Anchoring

[charles_reed]

There have been two engaging threads on anchoring in this forum during the last couple of days - despite 30odd years of anchoring I've come to the conclusion that there is no "best" anchor or system of anchoring.

Anchoring is rather like economics, get 2 experts together and have 3 opinions, 3 experts, nine opinions etc.

My theories are as follows:
Anchors are dependant for their holding power on the bottom surface in which they're burying.
Soft bottom = greatest fluke area (CQR, Danforth, Spade)
Hard bottom = sharp point and max weight. (Fisherman, Bruce)

Security is dependant on a constant pull, virtually any anchor will hold if it sets in a good blow. The problem comes when you have a wind-shift or the stream changes.
That's when you find the problems on the palm anchors (Danforth, Spade) and, to a lesser extent, the plough anchors (CQR, Delta).
The greatest test of an anchor is thin sand on rock (Scillonia, Glenans, Pacific islands), or where you have thick weed when the Admiralty or fishermans' comes into its own.

Most seem to be agreed that chain is vastly superior to nylon rode, but whilst some blindly maintain that the chain does the work others, with wider experience, rate the anchor as the major factor.

In fact one could have a forum dedicated to anchoring.
Truth be told, most yotties in the marina-rised N hemispheres of Europe and N America have insufficient experience of anchoring in all conditions of weather and bottom to justify the epithet of "expert" and their opinions should, perhaps, be considered pretty lightweight.

It would be interesting to hear some other views, preferably backed by personal experience.

 

[LadyInBed]

To have an anchor break out and drag just once is enough for you to loose faith in it forever.
It happened to me in Lulworth (E 4-5) in the middle of the night. I had a 22ft 1.7ton boat on a Bruce with 5mtrs of chain and about 6mtrs of anchor plat deployed. Which I think should have been adequate if I had hooked into the sand, the trouble was that I had hooked weed. I never trusted the Bruce on it's own again. Maybe if the boat had had a bigger engine, it was a 7.5hp Yanmar, it would have tested the set of the anchor better.
Now I try to look through the water to ensure I am over sand. With a bigger boat which carries a lot more heavier chain I always deploy at least 15mtrs of chain and set it with the engine incremented to hard astern and held for a couple of min's. If it's gusty, I use two anchors in tandem a Delta with a very large Danforth tagged on the front with 3mtrs of chain. I also have a couple of grapnells to throw ashore just in case!


God - I wish it would stop raining!

 

[Mirelle]

To the Glorious and Immortal Memory...

Of Professor Sir Geoffrey Taylor, FRS, who invented the CQR.

It was not invented for WW2 flying boats, or for Mulberry Harbours, it was invented for yachts, by a yachtsman.

My own thirty years odd of anchoring has resulted in dragging a CQR just twice, once very spectacularly into the middle of a fjord as a result of anchoring on a terminal moraine (thin slimy mud over gravel!) and a katabatic wind, unsurprisngly, getting up and once more mundanely due to pipeweed in Walton Backwaters!

Both 100% my fault.

I categorise the CQR as coming halfway between Charles' two classes of anchor. It is fairly pointed and has a fairly large fluke area.

It is not intended to sit in a bow roller; Professor Taylor intended, as his original YM article describing the CQR shows, the owner to attach a fathom or so of rope to the eye in the back. If you do this, you fish for the end of the rope with a boathook when the anchor is awash, pick up the anchor by the rope and it then lies docilely and does not try to bite you as you insert it into its chocks. You bend a buoy rope, etc., onto the short length of rope, should you feel the need.

Should the anchor pick up a ground chain or other obstruction (in my experience it has always been ground chains when I have sighted them) you heave taut, drop a small loop of chain (worth carrying for this and one other purpose*)shackled to a rope, down the chain, slack off the chain abruptly and haul on the rope. With any luck the chain loop will have reached the neck of the anchor and it will come up like a lamb. (A Danforth in this situation will have wedged the ground chain firmly between flukes and shank, and you are stuck...)

As a kedge, the CQR scores because even a small one really grips and grips fast, whereas anyone who has tried kedging off a bank knows how depressing it is when the anchor starts to come towards you.

The Fisherman should be twice the weight of any other type (how often do you see one that is?) for equal holding power and, as we all used to know, it must never be left on its own - i.e. never leave a boat of any sort lying to a single fisherman, howerev big, over a turn of the tide, because the chain or warp will lovingly entwine the upright fluke and lift it out...

I have no experience of Bruce or Spade anchors.

I cannot see the point in lying to warp or to watch chain, as favoured by our American cousins. Or in paying out more chain than you need. Three times the depth at HW is enough, in normal weather, espescially today when anchorages are likely to be crowded. Dropping an angel down the chain is a good idea.

* the other use is for lying to strange buoys which have big rings on the top - get the chain in the eye of the buoy and bring both ends back aboard and you can slip fast but need not worry about chafe.

Had my say now. Thanks.

 

[tome]

Re: To the Glorious and Immortal Memory...

Excellent rant! Agree with this, though tend to go with 4x scope these days. It always used to be 3x but it seems to have crept up with modern teaching- must be something to do with global warming and women priests.

 

[Guest]

I have dragged my anchor three times, once because a fisherman mistook my anchor buoy for a fishing float and hauled up my anchor, and twice because I had let out insufficient chain, based on the rule of 3 times the depth. In shallow water this can be misleading; in 5 meters , 15 meters of chain is just not enough, especially if there is any tide or wind. I am perhaps fortunate to be able to avoid crowded anchorages, and now chuck out far more chain than is strictly nescessary arguing that the chain in the locker is doing no good to anyone whereas chain on the bottom does help me to sleep well, provided of course I bend a strop of rope onto the chain and haul it in a foot so that there is a loose loop of chain at the fairlead (this prevents the grumbling noise you get as the chain works across the bottom when the tide turns.).

The most common problem I get with my Bruce anchor is breaking it out of mud. Making fast when the chain is tight up and down, then motoring full ahead usually does the trick eventually, but now I always buoy it and find it comes out easily if I haul on the buoy rope. It often brings a huge lump of mud with it as a demonstration of how deeply it was dug in. So in mud it is true that the Bruce does not need much scope, likewise on rough rock where it just hooks on, but elsewhere a good lenght of chain on the bottom helps .

Whilst on the subject of anchoring, many people do not hoist a ball by day or a light by night when at anchor. Whilst the value of the ball is not self evident, the light is essential, even in a recognised yacht anchorage out of the channel. Any yacht arriving after dusk, anyone rowing back to their boat after a few jars, any rescue craft called out at night , will need to know you are there. Several people were fined last summer in the anchorage off Culatra by the Portuguese marine police for failing to hoist the correct signals.

 

[AndrewB]

Disagree with your assessment of the Bruce ...

Because it presents a large, almost flat palm at right-angles to the direction of pull, I find a Bruce useful on really soft holding, particularly powdered coral where nothing else will hold. But it doesn't like hard surfaces, even if the flukes are sharpened.

Like Mirelle, I rate the CQR the best all-rounder. Its big asset is the ability to get that initial grip, particularly on tricky bottoms like weed. My main anchor is a 45lb CQR 'lookalike'. It has been used over a thousand times, and on occasion the yacht has been left alone on it for several days.

Yes, it has dragged on occasion, but getting a firm hold is as much a matter of technique as it is of the exact type of anchor.

 

[PaulJ]

Perhaps I could restore your faith in your anchor by inviting you to join the club of those who have dragged in Lulworth! I was told that in the summer, this small anchorage is used so much by so many that the bottom is just constantly ploughed up and the holding is therefore always poor. It looks very sheltered in there but in fact you can get some very strong winds funnelling in between the hills. I won't bore you with my horror story but suffice it to say that you are not the only one to have dragged in Lulworth!

 

[Chris_Robb]

There is only one safe anchoring point in Lulworth - tucked under the west side where there is blue mud. I think elsewhere in luworth I have always dragged even with a huge amount of chain out. Otherwise nick that nice big mooring bouy in the middle!

 

[jimi]

Anchoring at Lulworth last saturday I had 4 goes before the hook bit. A french boat took 90 minutes before being satisfied. Le pauvre garcon had a manual windlass as well ... sair arms!

Jim

 

[Chris_Robb]

Charles - thanks for your input into the bent anchor thread. Couple of points have come up on the CQR. Someone once said to me that the CQR becomes difficult to set, when there is a lot of play between the shank and stock (through wear?) Also you mentioned keeping them sharp.

My experience with the CQR has been of having quite a problem getting it to set, but once it has - I have never dragged (except Lulworth - where the sands so soft there is no resistance). I tend to layout about 6 times the deapths inially- laying it out over the bottom, and trying to avoid any initial drag. Allowing it to settle under its own weight, and then - if wind and current is light - reversing slowly to drag it in, and then pulling in to about 4 to one. Since I have adopted this, I have had success even on a weedy area. However I have not had enough alround experiance to really test this theory.

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

I've seen reference to "sharpening" the anchor flukes/edges or what have you in the thread.

How "sharp" is "sharp"? My Bruce-a-like has radiused edges about 1/4" in diameter or so.

Two beers please, my friend is paying.

 

[MedMan]

Re: To the Glorious and Immortal Memory...

Me to - I now regard 4x as a minimum. I like the idea of blaming global warming or women priests but I suspect that it is more likely to be ano domini. The same relentless passing of the years that now has me checking 5 times that I have turned off the gas and locked the hatch rather than just three times as I did in my youth!

 

[MedMan]

I use a 20kg Bruce on 60 metres 10mm (3/8) chain on my Trident Voyager 35. Over the top in terms of specification but I have spent some 2000 nights or more laying to this tackle.

The Bruce is excellent in sand and mud but not so good in weed as its claw-like profile presents a large area that tends to sit on top of a weed bed.

I am a great advocate of motoring the anchor in by pulling back on it under power. However, over the years I have watched countless yachts repeatedly drag their anchor whilst doing this in places with perfectly good holding. In my view, this is caused my motoring back whilst having too little chain out. We all know that we need more chain in a strong blow - we also need it whilst motoring back.

An alied problem that I have witnessed more and more in recent years is caused by windlasses that power down as well as up. They are so, so slow. This results in yachts gathering sternway before their anchor has even reached the bottom! Terrible things - gravity is far better and quicker!

My normal procedure is to circle my proposed spot to check for depth and then approach the middle of the circle created by my wake from downwind(tide). Having come to a complete standstill I let the cable run whilst gathering slow sternway. I let out a minimum of 5x depth with a minimum of 25 metres however shallow the water and then pull back under power. I do this very slowly at first to take up the slack and then gradually increase revs up to 2000 rpm. Once I am happy that the anchor has set I shorten up the chain to something more suitable for the anchorage (depends how crowded it is) and the weather forecast (more wind - more chain) I usually settle on around 4x if no more than Force 3/4 is expected.

 

[Guest]

Interesting discussion on the question of scope. I have always worked on 3 x depth. Recently, a very knowledgeble friend suggested using the formula of 20 times the square root of the depth. Especially when trying to kedge in the middle of the Channel.

 

[tome]

Does your friend make a good living selling chain?

4m depth = 40 metres chain!

 

[Mirelle]

Setting a CQR

In the days of Fisherman anchors, yachtsmen were taught to drop the anchor and then allow the boat to pay back, slowly veering chain, before snubbing the anchor to set it.

This was because if you dump a pile of chain on top of your Fisherman you are sure to foul it with a turn round the exposed fluke.

Like several other bits of Hoary Old Nonsense, such as the twaddle about sending oilbags out to your sea anchor on an endless whip (the sea anchor rotates under load and fouls the line...) this has been copied by writers of "Sailing, how to" books from generation to generation, (proving that many of them seldom, if ever, go sailing!) and it is simply wrong in the case of modern anchors.

The CQR requires a sharp tug to get it to bite and this is best achieved by dumping a pile of chain onto it at once, then paying pack and snubbing. The chain cannot foul the anchor, and once the boat has accelerated away backwards, pulling chain out from the pile on top of the anchor, she will have enough momentum to snatch the anchor smartly into the ground.

Anyway, that's wot I fink!

 

[NigeCh]

There\'s only one immortal memory ...

Fair fa' your honest, sonsie face,

Great chieftain o' the pudding-race!

Aboon them a' yet tak your place,

Painch, tripe, or thairm:

Weel are ye wordy o'a grace

As lang's my arm.



The groaning trencher there ye fill,

Your hurdies like a distant hill,

Your pin was help to mend a mill

In time o'need,

While thro' your pores the dews distil

Like amber bead.



His knife see rustic Labour dight,

An' cut you up wi' ready sleight,

Trenching your gushing entrails bright,

Like ony ditch;

And then, O what a glorious sight,

Warm-reekin', rich!



Then, horn for horn, they stretch an' strive:

Deil tak the hindmost! on they drive,

Till a' their weel-swall'd kytes belyve

Are bent like drums;

Then auld Guidman, maist like to rive,

Bethankit! hums.



Is there that owre his French ragout

Or olio that wad staw a sow,

Or fricassee wad make her spew

Wi' perfect sconner,

Looks down wi' sneering, scornfu' view

On sic a dinner?



Poor devil! see him owre his trash,

As feckles as wither'd rash,

His spindle shank, a guid whip-lash;

His nieve a nit;

Thro' blody flood or field to dash,

O how unfit!



But mark the Rustic, haggis-fed,

The trembling earth resounds his tread.

Clap in his walie nieve a blade,

He'll mak it whissle;

An' legs an' arms, an' hands will sned,

Like taps o' trissle.



Ye Pow'rs, wha mak mankind your care,

And dish them out their bill o' fare,

Auld Scotland wants nae skinking ware

That jaups in luggies;

But, if ye wish her gratefu' prayer

Gie her a haggis!

 

[Guest]

Re: There\'s only one immortal memory ...

Somebody get a gun,NigeCH has finally gone mad. Either that or someone pop a flare and we'll get him carted off by the rescue services into the arms of the men in white coats<s>

 

[NigeCh]

Sorry Peter, I couldn\'t resist it

If we had sound here then I'd play the bagpipes.

In the JMCS I'm known as 'Mad Nige' and I still don't know why.

 

[Mirelle]

Anno Domini

I actually did forget to lower the burgee, the other day....