Anchor buoy

Anchor buoys are more trouble than they are worth 99% of the time so IMO to spend a lot of money on a high-tech version is wasted. We carry a made up weighted line with small buoy attached and labelled Anchor Buoy Do Not Pick Up! in both English and French but use it very very infrequently. In practice in the last 10 years I can remember it being of use once and deployed maybe three times and we are frequent anchorers. We did one time over that period pick up an old mooring ground chain when we were not using a trip line but managed to get clear anyway, albeit not as easily. But in terms of cost per outing the high-tech version would work out expensive!
 
Read a report of a yachtsman who caught his anchor buoy line with his propeller in the middle of the night as he swung on the tide dragging his anchor. Wound the line around the prop as he tried to motor away. Single handed, the life boat arrived just before he hit the rocks. This happened around the Scillies.
 
I think any complication such as a tripping line and buoy are more likely to hinder than help the process of anchoring. I'd rather spend the money on a tripping hook to get out of difficulties on the very rare event of a fouled anchor.
 
Another "Must-Have" invention designed to empty Yotties Pocket ....

A plastic pop bottle and a length of lightish line (capable of lifting anchor weight) is good enough.

If you are worried about too much slack line ... have it doubled through the anchor and back up to bottle. Set all anchor etc. with plenty of line on it ... Once anchor set and all fine .... pop over with dinghy to your "buoy" and then adjust the doubled line to have enough length incl. any rise of tide etc. expected. Rest is looped and tied of to bottle.
(A 5 ltr square plastic can does a good job as well....)

Total cost about a fiver for the rope ...
 
Never used one myself - sometimes wished I had - but reading this thread and previous thoughts, suggest using something that does not look like a buoy - sbc's pop bottle or equivalent - so nobody could possibly mistake it for a mooring.
 
An anchor bouy is one of those things that sounds like a nice idea, looks good in the Dick Everitt drawings, but is a total pain in the A** in practice. We use the pop bottle version, which is effective but does not stop it getting wound around things. Worst case in recent memory was off Muros in Spain when we were anchoring in a spot where the pilot book advised setting a trip line because of possible foul ground. The tide turned, the breeze got up and the trip line fouled, shortened up and tripped the CQR. It took a bit of sorting.
 
Surely if trip line shortened and tripped the anchor - the buoy is then far too big ... I would advise only a buoy buoyant enough to carry the line weight to the anchor ... not the anchor weight + force to trip it.

A 5 ltr plastic can would be max I would ever use ... and then you only have 5kgs ~ buoyancy ..... still remarkably forceful - just try holding that under .....
 
I've never tried it but I've seen it suggested in a book that, instead of using a buoy, the trip line is brought back on board and belayed there.

Anyone here tried it? Presumably you would have to temporarily take up the slack on the tripping line when the tide turns to prevent it fouling your own anchor, or some other obstruction?
 
Re: Anchor buoy .. slack line ...

Of course the other suggestion - by another post - of the weighted line going from anchor up to buoy and then back into water .... Buoy can then rise and fall with tide ... weighted line keeping it relatively above the anchor.....

Still falls to a 5 ltr plastic can ... has built in handle to pass the line through etc.
 
Re: Anchor buoy .. slack line ...

In the Med we get lotsof situations where someone lays their anchor chain over yours while mooring bows/stern to . . . a tripping line comes in useful here. As to method . . .

Usually the anchor will be in 5m to 7m. So I attach 4m of floating line to the tripping eye of the anchor, with a nice big bowline occupying the upper segment - such that the top of the loop is typically 3m below surface.

Two options to clear the line. Either swim out and attach a further length to the bowline. Or pull the anchor and offending chain up far enough to catch the trip line with a boat hook, then trip it. Avoids floating lines and buoys which people think are moorings . . . but v cold in UK for the swimming solution!
 
My anchor trip bouy, 75mm by 150mm on 6 mm line loop, is just metre above the crown of the anchor.

In the event of fouling some thing, if it cannot be winched near enough to get a boat hook on it, at least it is easy for me or a diver to find it and get something through the loop. [= Tim's Tiny Trip Tip - Sailing Today]

It also aids anchoring by making sure my Oceane is facing the right way when I go astern.
 
imho, an anchor buoy is not used so that you can find your own anchor - presumably you know where your anchor is - it's to indicate where your anchor is to anyone who would otherwise anchor on top of it. sbc's solution seems more than adequate.
 
Re: Anchor buoy .... reasons for

Anchor buoys are ideally for 2 reasons :

a) In event of loss of anchor through getting lodged and you slipping - you can return to exact spot and find it easily.

b) To provide a second attachment that may in event of getting caught may give different pull to dis-lodge and recover anchor.

The reported use to mark anchor for others to know it's there is IMHO not real ... how many pot markers, pop bottles, cans etc. do you see in water ... they are usually reagrded as either a pot marker or someones misguided thoughts on sea being their wastebin.

IMHO of course !
 
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