Anchorage in Burnham?

[Toutvabien]

I visited Burnham a couple of weeks ago and noticed that there are no longer rows of moorings upriver of the Crouch Yacht Club. It is the area where Tucker Browns and then Burnham Yacht Harbour previously laid moorings. It struck me that if the bottom is free of moorings that it might produce several decent anchorages, before I sling a couple of hundred quids worth of anchor and chain over the side in this location is anybody aware of the state of the river bottom in this area?

 

[DanTribe]

Rumour has it that some of the old mooring ground chains are still there.
We occasionally anchor there when acting as committee boat for the dinghy racing and have never had any problem.
The local sailing clubs use the area for junior racing so expect to be buzzed by sprogs in mini boats.

 

[Toutvabien]

Thanks for that, may try it as a short stop and see how it goes. It does look like a lovely big open space.

 

[Gargleblaster]

If there could be trouble with chains or other obstructions, buoy your anchor. I always try to do it when what is on the bottom is uncertain. 90% of the time the anchor comes up without a hindrance, but a couple of times when it felt the anchor was stuck, I motored up to the buoy and lifted it that way. I use a CQR anchor and tie the buoy line to the support bar between the two flukes.

 

[FullCircle]

We once picked up an ancient single fluke anchor weighing over 200kgs whilst in that area. We were kedged on a windless day's racing. We actually motored it into BYH and hung it on a pontoon., but at least we didn't lose our ground tackle....