Anchor: free drop or button down

[Jamesuk]

Hi ,

I admit to being a lemon in the past (not now) and using the button to drop an anchor but i soon realised the best way to enjoy the beers sooner was to free drop then take over with the button to fine tune.

Now i advise everyone to get a grip and give hubby/Wife back control at the helm.

What do you do, is it just a confidence/inexperienced safety concern?

Cheers

Flotilla crew on examination have lots of problems with anchoring because they are told to use the button. I tell a few and they go on to hve trouble free holding

 

[awol]

Depends on the anchor. What do you recommend?

 

[FWB]

If you free drop then you will bypass the Bluetooth chain counter link to your iPad

 

[Searush]

I always hand lower. I can see the rate & direction of boat movement by the chain where it enters the water. I can feel when the anchor touches the bottom so I can pause before letting the chain lie out as the boat slowly pays off. I can also see the chain markers as it touches the bottom & the chain pays out so I know when to cleat it off.

Doesn't often drag when you do it properly.

 

[snowleopard]

There is a risk with a free drop of dumping a load of chain on top of the anchor and fouling it. At the moment I have no choice because the down button has stopped working but my preference is for a controlled drop.

 

[A1Sailor]

I always hand lower. I can see the rate & direction of boat movement by the chain where it enters the water. I can feel when the anchor touches the bottom so I can pause before letting the chain lie out as the boat slowly pays off. I can also see the chain markers as it touches the bottom & the chain pays out so I know when to cleat it off.

Doesn't often drag when you do it properly.

+1
I don't have a windlass, so no button. Lower the anchor/chain hand over hand, then lay the chain along the seabed.
Simples.

 

[Tranona]

No one best way. Controlled drop has advantages when backing up to a quay as you can keep some control over the speed of the reverse. Free drop can result in a pile of chain and the boat yawing as it reverses. Best is good co-ordination between the helm and the anchor person to keep the rode running at the same speed as the reverse and slowing to slow the boat. Some do this by having a cockpit control allowing the helm to do both jobs.

Dropping anchor to swing to is different, particularly if there is a tide running or strong wind when freefall is preferred as the boat will move back, minimising the chance of chain piling up in a heap on the bottom.

 

[AndrewB]

I always hand lower. I can see the rate & direction of boat movement by the chain where it enters the water. I can feel when the anchor touches the bottom so I can pause before letting the chain lie out as the boat slowly pays off. I can also see the chain markers as it touches the bottom & the chain pays out so I know when to cleat it off.

Doesn't often drag when you do it properly.

+1. I reckon not only can you feel the anchor touch bottom, but also, with practice, whether the bottom is hard or soft. Much less likely to pile chain on top of the anchor this way.

Two drawbacks though: (i) the clutch on my last windlass was a little sticky even when released, made hard work of dragging out the chain by hand; (ii) stopping the chain and taking a quick turn on a cleat needed care - no place for bare feet or hands.

 

[nigel1]

Finding out that the cost of replacement brushes and brush holder was close to a 100 squid got me into the ha bit of dropping the anchor on the clutch

 

[Searush]

+1. I reckon not only can you feel the anchor touch bottom, but also, with practice, whether the bottom is hard or soft. Much less likely to pile chain on top of the anchor this way.

Two drawbacks though: (i) the clutch on my last windlass was a little sticky even when released, made hard work of dragging out the chain by hand; (ii) stopping the chain and taking a quick turn on a cleat needed care - no place for bare feet or hands.

Know the probable depth before you anchor & flake the chain before you arrive at the anchorage. If hand over handing, the chain never runs free & is never a hazard. Plus you can cleat it at the approx length you need before you start lowering if you have flaked it out first.

 

[NormanS]

I have never seen any point in using power to accomplish something which gravity can do better. Once you get the bow of the boat to where you want the anchor, you want it down immediately.

Check the depth before dropping, (obviously), and have the chain marked clearly, and then declutch to get the anchor on the bottom as quickly as possible. Then pay out, using the clutch / brake, as required as the boat drops back.

There are people here who talk about paying out chain, hand over hand. I sincerely hope that their boats are very small and their chains are light. Otherwise, a potentially dangerous practice, IMHO.

Also, I would never cleat a chain. It's asking for trouble. Far better to use a chain hook, or rolling hitch, or, as I do, use a slot that holds the chain.

 

[prv]

There is a risk with a free drop of dumping a load of chain on top of the anchor and fouling it. At the moment I have no choice because the down button has stopped working but my preference is for a controlled drop.

This seems to imply that a "free drop" consists of opening the brake and letting the chain fly out at will? KS has a manual windlass without a clutch, so I lower hand over hand now, but when I've used ones with clutches in the past I've always lowered the chain under control of the brake so that it stops when it hits the bottom, then let it out slowly in a line as we drop back. Powering down, at least on windlasses I've known, is fairly slow, with the result that you don't get the anchor on the ground where the skipper wanted it.

Maybe some windlasses have more of an on-off action to their clutches, rather than fine control?

For what it's worth, the chain on Stavros (with links the size of your head) gets let out the same way, with someone riding the big band brake on the windlass to keep it at the right speed.

Pete

 

[prv]

There are people here who talk about paying out chain, hand over hand. I sincerely hope that their boats are very small and their chains are light. Otherwise, a potentially dangerous practice, IMHO.

I've done it on boats up to about 36', which doesn't count as small as far as I'm concerned. I'd rather have had a windlass (especially when it came to getting it up again!) but I don't think there was anything dangerous about it.

Also, I would never cleat a chain. It's asking for trouble.

Agree, it does like to jam. I must have done it in the past, as I sailed on boats with nowhere else to secure the chain. But on KS I have a nice chunky samson post in the middle of the foredeck that I can take several turns round.

Pete

 

[Jamesuk]

There is a risk with a free drop of dumping a load of chain on top of the anchor and fouling it. At the moment I have no choice because the down button has stopped working but my preference is for a controlled drop.

Their is that risk, but as searush points out 'hand over hand' you 'feel' when it touches the bottom. The same can be said for using the clutch when the weight of the anchor is no longer pulling the chain out and actually on some boats depending on how clean and oiled up your windless is will actually stop paying out chain until the skipper begins to reverse (if he has not already)

The other point about free dropping the anchor is the skipper then knows exactly where the anchor hit the bottom so can apply what he has learnt at the rya about boat lengths and so forth. From time to time remotes can be unreliable with a loose connection (goes the same for the crew )))so dont pay out the chain as fast as expected ( how can a skipper plan for that) and before the skipper knows it he is stern to asking 'Lucy' to pull up and tension the chain but tension never comes on and she keeps pulling it up until it flicks up onto the bow because it didnt actually hit the bottom at 4 boat lengths it hit at 2 and bounced picking up weed and losing its gripping power.

For me the button is simply a fine tuning device and of course hauling it up. On Smaller fishing boats i pull up by hand flaking it as it comes up. Or the Small RIB.

NOTE: Just to clarify to call it 'free drop' is in reference to 'Clutch control lowering.' The fact i spin it out freely until the anchor hits the bottom and if its blowing 40 knots i keep letting it run free until i get to 70% roughly out, slowing it down by 100% then finally taking over with the remote for final tweeking. All in a controlled manner of course (all this is done while monitoring what the skipper is doing with the boat and using transits as a guide to how quickly we are moving astern there is losts of Nelsons conquests in the seas below last thing we want to do is to plow the seabed with a big anchor )

 

[AndrewB]

Know the probable depth before you anchor & flake the chain before you arrive at the anchorage. If hand over handing, the chain never runs free & is never a hazard. Plus you can cleat it at the approx length you need before you start lowering if you have flaked it out first.

Is this really practical? I'd always thought of flaking out chain preparatory to anchoring as something a text-book fantasy.

Having perhaps 60m of 10mm chain on the deck of a yacht seemed quite impractical to me. It covers a large area of deck, where it leaves a trail of ground-in dirt, rust and scratches as it is released. Also, if it got out of control it would be running much too freely for safety, snaking about all over the place. With the chain over the gypsy, the rate of decent could always be checked with the clutch if necessary.

Maybe its OK with a rope rode?

 

[Poignard]

Is this really practical? I'd always thought of flaking out chain preparatory to anchoring as something a text-book fantasy.

Having perhaps 60m of 10mm chain on the deck of a yacht seemed quite impractical to me. It covers a large area of deck, where it leaves a trail of ground-in dirt, rust and scratches as it is released. Also, if it got out of control it would be running much too freely for safety, snaking about all over the place. With the chain over the gypsy, the rate of decent could always be checked with the clutch if necessary.

Maybe its OK with a rope rode?

I used to flake the chain out on deck, before I fitted a Lofrans Royale manual windlass. I had no choice because the chain pipe faced aft so it would not have run out of the chain locker anyway.

Even though I don't often use the manual windlass to get my anchor (because it is low geared and therefore very slow) the ability to let the chain run out freely and to be able to check it with the clutch, makes it well worth having. (Especially as I only paid £20 for it )

Regarding whether or not to let the chain run out; I follow Eric Hiscock's advice for a CQR and let it have plenty of chain quickly. This technique hasn't let me down yet.

 

[prv]

Is this really practical? I'd always thought of flaking out chain preparatory to anchoring as something a text-book fantasy.

I pull out enough to reach the bottom and a bit more. I don't fake it out on deck textbook-style, just dump it in a pile (loose enough that it feeds ok even though it's upside down). Once that's down it feeds ok direct from the pipe - but I do have to hand it out as the pipe faces aft so it can't run out on its own.

Pete

 

[awol]

Much as it pains me, I actually agree with Searush! Flake a reasonable amount of chain on deck and let it out hand over hand. You can feel the anchor on the bottom, can lay out at the same rate as the boat is moving and it does seem to result in a better "bite". Letting the chain run out over the windlass needs a huge confidence that there is no tangle, something my chain locker likes to do after a bouncy ride. As far as I'm concerned the "down" button is only used to unjam the chain if it doesn't fall freely into the locker. All the above is 10mm chain on a 32' boat - I wouldn't recommend it for an aircraft carrier.

 

[RupertW]

When anchoring in 3-5m I tend to use the button all the way but when in 10-20m I let it drop fast until it hits the bottom then button from there.

If I drop it via the button only then we have tended to drift a bit before it bites, and in a tight anchorage that means reanchoring all to often.

But many of my fellow sailors locally anchor in any depth by finding the perfect spot, engaging full reverse and lowering the anchor by button whilst powering backwards between other boats. When (if) the boat slams to a halt then they are securely anchored for the night. Seems mental to me but makes me realise there are many different ways that work.

 

[NormanS]

JDS, of blessed memory, referred to various characters, one of whom was Percy, "a pusher-up-of -ropes". I wonder what name he would have given to "a pusher down of chain".