Dangling anchor on a mooring

We are currently on a mooring here in Hadleys Harbour. I have noticed that an few boats have their anchor dangling in the water even though they are also tied to a mooring. I have never seen this before and I cannot imagine the reason for this action. Enlighten me please.

Perhaps they are running the mooring line through the anchor chute, so trying to avoid chafe? Lovely spot there by the way, wish we were there to observe first hand.

Had not thought of that

caltexflanc said:

Perhaps they are running the mooring line through the anchor chute, so trying to avoid chafe? Lovely spot there by the way, wish we were there to observe first hand.

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Yup that is the best idea. The boats that are sanglikg are indeed sail boats.

In ships we lower the anchor and support it with tackle while breaking the chain and connecting that to the mooring so the windlass has control of the mooring.

Makes me wish we'd taken this picture from another angle.

I take it that they are using rode and not chain - otherwise they would just be creating noise for themselves during the night.

caltexflanc said:

Perhaps they are running the mooring line through the anchor chute, so trying to avoid chafe? Lovely spot there by the way, wish we were there to observe first hand.

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This is something I see frequently. Either they are using the samson post, or they don't want to run the mooring to a single cleat and have the boat yaw to one side.

Some boats, like mine, if you put a single mooring line on one cleat, as the boat wags it catches the anchor and makes it clang like a bell. I need to use a bridle on a mooring.

What we do is take 2 boat lines. We affix the loops ends to the cleats on the bow on each side. We then run the bitter end through the loop on the mooring pendant and back to the cleat that line started from. When we do this on both sides, it creates a bridle. Because each line goes through the mooring loop and back to the originating cleat, there is no 'sawing' and therefore no line chaffe.

This also allows you to easily drop the mooring. Release the cleat hitch and pull back the bitter on one side, then the other and you've dropped the mooring pendant with no effort.

I do this for the exact reason mentioned. I can bring the mooring line up thru my bow pulpit to my center cleat. If there's a lot of swinging it can also help keep the mooring line from snagging the anchor in the pulpit and making a god awful clunk, usually at 2AM.

+1 on Shrew’s strategy. This works very well for us, especially on the departure.

For me it depends on the length of the mooring pendant. Short pendants pose no trouble with my anchor while a long pendant will chafe against it (Manson Supreme) while hangin in its anchor’s pulpit. And I have to be careful if I lower the anchor. It must be a couple of feet into the water or I frequently have the pendant wrap around the anchor’s chain when the water is slack.

Those are my reasons anyway. Most likely others have found the same situations as me and lower theirs accordingly.

In areas with strong onshore breezes and questionable/unknown moorings, I’ll hang
The anchor just a few,feet off the bottom as a backup.
If the boat were to break free, blowing towards shore, the depth would soon be shallow enough for the anchor to snag.

kapnd said:

In areas with strong onshore breezes and questionable/unknown moorings, I’ll hang
The anchor just a few,feet off the bottom as a backup.
If the boat were to break free, blowing towards shore, the depth would soon be shallow enough for the anchor to snag.

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The potential issue with this is when it gets confused, or if you get wind opposing tide. I've frequently seen a boat lying right on the mooring ball. A few spins and you could potentially foul the anchor in the mooring chain.

Sure it's probably never occurred, but I've seen many examples of things that occur where the owner says "But I don't understand, I've done it this way for years". To each his own, but I certainly wouldn't do this. Unknown or untrusted mooring is no place to be in bad weather. If this is the case, I trust my ground tackle and would find a spot to anchor instead.

Hadley Harbor is about as protected a place as you can get.

caltexflanc said:

Hadley Harbor is about as protected a place as you can get.

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Yes indeed. We were there last week and spent 3 days on one of the available moorings. And yes, I lowered my anchor after attaching the mooring’s pendant. BUT I later noticed that the pendant became wrapped around my chain during a slack period which I immediately corrected AND lowered my anchor an additional couple of feet or so. There are good reasons to lower one’s anchor. There are no charges for Hadley’s moorings and I wanted to leave things the way I found them.