Anchoring the West Coast of Scotland - how much chain?

Three times the depth of water. In deeper than usual water or heavy weather five times.
NB. chain does nothing in the chain locker.

A fisherman is better than a plow type in kelp.
 
I use a minimal amount. Usually 10m but I head for the shallow end and the sand/mud. Centaur.

I usually use the Danforth which I keep on the pulpit, the Delta has only been used once and that was as a kedge after antifouling.

South of Luing the tidal range is minimal, no experience of North of Ardnamurchan yet.

Edit to add, I have 50m all chain and sometimes use a bit more than 10m. I'm happy with 6" under my keels but don't fret if I spend an hour touching.
 
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dylanwinter said:
Westerly Centaur.....26 feet... four tonnes.... Plough anchor.....

so.....

how much chain do I really need?

and should I get a second anchor to get through the kelp?
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My boat ... 26 feet ... four tons ... plough anchor ...

I have 30m of 8mm chain. It was a distress purchase, made after the last chain snapped, and although I bought as much as I could afford at the time I would have like to buy a bit more.

As it has worked out, though, 30m has been just fine. My boat draws 3'10", only 10" more than a Centaur, so I generally tuck in fairly shallow, aiming if possible to be in 2m or so at low tide which is normally about 5m at high tide. Of course sometime I have to go deeper, but I don't think I have yet anchored in more than 7m at high tide. I carry a drum with 50m of Octoplait as well, but I have never had to use it.

On my last boat I had 25 fathoms (sic) of chain and the only time I ever used it all was in the Sound of Ulva, anchored in 6' of water ... with F12 forecast for Malin.

Traditional dictates that a big fisherman anchor is used for kelp, but I don't think I have actually met anyone who uses one. My 25lb CQR seems to deal with it OK, but I plan to upgrade the kedge from "dubious looking Danforth-alike" to Fortress when funds permit, in part because I here good things about their performance in weed.

tl;dr: My boat's very close in size and weight to yours and a 25 lb CQR with 30m of 8mm chain works well for me on the West Coast.
 
27' 3.5t.... My Mirage 2700 came with three anchors, CQRx2, one on the bow roller with 30m of quite rusty chain. One spare. On the round Britain the CQR hasn't been perfect
On the other hand, the Danforth 'lunchhook' 8m chain and IIRC 35m rope has been fine overnight, if in benign conditions. Falmouth Roads/ Fishguard/ Beaumaris. etc
There is a proper feeling of the boat stopping when it is set I don't get with the theoretically more serious all chain CQR . (probably dodgy technique, I know)
I also prefer the light tackle because the rusty bower set up makes me and the boat filthy
 
. . . and a 25 lb CQR with 30m of 8mm chain works well for me on the West Coast . . .
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This also worked all over the West Coast of Scotland and Orkneys with a Trintella 29.

A fisherman's anchor would have to be twice as heavy (50lbs) which would make it very unwieldy. I carried one 35 years ago on a long Atlantic cruise as my third anchor (following the standard practice of people like the Hiscocks, etc), but it never contributed anything worthwhile enough to consider buying another on subsequent boats.

Surprisingly a 22lb Danforth (or Fortress equivalent) is a really effective second anchor in West Coast waters. With any anchor you need to be cautious of kelp beds. A glass bottomed bucket is helpful.

However you will certainly need to have a longer anchor rode than just 30m available. A nylon extension is fine, but does make handling and stowage a little more of a faff. So the consideration of whether you carry more than 30m as chain is how much you value the 'ease of use' with a longer chain rode versus its cost & weight. With a 32 foot boat, I've found 60m of chain to be my 'compromise'.
 
awol said:
If you only choose anchorages with 5m or less and are happy with a scope of 3x then you need 15 + 12( 3x 4m tide range) + 3 (water to bow to cleat) = 30m; with a 4x scope that grows to 39m. So around 50m seems about right.
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But scope doesn't need to be all chain. 50m is a lot to carry in the bow of a Centaur. I'd be tempted to go with less chain and more rope. 50m is also a lot to haul up if you don't have a windlass.
 
On our 30 footer we carried 30m chain, spliced to 50m of octoplait. That covered everything from anchoring in the clyde to st kilda and lots of places in between. Sometimes having the extra scope can be really handy even with a bilge keeler. I would think about trying to get hold of a delta or other new gen. I know folk can get anchored in places like canna (infamous for weed) with a plough, but with something new gen you only have to drop the anchor once. The worst I saw was a single hander in canna who still hadn't got his cqr to set on the 6th attempt. We had come in just before him and anchored 1st time with a new gen anchor. We could see he was getting tired and went and offered to help ( he had no windlass), but he was determined to do it himself, but I can think of nothing more likely to spoil a great days sailing on the west coast, than fighting to get an anchor to set - especially if conditions are bad or you are tired.
 
dylanwinter said:
So 30 m should be enough for most places plus a bit of rope for those difficult to reach bottoms

and not bother with a fisherman

D
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Should be OK, but if you anchor in in kelp with a plow or danforth relay test your holding. You
can get a fair amount of grip on the kelp alone;- and when the wind rises.......
 
You will need more than a 30m scope if the weather gets up a bit (as it did this year....). For a Centaur you might get away with 30m chain + rope; but I do like to sleep at night and I would prefer more chain.

Have you thought of an angel? 10-15Kg run down the anchor chain means that you can recover it fairly easily before you recover the anchor.

There is kelp, and it seems to be getting worse, but I don't know of anybody who uses a fisherman. You would need something like 20Kg and they ARE unwieldy to deploy and recover. I had one on my last boat and only used it a couple of times in 10 years.

North of Ardnurmurmachan there are more visitors buoys appearing - often operated by community interest groups (Kilchoan, Canna, Broadford, Dunvegan, amongst others). About 10 quid a night is not bad value.
 
dylanwinter said:
So 30 m should be enough for most places plus a bit of rope for those difficult to reach bottoms

and not bother with a fisherman

D
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Should be fine, but 40 or 50m would not go amiss. We had 30m chain on our Vega (3'6" draft) and quite a few times had to use a warp to extend the rode.
Also employed a second anchor quite often to reduce swinging circle in deeper, smaller anchorages. I probably should have used a 'proper' anchor for this but actually used my tiny 4kg new-gen anchor which was bought for dinghy cruising and was subsequently stolen for use on the yacht as it is so easy to dinghy out.
 
Vega 27'. I use 35m 6mm chain and a 25lb CQR.
I usually anchor in 5m or less, so rarely use the full scope.
There's only been a handful of places over the last 30+ years where I've needed the full scope due to the depth (Loch Hourn, SE Loch Aline, and the like).

I also carry a second 25lb plough with 5m chain and the rest rope as a kedge if the wind gets up.

The water's clear enough that you can often see to drop the hook on a weed-free patch.
 
dylanwinter said:
So 30 m should be enough for most places plus a bit of rope for those difficult to reach bottoms

and not bother with a fisherman
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In my experience yes, yes and yes.

The worst anchorage I used this summer was the bay at the north end of Muck. It was blowing hard and the wind was constantly moving through ninety degrees, so with all the boats veering through ninety degrees as well it was a bit hard to find a place. In fact I anchored there five time in the course of one evening. No dragging, though, and when I got my anchor up in the morning (6am - screw this, I'm going to Eigg) it was nicely covered with kelp.

We smaller/shallower boats have great advantages; as long as it's sheltered we can anchor in a lot less water than the big boys.
 
I would certainly recommend that you have a second anchor, of some description. If it gets really windy, it's quite reassuring to have two out in a Vee. The second anchor is better to have at least some chain.
Lots of people are talking of kelp (or tangle). One of the best defences against weed, second only to the Mark 1 eyeball, is a Fishfinder, which gives you a much better idea of the bottom. I do carry a Fisherman anchor, but it's my third anchor, and almost never used. The West Coast is blessed with loads of good anchorages. There's always somewhere with good shelter under your lee. A word of caution about visitor's moorings. They are not always sheltered, whereas good anchorages are sheltered (from the sea, but not the wind) in all wind directions.
 
JumbleDuck said:
In my experience yes, yes and yes.

The worst anchorage I used this summer was the bay at the north end of Muck. It was blowing hard and the wind was constantly moving through ninety degrees, so with all the boats veering through ninety degrees as well it was a bit hard to find a place. In fact I anchored there five time in the course of one evening. No dragging, though, and when I got my anchor up in the morning (6am - screw this, I'm going to Eigg) it was nicely covered with kelp.

We smaller/shallower boats have great advantages; as long as it's sheltered we can anchor in a lot less water than the big boys.
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Was that Gallanach? We anchored there and awoke to an unforecast F5 northerly, which was a bit unpleasant. When the tide's in and the skerries are submerged it feels like you're anchored in a random bit of coastline, not a snug anchorage.
 
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