Average anchoring depth

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tbtapper

tbtapper

Veteran Member
Joined
Jul 25, 2017
Messages
49
Location
USA
Vessel Name
Lady Maria
Vessel Make
1987 CT 35 Sundeck
Just looking for a rough idea what depth folks tend to anchor in “on average”.

Thanks

Lady Maria
 
This is getting into comfort zone stuff too so add that in with your eval.

I started typing then realized 100 anchoring situations might have 100 different answers because of so many "what ifs"

My usual depth for the ACIW from Jersey to Florida is about 7 feet at the lowest expected water (4 foot draft). I tend to tuck in small , shallow spots....but many other factors will change that.

Plus my personal limit is about 25 knots of wind. More or probable thunderstorms and I look for a marina, free dock or well maintained mooring field.
 
Like psneeld, I tend to look for protected areas to avoid wind and waves. I would guess that in my cruising of the East coast, 90% of the time I'm anchored in 10' or less with my 4.5' draft. Doing the Great Loop, 90% of the time 20' or less and 50% of the time 10' or less. There was one time on the Loop where I anchored in 30' to ride out the remnants of a tropical storm, and another time when I had to anchor in 40' to avoid the rocky shoreline around an island.

Ted
 
I'd shoot for less than 10feet, often as little as 5, plus allowance for tide. And little issue having that for the majority of the loop.
 
For the west coast boating we did, 30-40’ was luxuriously shallow. Most was 60-100’. It took a lot of getting used to after east coast boating.
 
I like to be close to the beach, sometimes too close. I shoot for about 10 ft. to give some allowance for tidal swings, wind, etc. For deep water anchoring in the Islands, I had the boat specially rigged with 400 ft. of rode.
 
A rough average in SE Alaska is around 50', although it can easily be more and in some spots less. Depends somewhat on the size of your boat and its swing radius, and how much lee cover you're looking for.
 
Usually in less than 10' between Toronto and Bahamas. In this photo we are anchored in 2' of water (low tide) with a 3'8" draft in Cape May in a very, very soft bottom. We have done this a number of times for various reasons.
 

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On the river where I am cruising we anchor most of the time in 9 feet or less. I am drafting 2'8" so try to keep 3 to 6 feet under the boat as we can find some wood logs in the bottom.

L
 
We anchor often around sand bars for swimming so we are often in about 5 ft of water with no tide to worry about. Other times we are always in water with depths of 20 ft or less.
 
On our trips to B.C. and SE Alaska, we sought anchorages from 40-60 feet with 3X rode. The minimum was 18 feet in False Creek, Vancouver B.C. and the max was 120 feet north of Ketchikan, Alaska.
 
Me too--in the PNW roughly 60 to 80'.
Sometimes less and occasionally more.
 
Being a river boater we don't worry about tides, and the current is always going the same direction. We're usually anchoring in depths from about 16' to 40'
 
Actually a lot of my anchoring is done in 20 to 30 fathoms as I anchor mostly for tuna fishing, I don't think this will help you much though.
 
Here the tidal range can be 25' or more, depending on your local, so it's that much plus whatever you are comfortable having under the keel. Most often I try to find 40-60', being close to shore sometimes has terrible bugs, then I anchor further offshore hoping for some breeze to intervene on my behalf. 100-120' would be more normal under those circumstances.
 
So far, 7-10' with 4.5' draft as close to the beach as possible to take the dog for visits. I have plenty of chain rode to go deeper, but just haven't had a requirement to.
 
We have been boating in Southeast Alaska for the last 20 years and generally our anchoring depth is between 30 and 60 feet. We incorporate 150 of chain attached to 150 of braided rode. This combination has worked well for us. One must keep in mind that tide ranges in Southeast Alaska are significant in relation to the East Coast.
 
Gbinterim said:
We have been boating in Southeast Alaska for the last 20 years and generally our anchoring depth is between 30 and 60 feet. We incorporate 150 of chain attached to 150 of braided rode. This combination has worked well for us. One must keep in mind that tide ranges in Southeast Alaska are significant in relation to the East Coast.
Click to expand...

You mean like the twenty feet we have here in Eastport and thirty over in St John NB?
 
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boatpoker said:
Usually in less than 10' between Toronto and Bahamas. In this photo we are anchored in 2' of water (low tide) with a 3'8" draft in Cape May in a very, very soft bottom. We have done this a number of times for various reasons.
Click to expand...


Yes very shallow over there by the Yacht Club. BTW, do not trust any mooring balls in CM harbor. They are just cinder blocks and engine blocks. The east side of the CG base is deeper (8-10 ft) but more boat traffic.


For the OP, 5-10 ft is my target. I will move around until I find it.
 
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This really made me think. I draw 5 feet so that is the minimum at very low tide and I’ve rested on the keel a few times. If I know the area well I’m happy with a few feet under the keel but I’m happiest with about five feet under the keel at all times. Both anchors have 300 feet of 3/8 chain. For some reason I don’t anchor in deep water unless to fish and then about 300 feet is my limit (with my other boat).
 
Here in New England I typically anchor in 25-30' but sometimes as deep as 60.

Ken
 
Apparently this is determined by where you are located.
Should I get to the east coast, I will adopt east coast anchoring techniques. While I remain on the west coast, I will continue with west coast techniques.
 
Yes location is very important to this conversation.

I carry 250' of chain, backed by 150' of 3 strand. This gives me enough to anchor in 50' of water at 7:1 (7' from waterline to bow roller).

In reality, in Florida and the southern east coast of US plus Bahamas, we've never anchored in more than 30' of water. I'd guess 10' is our average.
 
Depends on the tide. In the PNW and Alaska, some places I go have 40' or more tides. So I have to know the state of the tide and pick a place deep enough for the boat draft at the lowest tide, and enough chain out to have a proper scope at high tide. If I use a stern anchor then I have to figure that in, too. In Alaska the reporting tide stations are far apart and too few. Often the the tide where I want to anchor is substantially different by many feet than the closest tide station.
 
Wow, clearly west coast and PNW are a different situation totally compared to my east coast location.
The reason for my question was I’m thinking of reversing the usual hybrid anchor line set up and going with 100 feet of chain with a 100+ feet of line. In my cruising area this would pretty much give me all chain out typically with the ease of windlass control and the line back up for the unforeseen scenario where more scope was needed.
I would not have the unwanted extra weight of unnecessary unused chain scope to worry with.
Thanks for the responses

Travers
Lady Maria
 
tbtapper said:
Wow, clearly west coast and PNW are a different situation totally compared to my east coast location.
The reason for my question was I’m thinking of reversing the usual hybrid anchor line set up and going with 100 feet of chain with a 100+ feet of line. In my cruising area this would pretty much give me all chain out typically with the ease of windlass control and the line back up for the unforeseen scenario where more scope was needed.
I would not have the unwanted extra weight of unnecessary unused chain scope to worry with.
Thanks for the responses

Travers
Lady Maria
Click to expand...
Your direction is what I too am thinking...seems to be close to what many experienced cruisers think too.


More than 100 feet of chain for smaller boats can be problematic for weight and locker size...and for many East Coast cruisers not often used so other options deemed good for them often replace that single chunk of chain.
 
psneeld said:
Your direction is what I too am thinking...seems to be close to what many experienced cruisers think too.


More than 100 feet of chain for smaller boats can be problematic for weight and locker size...and for many East Coast cruisers not often used so other options deemed good for them often replace that single chunk of chain.
Click to expand...

You got that right, my diminutive 26' foot boat would respond poorly to 300 ft. of 5/16 chain in the locker, that's over 300 lbs.. There are other anchoring techniques that obviate the need for all chain rode.
 
tbtapper said:
Wow, clearly west coast and PNW are a different situation totally compared to my east coast location.
The reason for my question was I’m thinking of reversing the usual hybrid anchor line set up and going with 100 feet of chain with a 100+ feet of line. In my cruising area this would pretty much give me all chain out typically with the ease of windlass control and the line back up for the unforeseen scenario where more scope was needed.
I would not have the unwanted extra weight of unnecessary unused chain scope to worry with.
Thanks for the responses

Travers
Lady Maria
Click to expand...

For what you want to accomplish, I think 100' of chain is a good length choice. I would want more line. You would probably never use all of the 200' in total, but you never know when an engine quits, or the steering fails. The weight and cost for 200' of line in the scheme of things is pretty small.

Ted
 
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