Anchoring overnight (peacefully)

RupertW said:
+1

There is special level of tosh and inexperience of firm holding in crowded anchorages in a blow.

Have a really good look at anchors under strain above 15-20 knots and you'll see how scope not catenary defines the angle of pull on the anchor, and how small a scope will hold a well set anchor at a decent angle. Damping snatching and veering matter much more for reassurance and sleeping.
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Personal experience also shows me that new generation anchors will hold at shorter scopes/higher angles than, eg, a CQR, making them invaluable in crowded anchorages. Plus of course they reset quickly if the direction of pull changes.

Putting out 100m of chain in 10m of water would have you aground in my local anchorage, not to mention making you incredibly unpopular as you bounced off other yachts left and right. Where do people get these ideas from? 4x depth is adequate in most conditions provided the anchor is well dug in.

- W


- W
 
All my bad anchoring experiences have been in Tobermory before they cleared a designated anchorage except for one scary night in perfect shelter in W.L. Tarbert Jura when those vertical gusts (catabatic?) rolled down the near vertical hillside to explode on the boat every ten minutes or so.
In Tob. I had a memorable experience with a french boat called 'Pen Duick' which dropped their anchor right over mine, he started clattering in to us just as it was starting to get light but as I had so enjoyed the previous day photographing them beat up the Sound of Mull and it was only a couple of weeks after they lost Tabarly overboard, I did not like to wake them so just put out some fenders and tied them alongside.
 
wazza said:
Personally I sleep like a baby, no probs... a little disconcerting the first anchoring of the season and if it suddenly blows up from another direction. BUT for me it's my anchordrag alarm that gives me comfort knowing if we drag it'll go off. Obviously I'm more concerned about others dragging on to me but there's nothing I can do about that...
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+1, we spend 90% of the time not sailing at anchor. I have 2 anchor drag alarms on different GPS sets - we always set these up even on moorings which can drag or break.

When I first started cruising many years ago i was very nervous spending the night on thw hook. Since then I have weathered 60+ knots with the anchors holding,. IMO it is about experience and confidence in your gear - we try always to have a plan B but sometimes we have to sit it out oibn the hook as there is nowhere to go...the more you do it the easier it becomes.
 
As I tried to suggest - how many carry 100m of chain anyway. And for those that do - how many times have you been able to and/or had the need to deploy the lot?

Jonathan
 
GHA said:
With anchor pro on an android phone, I'll invariably remember to have the phone with me dropping the hook so will set the anchor position afterwards with the phone at the bow, say 25m at 170Deg. The the alarm radius will be set it something like 35m as the phone lives on a little car bracket near the chart table, where it's plugged into a usb power supply. That's it, always seems to get GPS. The alrrm rarely goes of but it's loud an irritating enough to demand attention. The app will send a txt message if the alarm goes off if you set it up. I don't bother, if the holding is suspect then it's time to go somewhere else. You can set an alarm if it looses GPS for a set length of time as well.
All in all works well, the history is handy , recording all your previous alarm set positions and it will show your actual position on google maps satellite view.
Click to expand...

I use the anchor pro app for android and although it is extremely rare for me to drag, having the app running ensures i get a good night's sleep.

Www.solocoastalsailing.co.uk
 
RichardS said:
I do ..... and use it all in anything around 20m depth but only once or twice a season.

Richard
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I can only think of one 20m anchorage and as its south of mainland Tasmania its only a fair weather anchorage anyway.

Thanks - I'm impressed with the idea of a cat with 100m of chain! - 'small' link G70?

Jonathan
 
Neeves said:
As I tried to suggest - how many carry 100m of chain anyway. And for those that do - how many times have you been able to and/or had the need to deploy the lot?

Jonathan
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We carry 110 meters of chain on the main bower. 30m of hain and 150m rope on the second and 5m chain and 70m rope on the kedge.

We regularly have 80 to 90 m of chain out. In many Pacific islands we are anchoring in 20 to 30 meters of water. DEPENDS WHERE YOU SAIL.

On the Britanny coast we used to anchor in 6 or 7m at low tidw but with tidal ranges of up to 14m.....
 
temptress said:
We carry 110 meters of chain on the main bower. 30m of hain and 150m rope on the second and 5m chain and 70m rope on the kedge.

We regularly have 80 to 90 m of chain out. In many Pacific islands we are anchoring in 20 to 30 meters of water. DEPENDS WHERE YOU SAIL.

On the Britanny coast we used to anchor in 6 or 7m at low tidw but with tidal ranges of up to 14m.....
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For Oz, In Sydney a King Tide is a bit over 2m, Bass Strait, 3m, West Coast Tas, 0.3m but up north certainly 10m (not sure of max)

The market for G70 should be huge.

Does an off the shelf Benny, Jenny, Bav, etc have a locker that will take that length of rode?

Jonathan
 
Neeves said:
I can only think of one 20m anchorage and as its south of mainland Tasmania its only a fair weather anchorage anyway.

Thanks - I'm impressed with the idea of a cat with 100m of chain! - 'small' link G70?

Jonathan
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It's just standard Din 10mm .... however the chain locker is in the bridgedeck so a long way aft of the bows which helps.

It's quite common in Croatia because the coast shelves away very steeply into the sea. In Greece or the Caribbean it would be overkill.

Richard
 
Our chain locker is similarly located or at least at the front of the bridgedeck and aft of the tramp. We have 75m of 6mm + another 15m with 40m of nylon (38' x 7t). On commissioning we had 30m which we quickly increased to 50m (of 8mm). We only very occasionally wished for a little bit more, we sometimes overnight in 12m (its good fishing) - hence the 75m now. Most of our East and South Coast anchorages, unless you go to mid Queensland and north, are 3m -5m. We have forgotten catenary and replaced with snubbers and good anchors.

But 100m of 10mm is an awful lot of steel. Our 75m of 6mm (75kg) leaves the chain locker looking malnourished!

I assume from the absence of replies - most people do not carry 100m (or if they do its of cordage), though I know there are some decent tidal ranges in the UK.

Jonathan
 
>If you want to stop worrying use the right amount of chain ratio for the depth. 10 metres is ten times depth, 15 is 8 times, 20 is six times, 30 is three times.

>>It would provide interesting data but I suspect most people have a finite and limited amount of chain and would be unable to follow your advise. I also suspect some chain lockers might not hold the amount of chain needed to meet your recommendations. You also need to consider there may not be room, for a whole variety of reasons, to deploy the lengths of chain suggested - which would put you well over the the worry threshold.

If I didn't have sufficient chain to not worry about anchoring, as above, then I wouldn't anchor except in light winds.
 
Neeves said:
I assume from the absence of replies - most people do not carry 100m (or if they do its of cordage), though I know there are some decent tidal ranges in the UK.
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If I could carry 100m of chain I would - there are definitely places in our cruising area where it would be useful. But Ariam is a relatively lightweight boat with a fine bow; even the 60m I originally shipped, when combined with the S100 Spade right on the stemhead, upset the trim noticeably. So we now have a modest 20m of chain; more would be good for abrasion resistance etc, but as we know, it's the anchor that holds the boat :p.

Since rope weighs buggerall compared with chain, I didn't see any need to cut down the 100m coil I bought. So we now have a total 120m of cable, should we ever need it.

Pete
 
KellysEye said:
If I didn't have sufficient chain to not worry about anchoring, as above, then I wouldn't anchor except in light winds.
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Anyone who knows what they are doing won't be worrying about their own setup, they'll be keeping an eye on the guy with 100m of chain out when it isn't needed sailing all around the anchorage.

Where did you get those figures from?? 18th century?
 
KellysEye said:
>If you want to stop worrying use the right amount of chain ratio for the depth. 10 metres is ten times depth, 15 is 8 times, 20 is six times, 30 is three times.

>>It would provide interesting data but I suspect most people have a finite and limited amount of chain and would be unable to follow your advise. I also suspect some chain lockers might not hold the amount of chain needed to meet your recommendations. You also need to consider there may not be room, for a whole variety of reasons, to deploy the lengths of chain suggested - which would put you well over the the worry threshold.

If I didn't have sufficient chain to not worry about anchoring, as above, then I wouldn't anchor except in light winds.
Click to expand...

That's a fascinating hypothesis, and I quite agree that the scope factor should increase as the depth decreases. Your figures suggest using (approximately) the same length of chain irrespective of the depth. Realistically, I would suggest that your shallow depth scopes are unnecessarily excessive, and if anchoring where there are any other boats, would cause mayhem.
 
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