Anchor over the bows..??

[Mirelle]

Bowsprit?

We have 12 feet of it. It was originally fixed, but as of this year it retracts. Even a retracted bowsprit has the cranse iron and at least a foot of sprit sticking out beyond the stem.

Thus the anchor on the roller was never "nearest the accident", but I still came round to disliking it.

 

[MedMan]

Does it not depend upon the size and design of the boat and the size and design of the anchor? I sail a Trident Voyager 35 and carry a 20kg Bruce over the bow. The design of the anchor wraps solidly around the stemhead and protrudes forrward rather less than the pulpit. Thus, if I were to more too close in it would be my pulpit that was the problem, not the anchor. Different combinations of boat/anchor can certainly produce a battering ram effect, but by no means all.

My wife and I sail two-up in the Med and anchor 6 nights out of 7 if we can. We carry an overweight anchor so we can sleep well. Being an old design our Voyager is very narrow at the front. Putting all these together make stowing over the bow a necessity, not a choice. If any one wishes to call it unseamanlike they clearly sail on different seas to us!

 

[gunnarsilins]

You, who argue...

...for having the anchor on chocks - what size of boat do you have? I wouldn´t even dream of moving my big CQR with its chain out of its roller, squeezing it under the pulpit-bars and roller-furling gear without a seriously hurting back and a couple of broken fingers.
Not to mention the other way round, in a emergency!
Bad seamanship I would call it!

If I crashed with my 12 tons of boat into someones topsides, there would be a little difference if the impact was made by the anchor or by the solid and big bowroller. The result would still be a hell of a mess....
BTW, I´m even nastier than most of you! I also carry a permantly mounted 20 kg Bruce in a roller on the bathingplatform! ;-)

This question is more about judgement and let things take their time.
By sensible thinking you should not easily get in to situations where space is so confirmed that you risk such close encounters with other yachts.
Keep your anchors where they should be, ready to drop. Avoid getting into confirmed spaces where you have problems turning around. If you must - prepare yourself first, bring out your warps, think for a minute, and I´m sure there will be a way turning her with handpower, nice, slow and safe.
Or if you are lazy, as I am, install a bowthruster. But there still are situations I dig into the deep locker where the big fenders and long warps are.

I´m sure these French yachts had the possibility to turn their yacht by other means than using only engine and rudder. Their mistake was not to carry their anchors on the bowrollers, their mistake was to not use the, under the circumstances, safest method to turn in a confined harbour.

 

[ccscott49]

Re: You, who argue...

Thank goodness, another voice of sense!

 

[Mike_02]

Re: You, who argue...

I do agree with what you say but we do not lve in a perfect world..if we did then nobody would crash cars and yacht owners would not try and drive out of every situation...but we don't and it's all about risk management.

I have a long keeler so i know that going astern is a no no....my tunring circle at low speed is also a no no.

So i have learnt to turn the boat by hand....but many if not most people still try to drive out like a car and then bang.....and then and only then does the anchor have an affect...it doesn't often cause a hole but they catch thing on the other boat and rip them off...!!

So in short....put your achor wherever you want to but make sure you never go close to another boat in a mooring....just in case

 

[Trevethan]

Re: You, who argue...

I am with you too.. Gayle Louise is 17 tonnes all in with a nice metal-capped lance sticking about 6 feet out the pointy bit.. OK OK a bowsprit.. It doesn't move.

(The reason some bowsprits do is often to save marina costs (these days) and in the pat I read it was to avoid knocking off sailors caps.. though think that this is likely hogwash and is more to do with being able to squeeze into limited space on a quay to unload cargo.)

The anchors, on their rollers either side, are the least to worry about if I were to hit something.

 

[Mirelle]

12 tons, see below nm

nowt to add to that.