someone has to be forward to clear it when it jams.

Use what you like but there are many ways to skin a cat without a lot of fuss...

BruceK · Oct 23, 2012

manyboats said:
As for chain the only reason it's used is to keep the anchor shank low so the anchor has an better chance to set. The catenary close to the anchor reduces the angle of pull ... closer to horizontal and helps to set the anchor. What else could it possibly do to help anchoring??[/QUOT E]
The chain section between the anchor and the rope of a mainly rope rode copes better with the potentially abrasive effects of the sea floor which could damage an all rope rode. BruceK

FF · Oct 24, 2012

What do you do? Get fenders and boathook ready

Slip more scope ,

Power to angle on your anchor line , and watch the tub pass by.

jeffnick · Oct 24, 2012

FF said:
What do you do? Get fenders and boathook ready

Slip more scope ,

Power to angle on your anchor line , and watch the tub pass by.

And he catches your rode with his dragging anchor and takes you with him.

dvd · Oct 24, 2012

Story Time:

We had recently bought our new-to-us trawler in RI and were shaking her down in Narragansett Bay with about 10 knt winds and a one foot chop. We picked up a mooring ball a couple of times for practice then decided to practice anchoring. We went out to the middle of the bay at least a mile from any markers, buoys, floats, etc. and dropped the hook in about 25 ft. of water. We set the anchor and retrieved it 2 or 3 times but by then the wind had come up and there was 1 - 2 ft. waves. Since the dog was getting seasick and my wife was getting a little queazy anchored in these waves, I decided to call it a day and head back to the marina. With some difficulty, I raised the anchor the last time and found it hooked under a stretched-out half inch nylon line which was in pristine condition. It gave a fair amount of resistance so there must have been something connected to at least one end of it. Thinking only of getting back to the marina, I lifted the line off the fluke and headed home. I don't know how many times since then I have kicked myself for not pulling in that line to see what it was connected to.

dvd

OFB · Oct 24, 2012

I anchor in deep water alot. Usualy well over 100 feet in depth. To do this I run a stern line or lines to shore to pull the boat back towards the shore so the anchor has a good bite in the ground.

So one morning after a so so windy night I awoke to a different sound hitting the hull. That drum effect you can get while laying in the bunk.

I get up and take a look out the front window. Wa la that aint the site I went to bed with, while looking at shore. Take a look around the boat at where the drum stick is. Well I had tied off the stern line, to logs on the beach. I mean there be 20 logs in this log jam I tied off to. Big , heavy logs.

The tide had come up along with some wind driven waves and the beached logs simply came off the beach pulled by the oldfishboat.

Took about two hours to unwind the logs from the boat. Yup they had a few lines of there own just to make the deal a little more interesting, along with my stern lines. I must have spun several times through the night when it calmed out.

The boat held on the anchor off the shore. I took the stern line back to shore and secured it to a rock.

Pleasure cruising. Just love it.

FF · Oct 27, 2012

As for chain the only reason it's used is to keep the anchor shank low so the anchor has an better chance to set.

Ogg the creator of Danforth anchors did not use chain for 20 years.

"And he catches your rode with his dragging anchor and takes you with him."

With 2 anchors out most evenings ., just resetting one is not that big a chore.

RickB · Oct 27, 2012

Marin said:
Not a good idea in our boat. The chain will go up against the hull and the angle will put it right back where the prop(s) and rudder(s) are.

Wow! That's either some super light weight chain, water shallow enough to walk in, or the boat is going fast enough to leave the anchor skipping in the wake.

Marin · Oct 27, 2012

RickB said:
Wow! That's either some super light weight chain, water shallow enough to walk in, or the boat is going fast enough to leave the anchor skipping in the wake.

GBs have nearly vertical stems and in our vintage a very short pulpit. When we have dragged anchor (with the old Bruce) and we started the engines to idle forward while I brought the anchor up, we could only go forward in short bursts because as we went toward the anchor the chain would quickly go into the hull if we didn't go into neutral.

During our last and worst dragging which finally convinced us to get rid of the Bruce we nearly went aground because our old windlass was so slow and we didn't want the chain to go into the hull, we could only go forward in short bursts which meant we were slowly losing ground in the wind and waves. For this reason I had decided to let the chain run and cut the line at the end of it so we could get out before we hit what was behind us. The anchor finally cleared the water just as I got my Leatherman out and my wife was able to put power in and get us out into the bay.

Below is a shot I took during our cruise to the Gulf Islands last month. When vertical the chain is very close to the stem. It takes very little forward movement of the boat to put it into the hull.

It may not be as big an issue, or any issue, on boats with longer pulpits and raked bows. But our boat has neither.

markpierce · Oct 28, 2012

It's easy to scar one's hull if over-running the anchor chain. So far, have been able to use the windlass to haul in the anchor with the boat's engine running but in neutral.

RickB · Oct 28, 2012

There is a boat length of difference between scatching the paintwork on the bow and getting an anchor chain in the prop or rudder by going ahead.

Marin · Oct 29, 2012

In the kind of lee shore scenario we're talking about here (SD's earlier post) we had dragged into six feet of water (boat draws four). We had put out a 7:1 scope in 25 feet of water originally. Putting the boat in gear and simply driving off as SD suggested could have very possibly put the chain up into the running gear.

Every situation's different and what might apply to one may have no relevance to another.

RickB · Oct 29, 2012

A moment with a straightedge, a piece of graph paper, and a profile of your hull will show that unless your anchor chain floats, or the boat is moving so fast the anchor is skipping in the wake two feet behind the transom, or gravity has failed in your location, it ain't going to happen, Marin.

Even if your boat dragged the chain in four feet of water, it isn't going to wrap around the prop unless you rubbed the bottom long enough to wear the keel down.

How is that chain supposed to rise up off the bottom to a level above the keel 30 some odd feet behind the anchor hawse?

Marin · Oct 29, 2012

You are probably correct with regards to the running gear fouling although things sometimes happen in boating that logic would say should not. If we took off leaving the anchor on the bottom at the end of 175' of chain in six feet of water and the anchor snagged on something per SD's scenario, who's to say that 175 feet of chain couldn't get yanked taunt enough to come up momentarily and hit a prop? You wouldn't think it would but........ Every situation is different and what makes sense to do or try in one situation may not make sense in another one.

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