Sorry, but I have an anchoring question...

In a really tight anchorage that slip system is great.

Since anyone that will be in there with you will be on 2 anchors knowing actually where the anchors (nor 30 ft away cause someone was lazy)ARE is a great help.

Esp anchoring in a narrow channel, where all are nose to tail like an elephant heard.

WE use the sounding lead as a weight , always handy since its right out with the anchor.

A bowline attaches the weight to the anchor , so it can quickly be switched if a burying (CQR) is needed rather than a Danforth or Bruce.

Tonic wrote:

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Somewhere(?) I read about this method of using a weighted trip line to keep the float more directly over the anchor.**

That's pretty much what I tried.* I got the idea from FF, but I'm not sure where I went wrong, it seems like it should work fine. * I got lucky both times, and was able to grab the line with a boat hook, untie the weight and pull the line off the stabilizer fin shaft.* Had that not worked, I would have ended up going swimming, not my idea of fun first thing in the AM.* Perhaps a bigger weight would do the trick, but I got a little gun shy.................Arctic Traveller

I don't understand this. If you keep pulling up more slack until you can't get anymore without pulling too hard then your'e right over the anchor. If you back down on it and the anchor dos'nt come out easily your'e either not on top or you've hooked onto a discarded bulldozer. But it should work basically all the time * .. keep pulling up slack until there is no more, *..back down a bit and out it comes. It seems super simple to me.

nomadwilly wrote:

I don't understand this. If you keep pulling up more slack until you can't get anymore without pulling too hard then your'e right over the anchor. If you back down on it and the anchor dos'nt come out easily your'e either not on top or you've hooked onto a discarded bulldozer. But it should work basically all the time * .. keep pulling up slack until there is no more, *..back down a bit and out it comes. It seems super simple to me.

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The idea is to know where the anchor is, so you can drive right to it, and the windlass doesn't end up pulling the boat forward instead.* Without a float marking it, one can only guess the wearabouts of the anchor. Currently we simply start pulling for a bit, stop and see which way the boat wants to drift, then power in that direction.* Otherwise, your quite correct about how to get it up once you are over the top. .....Arctic Traveller

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Jeff,
Who cares where it is? as soon as one pulls all the slack out of it it will be straight down. Right where one needs and wants to be.

No slack doesn't necessarily mean that you're over the anchor. Just yesterday we were anchored in a 2kt current with a 12kt wind in the same direction. I had about 150 feet of all chain out and bridled to my forward cleats. We were in 15 feet of water. No slack!

Ray Muldrew
GB42 San Francisco

-- Edited by Giggitoni on Sunday 14th of November 2010 10:22:29 PM

I stand corrected!* We have little and sometimes no chain so pulling up over the anchor is easy. My wife runs the boat and I pull up the rode standing right on the bow looking down most of the time seeing where the rode is leading*** ..and of course when it is straight down and won't get any more vertical I tie it off and back down a little till it breaks loose
..then I get to do the tug-o-war and pull it in. Got caught w my pants down on the* swivel talk not considering boats w anchors too heavy to twist around*** ...as in the case of Delfin's use of the swivel. Iv'e got to stay connected to the fact that almost all of you guys have boats bigger than mine. Sorry I strayed from the line.

Eric, once you're over the anchor, and planning to use boat movement to pull it free from the bottom, why do you back down, doesn't it make more sense to then just move gently forward, in effect then using the shank of the anchor as extra leverage to twist the fluke tip up, and out.....? This is essentially what we do with a Sarca anchor to break it free, only the slot in the shank allows the pull to be moved forward to the fluke end, so in effect one backs the fluke out. Very handy if caught under the bulldozer you just mentioned, but good also in a reef or if caught under any fixed obstruction, but also even for just the heavy, weapons grade mud one encounters from time to time. This techique works well with more orthodox plough, Danforth, and Bruce type anchors as well, just sans the slot in the shank, but in mud it's not needed. If you back it out, you are tending to dig it in again until pure force overcomes the bottom layer over it by virtue of the near vertical angle of the pull, but it still puts more strain on the bow assembly than pushing the shank forward and up, surely....?

Gees guys most of the time I just start my engine (when I have one) the missus stays at the wheel and then I just gently activate the windlass and it slowly pulls the boat along up to the anchor and then up she comes, unless of course it is caught on something and that is rare even out in the reef country.
I may sometimes get her to nudge ahead if we are really hanging back with an extremely heavy tide run or strong wind but most of the time it doesn't require that.

My big reef star anchor is a whole different kettle of fish.
She has a running float on it, all rope and 10 mts of chain.
I just steam away and around so that the float tries to bury and pick the anchor out of the reef and then stream down the rode onto the chain and float the anchor ready for hauling in.
The chain is attached to the bottom of the anchor and then tied with some breakable twine to the top, so it breaks away and then pulls the anchor out by the bottom.

Benn

Interesting Peter. I guess I assumed the boat would be pulled sideways and one woul;d get the rode closer to the propeller. The latter would be nearly impossible be a threat and I assume that since you don't mention it the boat does not get pulled sideways. Never tried it but breaking out in reverse has'nt been a problem but it would seem that going fwd would work better for the reason you stated. Good idea Peter * *..I'll try it.Benn,
Yes * ...if I'm reading you correctly lots of skippers here in SE Alaska rig the anchor (especially the claws) so some light wire or 1/8" nylon that breaks free of the end of the shank and transfers the pull to the other end of the anchor (where the bitter end of the chain is attached) to pull out backwards. Sorry * *..I don't understand the "running float" part.

The photo is of the float I made for our anchor trip line. We use it about half the time up here because of the nature of some of the bottoms. But we don't use it because we want to know where the anchor is. We've never had an instance where either hauling in some chain and letting the weight of the chain still in the water pull the boat forward, or if there is wind or current, simply powering the boat in the direction the chain is angling out from the bow roller, has not put us directly over the anchor. We use the line and float as a trip line to pull the anchor out backwards if necessary. We've never had the line get fouled on anything but we don't have stabilizers halfway back on the boat, either, not that we let the trip line get back there but I can see how it could.

As to breaking the anchor out with the boat's motion, that works if the boat has motion. On the times it doesn't we'll take up a little tension with the windlass and then see if the slight "bounce back" of the boat will work the anchor free. If it doesn't then we attach our heavy setting line to a deck cleat with the chain hook on the rode, slack off the windlass, and give the boat a shot of reverse to pull the anchor out.



-- Edited by Marin on Monday 15th of November 2010 02:05:25 PM

Eric,
The running float is a large bouy on about a meter of s/s chain (not too heavy) with a large approx 4" dia s/s ring that the anchor rode goes thru.
When at anchor the float is on the water at the bow.
As you steam away it tries to go down the rode and thus breaks away the anchor from the bottom and then slides llk the way down to the anchor to bringing it to the surface as you keep steaming and floats it for easy retrival.

Hope that is clear enough.
Benn

The problem I see with securing the rode to the fluke end of the anchor and then attaching it to the "correct" end of the shank with light line or something breakable is if the weather kicks up enough to put a sufficient strain on the rode the light stuff will break and the boat will pull the anchor out of the bottom right a time when you really want it to stay there. I guess if you know there will be no weather-induced pull on your anchor and you're primarily concerned with it getting hung up on something on the bottom that method is okay. But I sure wouldn't want to go to bed or anchor overnight using this method when there was any sort of a risk of developing conditions putting a strain on that light line or wire tie or whatever that's the only thing keeping the anchor set.

Better, to my way of thinking, to use a trip line if one is in doubt about getting the anchor out of the bottom than to trust the security of the boat to a hand-grenade pin, so to speak.

-- Edited by Marin on Monday 15th of November 2010 04:31:12 PM

Tidahapah wrote:
Eric,
The running float is a large bouy on about a meter of s/s chain (not too heavy) with a large approx 4" dia s/s ring that the anchor rode goes thru.
When at anchor the float is on the water at the bow.
As you steam away it tries to go down the rode and thus breaks away the anchor from the bottom and then slides llk the way down to the anchor to bringing it to the surface as you keep steaming and floats it for easy retrival.

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The fish camp I go to in SE Alaska use this method all the time. You have to see it
to really understand how well it works. Once they (the float) breaks the anchor
loose, the skipper just keeps going while he's reeling in the anchor. At an angle, of
course, so as not to foul the prop. It happens so fast (pulling the anchor) that it's
really hard to believe. Anchor Pullers - The Best Way to Retrieve Your Anchor


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Marin,
The reef anchor caper i mostly only use when I am fishing in deep water and rocky reef.
It is not usually an overnight thing but usually if it is we are out in wide open water where a bit of drift won't affect us to much.
These times I am usually up and about a fair bit.

Benn

TO me the best use for the float is as a fouled anchor trip line ,

second use is the other boaters know where your ground tackle is set.