Anchor Buddy for dinghy?

Anyone using the smaller Anchor Buddy to hold a dinghy off the beach? Success? Recommendations?

In the PNW and Panama we used it a lot with good success. My only complaint is the hardware that the Anchor Buddy, we have, came with rusted within a month. We used it with a 13.5' rib and a 10.5 rib and the dinghy never ended up on the rocks when the tide went out. We have also used it at dinghy docks to keep the dinghy away from the dock. For $25, it's a handy tool to have.

Just today in my Active Captain Newsletter:

Deploying:

https://youtu.be/_TpWMg3Xpig

And retrieving:

https://youtu.be/gI2zFmppy4o

All you need is a length of retrieval line. So simple (and inexpensive) , it's silly!

Saw someone using the Active Captain method last Saturday in the bay we were in. The only departure from the Active Captain process is that we can have tidal ranges to 12 feet or so here. So the anchor line between the dinghy and the anchor needs to take that into account, and the trip/retrieval line needs to be long enough to allow the dinghy to be shoved out quite aways if the bottom slope is shallow.

I have a small boat anchoring device that's basically a very big rubber band.


Anchor the boat and power in to the beach holding onto a trip line and the big rubber band. Get off and let the rubber band pull the boat back out. Use a trip line to retrieve.

Have one and love it.

To avoid any confusion, the device in the first vid is an anchor, not the NZ made Anchor Buddy, an anchoring enhancement catenary type weight which slides down the rode. I did not view the second one.

Here's the Anchor Buddy that I believe the OP is asking about. It works like the system manyboats described.


Not to be confused by the NZ Anchor Buddy kellet.

While I've never tried the following method of keeping a dinghy off a beach, it looks like the cats meow for shallow angled beaches with 20 foot plus tides and you want to go for an all day hike;

Anchor-Buoy-Pulley System for Anchoring Boats From Shore

Ingenious! Thanks.

I saw that post and will give it a try. Thanks.

Waterford, if you get it, please let us know what you think of it. I have a Whaler I'm going to tow around Puget Sound and up into the Canadian islands. That might be a good thing to have on board.

The anchor-buoy-pulley system is commonly used in the fishing harbors of Great Britain where the tidal range is huge and the bottom slopes are very shallow. There, because the boats are much larger than dinghies, the system uses actual blocks and as anchor points large rings embedded in the harbor sea wall and breakwater.

I use a similar system but simpler.

First I attach a longish line to the bow of the dink.

I take the other end of that line and run it through the last free link in the anchor chain (the link will act, in effect, as the pulley in the above mentioned systems).

I then attach that end of the rope to the stern of the dink.

I then step on to land, with line in my hand, and adjust the position of the dink by pulling on the end of the line ultimately attached to the bow. I then tie-off the loop of the line to a tree or a rock.


Diapositiva1.jpg

Xlantic said:

I use a similar system but simpler.

Click to expand...

That's a good system, Xlantic. I'm going to remember that one.

My concern with any of these systems is that some curious kid or adult sees a line tied to something and not relating it to an anchor system unites it and pulls the line to see what's on the other end. Now you've got a potential problem. I guess nothing's perfect.

hmason you were a curious kid .. Right?

Xlantic's system is similar to what's universally used in Alaska. It's called an outhaul. Pullies are used at both ends much like a clothesline. Works very well if there's not too much Kelp. Thousands of them are used to acess cabins where there are no roads. Many Alaskan's go to work from their cabins in skiffs tethered to outhauls.

Many(anchors)boats, I'm still a curious kid.