twistedtree
Guru
I do it all the time. I usually set up a VRM just touching the closest objects so I can tell at a glance if and how we have moved. And if the wether is unsettled, I leave it on all night so I can check it at any time.
Anchor Alarm
- Thread starter menzies
- Start date
The friendliest place on the web for anyone who enjoys boating.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
If you have answers, please help by responding to the unanswered posts.
- Status
I do it all the time. I usually set up a VRM just touching the closest objects so I can tell at a glance if and how we have moved. And if the wether is unsettled, I leave it on all night so I can check it at any time.
- Joined
- Jun 25, 2008
- Messages
- 10,104
- Location
- Australia
- Vessel Name
- Now boatless - sold 6/2018
- Vessel Make
- Had a Clipper (CHB) 34
Fletch, I'm with you. We might be all out on a limb, but reading all the above has made me tired. I just set the anchor, and get to sleep. Admittedly, I arouse very easily to any change in noise of movement of the boat of significance, and let's face it a turn in the weather enough to cause a drag is hardly going to steal silently up on you. I bet all these nervous folk who set these alarms are up and looking most times well before it ever goes off - come on guys - admit it.
'course, I will resist the temptation to add I'm using a Sarca - oh damn, it slipped out..! Sorry.
Nope, it doesn't happen that way. I've had the alarm go off to wake me. I get weekly emails from boaters telling me how DragQueen saved their boat by waking them at night.
Look, there are all types of risks and care that each of us takes with our own boats and cruising. I'm sure there are some people who never check their engine oil level, turn off thru hulls, or test their float switches. Perhaps those of us who do those things are wasting our time.
...or maybe not
psneeld
Guru
After 36 years of jobs that quite often woke me up, had me up or had me on the alert...
I wont anchor if I have to worry about it.
In times where anchoring isn't 99% predictable, the alarm is enough to let me sleep pretty soundly. That doesn't preclude the times that I do normally wake up and peek outside for one of my visual clues.
I wont anchor if I have to worry about it.
In times where anchoring isn't 99% predictable, the alarm is enough to let me sleep pretty soundly. That doesn't preclude the times that I do normally wake up and peek outside for one of my visual clues.
Bay Pelican
Moderator Emeritus
Haven't had an anchor drag at night in 17 years of cruising. Still sleep better with alarm as anything can happen. And I don't normally get up to check if we are dragging.
In my opinion, having anchor'd out constantly, over many years, and many boats, this is a non issue.
While factually correct, the whole article is a non issue from a practical sense.
When you set your anchor alarm, it draws a circle around the boat. If the boat goes outside that circle the alarm goes off. Pretty simple.
If you set an alarm circle to the proper "size" then the boat will not go out of the circle and you'll not get false alarms.
You do not determine the "swing circle" size using a calculator, you determine the boats "swing circle" through experience. Really a trial and error process. I have never seen an anchorage where the 40' from my GPS to my bow makes enough difference to be notable from a practical sense.
In my opinion, little email articles like the OP mentioned are advertising, pure and simple. Send out an "article" to your email list to keep people excited about your product. Not a bad concept BTW. Everybody thinks you're company is "helpful" when in reality you are just advertising. Then you can get a bunch of TF members chatting about it online, and yippee, your customer base grows, and you make more $$$ Woo Hoo!!!
That pretty much says it for me as well. Sure, I may get a false alarm if I set the circle too small but I just get up, make sure I'm not drifting and make the circle bigger. I boat to relax, not to make things more complicated than they need to be.
So you set the anchor alarm with 75' of chain out at 130' - which is a pretty big over-estimate. Now given your GPS is 40' back from the bow, you're woken up in total darkness at 2 am. Your reliable anchor alarm/position indicator shows that you're 132' back from your anchor. Then 134'...136'...150'...and you are physically drifting backwards.
So now what do you do?
The wrong answer is to start your engine(s) and stop the drift. That's because you haven't dragged 1 inch. You're getting fooled by the GPS/bow double error. You're not dragging until at least 155'.
Reading and really understanding the little advertising piece might allow you to set the alarm properly in the first place because, yes, you would have started your engines in this scenario had it happened like this.
ksanders
Moderator Emeritus
You are in my opinion over complicating things.
Make the circle big enough that you dont drift out of it. Who cares if its overly big? Between the GPS and a good depth alarm I've been safe, having spent literally hundreds of nights on the hook in several boats of various sizes.
Sometimes we need to leave our slide rules at home and just enjoy our boats.
Your article is not a bad article, it just seems to be intended for folks that spend more time discussing anchoring out than actually doing it.
caltexflanc
Guru
Not to mention your plotter track will tell you at a glance what's happening.
markpierce
Master and Commander
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2010
- Messages
- 12,557
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Carquinez Coot
- Vessel Make
- penultimate Seahorse Marine Coot hull #6
With strong tidal currents switching 180-degrees several times a day, it's difficult not to check the GPS periodically to see if I'm no longer in the "pocket" even if my claw anchor has never failed.
Last edited:
Well that's the whole point - how do you know how big to make the circle? Why not just make it 500', right?
And if it's a crowded anchorage and you want to make it as tight as possible, how tight is too tight?
So you pull in, anchor, and on the first tide switch, it goes off. What good is your plotter track going to do? Perhaps it's been too long since you dropped an anchor.
markpierce
Master and Commander
- Joined
- Sep 25, 2010
- Messages
- 12,557
- Location
- USA
- Vessel Name
- Carquinez Coot
- Vessel Make
- penultimate Seahorse Marine Coot hull #6
About as close as I'd want to "park" next to another boat. (They're farther apart than it looks.)
MYTraveler
Guru
My plot will settle down to an arc. From that arc, it is easy to visualize the circle within which my boat will always be if my anchor does not drag.
Ahh...finally...the arc (circle)...
And that's the subject of next week's newsletter. Because it will never be a circle on your display even though you think it looks like one (or should be one).
Capt.Bill11
Guru
So much for not getting defensive.
Seriously Jeffery, you need to take a minute after you write a post, reread it a couple of times and think how it's going to come off.
Unlike a lots of us you are are after all the face of a commercial venture. And darn good one IMO.
I say this because, again IMO, that last sentence was unnecessary in the context of the discussion you are having with, or at least in front of, customers.
And yes, I understand you and George have an adversarial history.
So much for not getting defensive.
Seriously Jeffery, you need to take a minute after you write a post, reread it a couple of times and think how it's going to come off.
Thanks for the advice. I'm happy with my responses. I'm honestly not looking for any reputation management help.
So what? If you don't like my attitude, tone, or use of punctuation, and that effect whether or how you use ActiveCaptain...then don't use it. The whole point of ActiveCaptain is that it's not about me. It's about the community and what they provide.
George is always quick to come out against whatever position I take. I just don't give a lot of what he says much value since he doesn't have a trawler and hasn't done things like drop an anchor in years. There is nothing wrong with challenging the authority with which people make exclamations here. Many are experts on keyboard cruising...not so much the water type.
Capt.Bill11
Guru
MYTraveler
Guru
I am not looking for a circle. The arc is enough for me to accurately visualize a circle that will inscribe the plot of anywhere I might swing without dragging. Somehow that has worked for me over the years.
There can't be any serious debate about this, so what is the point of arguing about the value of an arc (if not advertising)?
Last edited:
Rossland
Senior Member
If I'm receiving valuable, useable information, I don't care if it's advertising or not. Some advertising is informative, some is deceptive. I believe I can discern the difference. You can only fool me once, and then you go to my SPAM folder. I'm in control, the end game is mine.
I do not understand why there is a knee jerk reaction whenever Jeffery posts or emails something. And, if advertising generates revenue that's fine with me. I wish I had developed AC. I think Jeff and Karen deserve all they worked so hard to achieve. Isn't that the American way?
My sentiments exactly Howard. Thank you Jeff for writing Drag Queen and making it available for free.
ksanders
Moderator Emeritus
I find that .04NM which is a 243' circle works almost all the time.
Thats not mathmaticvally derived, its experience derived.
I do not care wether that works out in theory, it works in real life.
And... There is no way I would use an APP, anybodies app for this function. Thats what my Furuno navigation system is for.
BruceK
Moderator Emeritus
- Joined
- Oct 31, 2011
- Messages
- 13,347
- Vessel Name
- Sojourn
- Vessel Make
- Integrity 386
I apologize. I mentioned DQ. AC/JS was instantly attracted. How was I to know it was their app. It seemed a cute name for a potentially useful device. Sorry.
Capt.Bill11
Guru
Envy of?
The record shows that your first post in the thread was #50. My first post was #8. Little about this discussion was from your mention of DragQueen - it was about the original posting which was a copy of a newsletter item that I previously wrote.
Jeffery, you would probably be more credible trying to prove your point by pointing out where you are right than just trying to prove someone else is wrong.
My boat is only 28' long. The only way I can get my GPS antenna 40' from my bow is to set it out behind the boat in the dinghy and I see little point in doing that.
I'm not saying your article (or advertisement) is incorrect, I'm saying that I don't see the need to get involved in trigonometry and calculations just to anchor my boat. Anchoring is as much art as it is science. Sure, it's science that makes it work and it's important to understand that science, but much like playing a violin, it's an art to put that science to work.
The procedure you replied to works for me and it's been working for me since I've had my boat. It may not be technically the "best", but anchoring a boat for the night is one of those things where "good enough" is all that's needed. If the boat is still where you anchored it the next morning, mission accomplished.
And if you have two flag poles a mile apart and they are perfectly vertical, they won't be parallel because of the curvature of the earth.
We are anchoring boats, not sending satellites to the moon. Some things are to trivial to worry about for anchoring a boat. Just the rise and fall of the water throws off our calculations unless we're anchoring on a farm pond.
I couldn't have picked two more appropriate words - mission accomplished.
Fletcher500
Guru
stanfromhell
Senior Member
Like many topics on this formum, a well meaning post has turned into a pissing match. Grow up you guys!
- Status
