Styles of anchoring

This is a thread to discuss the pros and cons of different styles of anchoring. Here are the three styles for discussion. I want to look at this, not as this is what we do or what is common, but in a world just starting what would be the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Three styles.

Single bow anchor.

Two bow anchors.

Bahama anchoring. One bow anchor and one stern anchor

We use a single bow anchor.

In our area with 10' tide changes using a stern anchor has sunk boats.

Do what others I the anchorage do. Less conflict that way.

On my own I use a single on the bow except once during a small hurricane. Then I used two on the bow

ksanders said:

We use a single bow anchor.

In our area with 10' tide changes using a stern anchor has sunk boats.

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So you're saying that if one uses bow and stern in an area of 10' tidal changes, they would need to allow much greater slack? If they allowed enough for the boat to rise and lower the 10', then wouldn't seem to be an issue. Much like tying a boat at a fixed dock or in a fixed slip.

On a single anchor, the issue with such a tidal change would simply be the amount of rode and having enough at low tide so that at high tide you'd still have adequate. Plus I guess in reverse when having enough at high tide, not then swinging into something at low tide.

On the east coast, much of Georgia has 8' tidal changes and it catches South Florida boaters by surprise. In South Florida we're just dealing with rising tides, projected based on recent history to rise another 2' by 2060.

A Bahamian moor doesn't really use a stern anchor as both are tied to the bow...just 180 degrees to each other.

It was developed for anchoring in the narrow cuts between islands that had tidal flow change and you couldn't swing out of the narrow cut....not really for conserving room.

Anchoring from the stern is not as dangerous for larger boats as it is made out to be in safety courses for smaller boats...but Kevin is correct that a stern anchor will limit the ability for the boat to float ahead towards the bow anchor as the tide rises and will pull one end or the other down. Unless of course there is enough slack or scope.

Ninety nine percent of the time I use a single, good anchor even in reversing current situations.


I have used two anchors off of the bow once or twice and they always ended up twisted. The only real use for two is in a Bahamian moor where the current reverses and the channel is tight. Not many opportunities for this.


I have used a stern anchor once or twice. The one time I recall doing it was off of Catalina Island to keep the bow pointed into the swells, just like the fore and aft moorings nearby.


There is perhaps a fourth anchoring technique: two anchors in tandem off of one rode. This technique increases the holding power or the single anchor and doesn't cause twisting of the rode and can deal with a wind reversal like in a hurricane when the eye passes overhead. If I had to ride out a hurricane and had plenty of real estate, this is what I would do.


The first anchor in the series has to have an appropriate eye to shackle the second anchor to. A Bruce followed by a good plow like a Rocna would be a great tandem team. The Bruce will act as a kellet and keep the rode parallel to the bottom for the second anchor and add holding power of its own. The recommended practice is to shackle the two together with 20' of chain.


David

psneeld said:

A Bahamian moor doesn't really use a stern anchor as both are tied to the bow...just 180 degrees to each other.
.

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You are correct. My mistake. Still the three choices. Single, two from bow, one from bow and one from stern.

My first choice is always a single anchor. Usually there is plenty of swing room where I go and where I have been. I am all chain so I can shorten up if necessary but my preference is still to be close to 10:1.

Advantage is you swing like everyone else whose on a single (usually 98%), and no worries about tangling twisting the two lines when you change directions.

On some occasions I have used two from the bow, but only in very windy conditions with poor holding ground. When I do this they are spread at around 30-45 degree angle (sorry no protractor to get exactly LOL).
Then after the wind settles or when it's time to leave I break one out with the dinghy and untwist off the bow (my secondary that is line and chain).

A couple of times I have used a stern anchor when sterning to a beach, etc., but that's extremely rare for me. Below I am stern to in Canada because most other boats were.


Bottom pic is single anchor in Block Island's salt pond

After dragging in a tropical storm with three anchors out at Allans Pensacola Cay,I switched to tandem.

My tandem set up has been tested in two other tropical storms and works extremely well, easy to deploy an retrieve. Other than major storms ..... one bow anchor.

The only place I have used a Bahamian moor is in Beaufort NC where one is forced to because of the clutter of private moorings and that's what everybody else does. I have two badly mangled fingers caused by getting them caught while trying to unwind that twisted mess.

So we're talking what we do. Other than needing to allow for tidal variation what is the disadvantage of using a bow and a stern anchor? And I'm asking on the basis of everyone doing so, not just one boat.

The major downside to stern anchoring in my experience is where that anchor needs to be placed for what you want it to do and will it hold and can it be retrieved.

Once in Tangier Island. The wind and tide combo brought me unconfortably close to a shallows and crab structure. So I rowed out a stern anchor. IT WAS A REALLY undersized bruce, but held the boat in a good position overnight.

In the morning when time to leave, I dang near couldn't get that anchor up with the dingy and it was in too shallow water at low tide to retrieve from the big boa I did finally work it loose.

The forces pulling on that stern anchor can be substantially more than one rigged to the bow. So pulling it intentionally or dragging it could be an issue that is hard to estimate due to a newer set of variable for you.

Another pro of the Bahamian style is that a anchor's load would never change more than 90 degrees with wind and current shifts, making them less likely to trip. That said, in my limited travels I have never needed to employ it, if the anchorages on the Chesapeake are too crowded for me to fit in with a single anchor's swing, a shorter swing of the Bahamian would have me out of synch with everyone else. If anything it would allow me to anchor on the edge of the anchorage outside of everyone else's swing, but it is easier to find another cove. I've only employed the Bahamian for the basic cruising classes I teach and occasionally anchor my runabout off a beach using a bow and stern anchor. A significant con to the bow & stern anchoring would be the potential of becoming side to waves or heavy current, but this since it is often used to hold a position close to a shoreline, you are unlikely to experience waves traveling away from or truly parallel to the beach.

One anchor deployed from the bow.

For us it depends, either just a bow or bow and stern. If it is just our boat, or maybe us and one rafted to us, and plenty of room to swing, and no major worries about wakes from other boats, then just the bow. But for us, that is the exception. Where we boat and anchor, there is a ton of traffic on the weekends, so we usually put out a stern to keep our bow toward the channel and all of the wakes. We also often raft with a bunch of other boats. When we do a big raft-up, the rule is every other boat puts out an anchor. If we didn't use stern anchors, we would have a real mess assuming the boats would turn with the tides. So, in sum, for our area and the way we boat, it is usually a bow and stern.

As for getting the stern up (as mentioned in another post), if it is really stuck, we will back onto it and use the big boat to break it loose. But, usually, I find if I go out to it on the dinghy and keep the line really tight, after a few minutes of boucing around with wakes, it will work itself loose. Just have to give it time. One of our friends lost his Fortress stern anchor when he tried to break it loose with the big boat - he had it cleated off to the stern platform and the line broke. We have yet to find it.

Nomad Willy said:

One anchor deployed from the bow.

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But you have 1000 anchors from which you choose.

BanB no only six.

I'm going to respond to the word "style".

I like to have Chris at the helm w the window open so she can hear me. And of course she can see me to get my hand signals.
Over at the window I look at the anchorage around me and on the GPS. I choose a place for the anchor with swinging room w enough water for low tide. At the window I direct Chris to the chosen spot and stop. With no way I launch the anchor taking care not to hit the boat w the anchor. With my rubber gloves on I use the gloves as a brake or go hand over hand until I feel the anchor touch down. I signal Chris to engage reverse gear and a moment after I observe stern way I put the anchor back on the bottom and commence paying out rode at a rate that will come close to putting the rode down on the bottom in a relatively straight line. With a slow walking speed astern I signal Chris to put the gear in neutral an continually give her stop and go signals to maintain the slow walking pace. When the marks on the rode indicate there is sufficient line out for the predetermined scope I quickly pull up a few feet of line and make it fast to the dedicated anchor rode cleat. I let the anchor stop the boat and engage reverse gear at idle rpm. Then I have Chris go to neutral and after 10 seconds or so we go back into reverse gear and let the anchor "soak" for about a minute. Back to neutral and back to reverse at 1400rpm .. for about one minute. Anchor set.
If very strong winds are expected I'll pull and soak a time or two more and up to about 2500rpm in reverse. My Michigan MP prop makes about the same thrust in reverse as in fwd gear.
Retrieving the anchor I pull the boat up to the anchor w the capstan if there is little wind. Ten knots of wind or more and I have Chris go in and out of gear to keep a bit of slack or low tension on the line and don't use the capstan at all until more or less directly above the anchor. If the anchor comes up easily the capstan and I pull the anchor and rode up and secure all. If not we pull up all the slack and tie off and then apply some power to work the anchor out.

I store the rode in a box on deck and now my working anchor fits in the box w all the rest of the rode. The only thing remaining on the bow is the bow roller. As I like it. I stow my XYZ storm anchor on deck ready for an emergency w either the working rode or the spare stowed in the anchor locker. Haven't had that rode out in years.

BandB said:

So we're talking what we do. Other than needing to allow for tidal variation what is the disadvantage of using a bow and a stern anchor? And I'm asking on the basis of everyone doing so, not just one boat.

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For me it would mean that if I had a wind shift of 90 degrees, as when a bad tx storm runs through, I have little holding power when the wind hits me broadside.
I'd end up in a tangled mess.

Re Jay's post #17 with a transverse wind anchors fore and aft have little holding power until the anchors are dragged together or nearly so.

Fore and aft anchoring anticipating reversing river current or similar means the boat will hang on one or the other anchor and no holding power advantage will be experienced from the extra anchor.

BandB said:

This is a thread to discuss the pros and cons of different styles of anchoring. Here are the three styles for discussion. I want to look at this, not as this is what we do or what is common, but in a world just starting what would be the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Three styles.

Single bow anchor.

Two bow anchors.

Bahama anchoring. One bow anchor and one stern anchor

Click to expand...

The biggest, baddest anchor you can carry, chain to match and a proper snub line.

BandB said:

This is a thread to discuss the pros and cons of different styles of anchoring. Here are the three styles for discussion. I want to look at this, not as this is what we do or what is common, but in a world just starting what would be the advantages and disadvantages of each.

Three styles.

Single bow anchor.

Two bow anchors.

Bahama anchoring. One bow anchor and one stern anchor

Click to expand...

We deploy one appropriately-sized anchor (ASA) from the bow. (ASA, to me, means a storm anchor, matched to the target substrate, in a weight I could lift manually if necessary.)

I would like to have a choice of two of those ASAs on the pulpit, in two different designs, so I can choose which might be more suitable for the immediate situation (mostly about holding substrate). Our pulpit doesn't offer that option, so we live with it. I still do have another ASA that I can deploy should that be necessary, but we've not had to make that change.

We are prepared to do a Bahamian moor (two ASAs from the bow) but have never had to do that... and doing that would also depend on who else is in the anchorage and how best we can manage similar swing distances and directions. I would probably use a modified approach, more like 90° opposed instead of 180°. Depends on the anchorage and the reason for using this style.

Lots of current discussion in the other thread about tandem anchors, essentially two from the bow but on the same rode. I am not prepared to do that. Yet. Maybe. Seems like it offers some advantages to the Bahamian system. One is about not fouling two rodes. Also seems like even more work, though. Still studying that.

I can deploy a stern anchor, but haven't had to do that. Er... except once, when we did have to (later) deploy a kedge from the stern, to keep from swinging the stern up onto an oyster reef at low tide. (I misunderstood the tides near Beaufort...)


Are you folks intending to do more anchoring out soon?

-Chris

Delfin said:

The biggest, baddest anchor you can carry, chain to match and a proper snub line.

Click to expand...

boatpoker said:

After dragging in a tropical storm with three anchors out at Allans Pensacola Cay,I switched to tandem.

My tandem set up has been tested in two other tropical storms and works extremely well, easy to deploy an retrieve. Other than major storms ..... one bow anchor.

The only place I have used a Bahamian moor is in Beaufort NC where one is forced to because of the clutter of private moorings and that's what everybody else does. I have two badly mangled fingers caused by getting them caught while trying to unwind that twisted mess.

Click to expand...

Man, I wouldn't want to ride out a Tropical Strom at Allen's....the holding there is really bad other than a few deep sand spots, and there is very little westerly protection. The dragging may have been a result of where you were anchored rather than your set up.

In 10 years of cruising the Bahamas I've only drug twice after I got the anchor (I thought) well set. Both times were at Allen's Pensacola.

ranger42c said:

Are you folks intending to do more anchoring out soon?

-Chris

Click to expand...

No. We mainly anchor during the day for brief periods to enjoy ourselves. Last time was just to enjoy a nice lunch on board in a beautiful area.

And we have no plans to anchor differently than we have which is Delfin's biggest, baddest anchor you can carry, chain to match and a proper snub line. And a windlass capable of handling it.

Was just a subject we wanted to hear other's comments on. We did when younger anchor on the lake occasionally (never overnight) and having a bow and stern anchor was popular there on smaller boats. On a large boat, the biggest issue I see preventing bow and stern, even if you wanted it, is just being able to handle it. We're sure not intending to do it by hand and we don't have an anchor windless on the stern.

We anchor overnight primarily in areas we have no other reasonable choice. I would guess we've anchored overnight perhaps 10 times in the past 3 1/2 years. We do a lot of day anchoring in the Bahamas, just choosing an island area to enjoy and anchoring.

Just anchor up in Baltimore Inner Harbor for the July 4th fireworks and you will see every "style" imaginable!
Classics such as the "teabag dunk" , "downwind drop" and the "anchor put" are pure entertainment.

Delfin said:

The biggest, baddest anchor you can carry, chain to match and a proper snub line.

Click to expand...

Haven't tried two anchors from the bow yet. Have used a stern anchor a number of times to limit swing. Normally I'll be anchoring off of a channel with little current and want to keep the stern out of the channel. Usually drop it (small Fortress with 3/8" line) first and then go drop the bow anchor. Try to use 10:1 or more scope on the stern anchor since it's so small. Usually pull the bow anchor first and then just drift over the stern to pull it. It's amazing how much holding power you get with 10:1 on a very small anchor.

Ted

boatpoker said:

After dragging in a tropical storm with three anchors out at Allans Pensacola Cay,I switched to tandem.

My tandem set up has been tested in two other tropical storms and works extremely well, easy to deploy an retrieve. Other than major storms ..... one bow anchor.

The only place I have used a Bahamian moor is in Beaufort NC where one is forced to because of the clutter of private moorings and that's what everybody else does. I have two badly mangled fingers caused by getting them caught while trying to unwind that twisted mess.

Click to expand...

Poker,
Looks to me like your "tandem" anchor settup is using the secondary anchor as a monster Kellet. That should go a long way to solve the scope and catenary shortcommings. How does the secondary anchor stay on, with or by the line/chain? Seems to me it would pull the line/chain over the primary rode and head for the bottom .... doing little good. With enough working around and time you'd end up w two rodes both originating very near the bow.

But perhaps the secondary anchor is attached .. not just looped over the primary rode?

Delfin wrote;
The biggest, baddest anchor you can carry, chain to match and a proper snub line.

OMG I got nonea doze ... I'm gonna die .......

Dougcole said:

Man, I wouldn't want to ride out a Tropical Strom at Allen's....the holding there is really bad other than a few deep sand spots, and there is very little westerly protection. The dragging may have been a result of where you were anchored rather than your set up.

In 10 years of cruising the Bahamas I've only drug twice after I got the anchor (I thought) well set. Both times were at Allen's Pensacola.

Click to expand...

Forecast wind direction and speed was completely wrong, I was trapped.
12hrs at the wheel with the throttle on.

Nomad Willy said:

Poker,
Looks to me like your "tandem" anchor settup is using the secondary anchor as a monster Kellet. That should go a long way to solve the scope and catenary shortcommings. How does the secondary anchor stay on, with or by the line/chain? Seems to me it would pull the line/chain over the primary rode and head for the bottom .... doing little good. With enough working around and time you'd end up w two rodes both originating very near the bow.

But perhaps the secondary anchor is attached .. not just looped over the primary rode?

Click to expand...

the second anchor has a giant (3/4" thick, stainless steel) carabiner that simply clips over the primary rode and slides freely. This was actually on my previous boat but I am now searching for another huge carabiner to do the same setup on Dirt Free

With all these anchoring techniques, it seems we are trying to juggle 3 fundamental variables:

1) Swing space

2) Boat's attitude to the seas and weather

3) Ease of deployment and retrieval

A single anchor consumes the most swing space, but naturally aligns with the seas and weather, and is the easiest to deploy and retrieve. So unless you are space-limited, this is the best choice, and unsurprisingly the most popular.

Bahamian mooring provides tight control on swing space, yet still allows the boat to self-align to the seas and weather. But this comes with significantly more complicated deployment and retrieval, and more complicated rigging to ensure the lines don't hang up on the more aft parts of the boat.

The various forms of bow and stern anchoring (med moored, bow and stern anchors, stern tied to a shore line, etc.) tightly control swing space, but provide no self-alignment of the boat to seas and weather. Whatever attitude the boat takes when anchored is what you get regardless of what the seas and weather do. And they too are significantly more complicated to deploy and retrieve than a single anchor.

So it seems to all come down to whether or not you need to control your swing space, and what you are willing and able to do to accomplish that.