Anchoring in a pool

snowleopard

snowleopard

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In places where there is a small deep pool surrounded by shallow water, how do you anchor so as to stay in the deep water. For example in the Dandy Hole up the Lynher, depth is around 8m so one needs 30-40m of rode. Swinging to that means you are way out of the deep part. If you ride to two anchors you won't swing to the tide along with everyone else so a reasonable spacing on the flood can turn into bumps in the night on the ebb.

How do you you do it?
 
Very good question.

With regard to Dandy hole I'm afraid I simply anchor to a slightly shorter rode than I ought (3x high water), clear of the steep to southern shore and hope for the best. Result - twice waking at 0200 to find Belladonna at a very strange angle when she has caught a rudder on the bank.
 
One method is to use an 'Angel'. Which is a large lump of lead (or iron) on a large shackle which fits around the chain. This is lowered down the anchor chain on a rope until it is about halfway.
I think you will find they are now sold under the name 'Chummy'.
 
Get there first and moor to two anchors. Traditionally, a moored vessel has priority, though I doubt if many people remember this.
 
johnalison said:
Get there first and moor to two anchors. Traditionally, a moored vessel has priority, though I doubt if many people remember this.
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I believe the courts have also upheld the principle that an earlier vessel in an anchorage has the right to insist that a later one has anchored too close and must move.

Sadly I don't think that precedent will do you much good in practice.

Pete
 
Last time I anchored in the Dandy hole I was 1st there so went for the deepest part and put down 40m in 10m of water. As the tide turned we drifted across the river so were 3-4 boat lengths away from the pool. Another boat came along and dropped his hook right on top of mine. He got very shirty when I told him I pointed out that my scope was correct for the depth which he claimed was ridiculous. I didn't establish how much scope he had intended to put down.
 
I would have thought you would never need 5x depth in Dandy Hole in anything short of a hurricane. Years since I've been there (sadly), but as far as I can recall it's good holding and very sheltered. (Perhaps I'm looking back with rose-tinted spectacles?)

Another approach to it (and to keep yourself off the banks), is to adjust your scope a couple of times each tide.
 
jamesjermain said:
With regard to Dandy hole I'm afraid I simply anchor to a slightly shorter rode than I ought (3x high water), clear of the steep to southern shore and hope for the best. Result - twice waking at 0200 to find Belladonna at a very strange angle when she has caught a rudder on the bank.
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One can always, in a river, use a warp as a 'backspring' secured onto the anchor rode, giving the vessel a sheer in the optimum direction away from the steep-to bank. Very easy in a catamaran with fairleads at each end of the fore crossbeam.

A traditional technique.....:)
 
oldbilbo said:
One can always, in a river, use a warp as a 'backspring' secured onto the anchor rode, giving the vessel a sheer in the optimum direction away from the steep-to bank. Very easy in a catamaran with fairleads at each end of the fore crossbeam.

A traditional technique.....:)
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Sorry, could you explain that in a more detailed way that my simple brain can understand?
 
Two anchors laid from the bow in opposite directions, up and down tide, known as the "Bahamian moor", is the best simple way to hold position. In some places with strong tidal currents, such as Alice Town in Bimini, all the yachts automatically do it. The only problem is that as the yacht swings round with each turn of the tide, the two chains can get rather entangled.

Of course, if other yachts in a tight anchorage aren't mooring that way, you are a bit stuffed. In Dandy Hole I've followed LittleSister's advice and anchored with the absolute minimum of scope. 2x depth is enough if you have decent heavy tackle and the weather forecast is good. Better still is to ask the boats around you what scope they are using and follow suit. Pray someone isn't using all rope and 10x depth.
 
SailorBill said:
Sorry, could you explain that in a more detailed way that my simple brain can understand?
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Hitch a warp to the anchor cable, lead it off to the stern, then veer a bit more cable.

The boat will now no longer lie with its head directly to the current, but with some of its beam to the current.

By adjusting the length of the warp and the amount of cable veered, the boat can be made to lie at different angles to the current - but you'll only actually need to veer a little cable and leave the warp quite long for the boat to 'drive' nicely away from the hazard (in this case the steep-to side of the river).

Think of one of those kites with two control lines.
 
...Better still is to ask the boats around you what scope they are using and follow suit...

Oh how I wish more people did that; after our time in the Med. we can now ask thatquestion in about seven languages.

...Pray someone isn't using all rope and 10x depth... In restricted/busy anchorages of any type, the number of boats already there/likely to follow needs to be incorporated into your calculations of whereabouts/how much scope is 'reasonable' to use: Certainly if the forecast's bad you need to choose the best sheltered spot available and get dug in well with ample chain out, then insist lateer arrivals work around you, but 'unnecessary' chain can be so annoying: We were anchored in Arrecife on Lanzarote a couple of weeks ago; it was well sheltered and the forecast was for light winds, yet a French yacht in there was laying to two anchors, each on 100m+ of chain and ranting at any yacht which tried to anchor in 'his' bit - about 1/3 of the total anchorage area! Fortunately another French yachtsman arrived and was able to explain at even higher decibels how and why he was being unreasonable.

My other bug-bear is yachts which 'waste' space in busy anchorages by arriving and anchoring themselves in the very centre of the biggest space they can find, leaving not quite enough room in every direction around them for further boats to get in: even now, but more particularly when we sailed Spring Fever (27') we'd regularly arrive in an anchorage and ignore several 'big' spaces on the basis that they were suitable for a later and likely arriving 40'+ yacht, whereas we could easily swing in a much smaller space somewhere else in the anchorage.

Boat's already anchored when you arrive have precedence and that's how it should be, but when conditions allow, there's no reason not to give consideration and indeed assistance to later arrivals: I've lost count of the numer of occassions when we heard shouts of 'you're too close, you'll have to move.' Whilst the demand's often, though not always been correct, on many occassions the originally anchored boat could easily and without risk/detriment veer or shorten his scope by 5m so that the newly arriving boat would then be fine; you're saving a fellow yachtie the much greater effort of having to re-anchor and you'll have undoubtably made a new friend.
 
Babylon said:
Hitch a warp to the anchor cable, lead it off to the stern, then veer a bit more cable.

The boat will now no longer lie with its head directly to the current, but with some of its beam to the current.

By adjusting the length of the warp and the amount of cable veered, the boat can be made to lie at different angles to the current - but you'll only actually need to veer a little cable and leave the warp quite long for the boat to 'drive' nicely away from the hazard (in this case the steep-to side of the river).

Think of one of those kites with two control lines.
Click to expand...


'Zackly! :)

Last used when anchored higher up in the Truro River. It's a bargee's trick, from the days when a laden bawley, or some-such, was being towed upriver by an 'orse or 'prentice on the bank. Use of such a warp from the quarter onto the towline gave the vessel a 'sheer' away from the bank out into the deeper water, when use only of the tiller would have been a continuous effort.

If one has a light boat that tends to 'sail' from side to side in gusts while at anchor, then this technique can be used - with care and attention - to dampen and even eliminate that 'charging about', which can readily cause the anchor to drag.
 
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