Adding a second anchor to the main anchor.

rigpigpaul

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Hi All, I was in a small bay a couple of days ago in high winds. The bottom was thick weed and it took several attempts for the anchor to dig in. All the charter boats in the area use a homemade grapnel type anchor. My idea is to attach a grapnel anchor with 3 metres of chain to my main anchor when I am in an anchorage full of weed. Hopefully it would dig in and be easy to retrieve. All advice welcome.
RPP
 

noelex

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I have not used tandem anchoring a great deal, but most that have tried the technique more extensively don't seem particularly impressed.

This was one example I managed to photograph. The cruiser used a combination of a Rocna and a Brittany. Unfortunately, they used the wrong attachment point on the Rocna, but you can see the Rocna is acting just as a dead weight or Kellet. In gusts the Rocna was well above the seabed so obviously had no hope of setting:

img_2175168_0_b76859f3159d892b19d2638c910cce24.jpeg



img_2175009_0_bd7de6180d3e4be0ad69091992997087.jpeg
 

sailaboutvic

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In my early days as a full time crusier we try it a few time just to see how well it work , every time ,
one was in the other out ,
The oy advantage I could see was if the anchor drag them with two out it may slow you down to give one a chance to set.
If you going to use two anchors them use them on two scope in a V
 

billskip

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In shallow water, weed poor holding, I dropped my main anchor to the bottom and then attached a danforth to the chain and dropped that to act as main anchor, I never had any trouble with drag. There is a bay in Dokos near Hydra in Greece, very poor holding, no problem with my danforth on the chain.
 

geem

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Thanks for all of your advice. The bay where the secondary anchor will be used is 15 metres deep so plenty of chain will be deployed so the main anchor should not lift.
RPP
Unless it's blowing hard then all your chain will be off the bottom and one of your anchors.
 
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billskip

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Unless it's blowing hard then all your chain will be off the bottom and one off your anchors.
May well be,but the main anchor theoretically , hopefully practically will have buried itself secure.
It's not uncommon to use an angel on an anchor chain as you probably know, the system shown in the photos is just wrong I think
 

sailaboutvic

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If I may say using an Angel isn't common , I go as far to say I not seen one in use for a very long time .
Talking years .
If only that if you needed to get your anchor up quickly it's a other item to deal with .
The NG anchors what ever type if set and a enough scope it will hold well .

We sit out five storm this year winds over 45 kts was the less one , one snap our 14mm snubber which was in a bridle , two 14mm rope , an angel would had been as good as a chocolate tea pot I'm sorry to say to hold the chain down .

But hey if people want to use one that's up to them .

Tandem anchor ( one anchor in front of another with a small chain in-between)
As I said in the other posting never worked for us .
The most you can hope for is if you drag the weight of the second anchor will help to slow you down given a chance for one of the anchors to re set .
I'm not going to claim I'm some kind of anchor expert although we live on our hook for a good nine months every year for good 30 years what ever the weather is , but for us the few times I have layout a second anchor it's been on another line in a V format .
That works .
 

sailaboutvic

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To the OP my advise is if you can avoid weed do so especially deep weed .
Unless you can cut through the weed there no way of knowing if the anchor is just handing onto a root , in which case even if to go astern at 2200 rpm which in weed is what we do with a 56hp engine there no way of telling .
It's not the Frist time we sat out a storm when it felt we was holding then after hours we start to drag only to Haul up and find a root on the anchor .
Actually the only time we have drag is because of weed .
 

Bilgediver

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We used to shackle the Fortress onto the Harbourfast (CQR lookalike) in strong winds, cured the dragging but a pain to retrieve.


This is how oil rigs anchor sometimes using a piggy bank anchor. The easiest way to recover is to put a tripping line on the piggy back and lift it to the surface and disconnect if water depth etc allow. Then recover the main anchor and piggy line (non floating) or use the piggy line as a tripping line.
 
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Graham376

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This is how oil rigs anchor sometimes using a piggy bank anchor. The easiest way to recover is to put a tripping line on the piggy back and lift it to the surface and disconnect if water depth etc allow. Then recover the main anchor and piggy line (non floating) or use the piggy line as a tripping line.

We've only used trip line twice around here and both times locals tried to moor dayboats to the buoy.:mad:
 

sailaboutvic

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If I may add something to this post which I'm suprise people like Noelex and Geem who I know both will anchor in heavy weather as my self having mention.

The only time anyone would consider setting a second anchor is in very strong winds ,
( In light wind because of weeds ) forget it move on.

now just imagine you set two anchors in tendon as this is what's being talked about ,
And the condition got so bad you had to leave the anchorages , what's going to happen when you have one anchor still dangling in mid air which at some point you will while the boat is pitching wildly and seas wracking the anchor on the bow .

We had to escape such an anchorage a few weeks back so did four other boats , couple had nice chunk out of the gel retrieving one anchor ,
One boat didn't even get that far as his pitched the anchor ended coming over the stainless and landing on the deck.

Forget tandon anchors they look pretty in books in reality you wasting a good anchor where it could be used usefully in other ways .
 

newtothis

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I remember seeing some Skip Novak video of anchoring in deep South America where you can expect 50 kts on a calm night. He had one big old anchor and loads and loads and loads of chain.
If that didn't work, they seemed to park in a position where they could put out miles of rope to tie up the boat to four points ashore.
 

rib

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For what's its worth.. 2018 gusting 70 kts solo sailor cqr. Then deepth of water x3 then the danforth then the rest of chain 85 metres.. Didn't move... Couldn't say the same for four others... 2 with rocnas... But I don't know how much chain they put out or how they dug in. So no verdict made
 

BobnLesley

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...The only time anyone would consider setting a second anchor is in very strong winds ,

...imagine you set two anchors in tandem as this is what's being talked about ,And the condition got so bad you had to leave the anchorages , what's going to happen when you have one anchor still dangling in mid air which at some point you will while the boat is pitching wildly and seas wracking the anchor on the bow .

...Forget tandem anchors they look pretty in books in reality you wasting a good anchor.

This.

If you don't have faith in the anchor already at the end of your chain, then get yourself a bigger and/or different one, don't risk all with a second.
 

billskip

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This.

If you don't have faith in the anchor already at the end of your chain, then get yourself a bigger and/or different one, don't risk all with a second.
Maybe so, I think you should maybe advise the RYAthat their suggestions of application of an"angel" on the anchor will possibly give it a better holding.
Dont ask me for a link please, there are enough illustrations can be found on Google
 
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