Anchoring Technique - newtown ck display

mjf

mjf

Well-Known Member
Joined
18 Jun 2003
Messages
3,994
Location
w.london - boat on solent- RIB on Tidal Thames
Visit site
Well what a fab w/e hot sun and cooling SW breeze.

managed to navigate into position at the bottom of the Spring tide friday afternoon, 0.8m under the props so bloody alarms sounding everywhere.

Saturday was spent watching a family anchor - when they pitched up i thought " Blimey a right pro here" as the staff captain was sent forward to make the anchor ready. Out came a small anchor and a ton of rope and the biggest anchor buoy i have seen.

These guys anchor ok (in the Shalfleet channel entrance !) and then drift good oh in the ebb and SW3 breeze. They spent the entire day re-anchoring must have watched the hapless chap for 6 hours. i think the issue was too short a anchor buoy line as the buoy kept the anchor from setting.


Then Sunday a bloke arrives in the same spot but anchors too close to the guy in front of me....fine re- anchors and ditto to another boat. Re-anchors too close to chummy again.
by this time he's had enough so instructs the bow to leave the cable as is and the attempts to move the anchor to a new postion under power. What a hoot.

Ten goes later he's done after finally doing the job properly.


This is priceless entertainment unless of course it YOU.


There for the grace of God.........
 
:D

Similar at Osbourne bay yesterday.

Generally pretty good, even some anchor balls in use :rolleyes:

One or two came in, anchorder, hauled, anchored again, hauled, left.

Gives those happily settled in something to watch. :)
 
If people promise not to laugh too hard, I might post some pictures later of my, errm, not very deliberate attempt at drying out on the well-charted "bump" off East Head. The 6 yr old thought it was hilarious. SWMBO trying to prepare tea at 30' off the horizontal was not amused :o
 
Well I'm the first to admit that it's normally me making a mess of throwing the spade over the side, but yesterday it bit first go!! I'm working to assumption the more chain the better..... it's working so far!!
 
FlowerPower said:
If people promise not to laugh too hard, I might post some pictures later of my, errm, not very deliberate attempt at drying out on the well-charted "bump" off East Head. The 6 yr old thought it was hilarious. SWMBO trying to prepare tea at 30' off the horizontal was not amused :o
Click to expand...

Go on...... I promise I won't laugh......... much!!
 
mjf said:
Well what a fab w/e hot sun and cooling SW breeze.

managed to navigate into position at the bottom of the Spring tide friday afternoon, 0.8m under the props so bloody alarms sounding everywhere.

Saturday was spent watching a family anchor - when they pitched up i thought " Blimey a right pro here" as the staff captain was sent forward to make the anchor ready. Out came a small anchor and a ton of rope and the biggest anchor buoy i have seen.

These guys anchor ok (in the Shalfleet channel entrance !) and then drift good oh in the ebb and SW3 breeze. They spent the entire day re-anchoring must have watched the hapless chap for 6 hours. i think the issue was too short a anchor buoy line as the buoy kept the anchor from setting.


Then Sunday a bloke arrives in the same spot but anchors too close to the guy in front of me....fine re- anchors and ditto to another boat. Re-anchors too close to chummy again.
by this time he's had enough so instructs the bow to leave the cable as is and the attempts to move the anchor to a new postion under power. What a hoot.

Ten goes later he's done after finally doing the job properly.


This is priceless entertainment unless of course it YOU.


There for the grace of God.........
Click to expand...

3 of my friends were there, teasing me all weekend with phone photos as we were at a wedding yesterday, fairline turbo 36, pahntom 43ac and princess 40, hope it was none of there boating skills you talking about.
 
volvopaul said:
3 of my friends were there, teasing me all weekend with phone photos as we were at a wedding yesterday, fairline turbo 36, pahntom 43ac and princess 40, hope it was none of there boating skills you talking about.
Click to expand...
None luckily - but I saw this raft over in the lake (opposite side to me).

There were a couple of groundings as the springs caught out folk.

Its ticky in there until you know it and been though some high highs and low lows
 
Wiggo said:
I always enjoy watching the ploughing matches, where they feel obliged to go hard astern for a few tens of metres to make sure the anchor has set...
Click to expand...

The technique that some of the locals use in Spain is to lob the anchor overboard whilst still motoring forwards, never mind backwards. This is often done at shall we say quite vigorous speeds and occasionally the anchor grabs hold of something solid with a big twang hurling the boat around through 180deg. Quite funny to watch. Some of the trip boats have stern anchors which they throw overboard whilst motoring at full speed towards the shore. The first time I saw this I thought there's no way the boat is going to stop before it hits the quay but sure enough, the anchor brought the boat up about a metre from the quay. I haven't seen it yet but I'm waiting for the day that a trip boat's anchor doesn't hold or the shackle breaks and the trip boat tries to mount the quay!
 
1.) Anchor out a fair way from the beach at East Head.

2.) Make no account of the fact that when the tide turns, your boat will be 40m eastwards, scoring an almost perfect bullseye on the "bump", which is well-known locally.

IMG_0084.JPG


3.) As you climb aboard from the tender after a day on the beach, you notice it's quite shallow. Turn on the depth gauge, which is reading alternately 17ft and 0ft. Strangely, the boat seems less affected than normal by the wakes of passing boats. Indeed, it seems more stable than usual. A quick check over the stern reveals both outdrives planted neatly in the sand. Quick panic, slowly ease both outdrives to +40. Try and tow boat manually off the lump using one person-power and the anchor chain, but no. Despite boats only 20m away floating quite happily, we are drying out.

IMG_0081.JPG


Oh well, the seabed is nice and sandy and flat.
No rocks, posts, or nasties that I can detect.

IMG_0079.JPG


Less than an hour until there will be enough water to float free, so a quick scrub around the waterline, and Tea is prepared at 30' off horizontal. SWMBO opens the cockpit fridge, which turns out to be a bit of a mistake.

Tidal predictions are correct, and 50mins later one person-power manages to pull the boat into deeper water.

IMG_0075.JPG
 
Last edited:
Watching people anchoring in Newtown Ck is excellent sport, my favorite was the chap who came in on low tide, lobbed out about 5m of chain and then went to the pub in the dinghy.

Funnily enough the anchor did not hold and he drifted down the river at quite a pace, hit one boat :( and the was caught by the next boat down.

On his return in the dinghy about 3 hours later with the wife he could be heard saying quite loudy, 'I'm sure we left it here!' on looking around he was rather perplexed to see the people on the yacht waving madly at him.

Sadly he did not say 'What are you doing with my boat!' as that would have been priceless.

Having said all that, I think everyone has got themselves into a spot of bother at one time or another. We went to bed one night on th hook in Clamerkin Lake, change of wind in the night and we woke up at 30' with about 30ft of mud all round the boat. 5 hours later we were floated off. Fortunately the boat was tilted towards the sun so SWMBO was happy - ish.
 
Flower Power, I think what you're trying to say is that you skillfully positioned the boat so that it would beach gently at low water, so that you could change the outdrive anodes without paying for a lift-out? The way you described it made it sound like you didn't mean it ...
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top