Anchors on bow rollers

Judders

Judders

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Am I the only person who gets very cross with the amount of damaged caused by people who leave their anchors on their bow-rollers, it ususally tends to be motorboats whose stem is above the toe-rail level of the average sailign yacht, but the extra damage caused simply through laziness seems ludicrous. Is it just me who get's irratated by this?
 
Welcome to the forum.

Don't quite understand your point. On our boat, a yot by the way, the anchor is designed to sit on the bow roller where it is secure and out of the way of feet, etc. It is not laziness that leaves the anchor there it is where it is supposed to sit.

I'd agree that more damage is done if clouted by craft with anchor on front but then by the time that a craft is out of control enough to cause damage to another craft whether you are whacked by the anchor or the pulpit or the bow rollers the matter is going to be largely academic.
 
The bow roller is the only place I can keep my anchor and it keeps the deck clear, it is always ready to launch (could be very useful in an emergency) and avoids hernias. Nothing to do with laziness. My boat is a sailing boat. I have never hit anyone and I fail to see why an anchor on the bow roller should be inherently dangerous. Damage would only be done if the helm drove the boat into someone else, in which case damage would be done whether or not the anchor is there. What about bow sprits? Should old gaffers remove their bow sprits? What about wind vanes and other contraptions often seen on the transom? Could cause a lot of damage if the owner reversed into someone. What about large steel yachts with big overhanging bows? Do these make you angry too? If I remove the anchor I would still have a large stainless bow roller jutting out with pointy edges. If I decide to ram someone it would still cause lots of damage. If a boat with an anchor on the bow causes damage I would suggest the problem is the driver, not the anchor.

Marcus
 
Welcome,
Yes, actually I'm a bit puzzled as to your point, most modern yachts and motor boats have their anchors stowed in bow rollers. that's where they are designed to be stowed.
 
My old gaffer has a bowsprit; I used to keep the anchor on the bow roller but more recently, driven by the quest for speed, I have gone back to stowing it on deck (weight further aft /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif)

It is easier to pick up a mooring if the anchor is not on the bow roller, of course.
 
I too dislike the practice ........... there have been a number of occasions I have seen boats turing in marinas where room is limited .... the bow fender has actually been useless and the anchor been the item that has connected to the other boat.

No anchor was actually designed to stow over the roller - despite all the claims and advertising - they are all designed to be stowed properly. It is laziness that has developed this common action - not necessarily of the present person - but from the action of many and it becoming accepted practice ...

I can stow mine over the roller - but choose to do it properly in the designed deck chocks .... leaving the roller available for its other job - mooring line.

Sorry - but I would like to see all anchors OFF rollers .....

/forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif
 
Well it seems fair enough to say that if you don't hit anyone then it's not a problem and I quite understand the design argument, although I may disagree with the design.

To qualify my point, I deal with boating accidents for a living and have, this week, had a number of such cases. I find it irratating that in all cases the damage has been made worse by the presence of an anchor, however I appreciate that whislt this is a agrivating factor, it would not have made any difference at all had the helm not steered his vessel into another one.

For the record I can only recall one incident where a bowsprit caused the damage to be worse.
 
In praise of bowsprits.

I have owned two boats with bowsprits.

Oddly enough, both of them have stuck their bowsprit through the porthole of another boat; I was not on board on either occasion. Mytica managed it on her mooring and broke the bowsprit (the end was found on the saloon floor of a rather handsome Cheoy Lee 10 tonner on the next mooring - the porthole had been left open for ventilation!) and Mirelle managed it under a previous owner, under way, but withdrew the proboscis with no damage to bowsprit or moored motorboat, which, again, had the porthole open!

I am always mildly amused by the look of terror which comes over the faces of people in moored boats if we sail through an anchorage; I have yet to hit something, but it seems to me that a boat struck by, probably, the bobstay of a gaff cutter, would suffer less damage than a boat struck by the stem of a more modern boat, as the force of impact would dissipate more gently.
 
Re: In praise of bowsprits.

Think its more the threat of rape by a bowsprit which engenders terror ... quite rightly .. as I'd imagine it would be difficult to walk again .. for either sex.
 
Just looking at the average merchant ship ought to convince you of the error of your argument. The anchor is attached to its rode and sits on its rollers, albeit inboard. On my craft the stem is designed to take the anchor, as is the roller.

The fact that damage is caused by anchors on the bow is no reason to move them to some place else. Following this line to its logical conclusion perhpas I should move my self steering gear in board in case I clout a craft when in reverse. /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
As indeed to Royal Navy vessels however Solent sailors will be familiar with the Nic 55s and Vic 34s from Gosport and you'd not see one of them with thier anchor on show.
 
Hands up, my name is mark and I keep my anchor on the roller....

BUT boy do I get pissed off if I crack my shoulder or head on someone elses when strolling up the pontoon after a couple of pints!

Mark
 
My Jeanneau has a twin sided bow roller, and a lazy extension which supports the anchor in the roller position. It is also linked by chain through the locker lid aperture to the electric windlass. It has securing bridle for the stock, and a locking pin over. In other words it is designed to be there.
At 35lbs CQR it is also effing heavy and SWMBO would not appreciate me telling her to risk another slipped disc in the name of sailing.
The port side roller is used for mooring lines. I also have a 12kg Bruce stored in the Port Aft locker where it wont kill anyone, and a 6kg Aluminium Fortress in the Starboard Aft locker if I only want to maim you.
I too believe that I shouldn't hit anything, and also believe that my anchor should be ready to deploy in case I run out of options in manoevering for any reason.
So I am afraid it will stay where it is for now.

I am applying for a patent on a padded anchor condom. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
Or an electrically heated one for MOBOs /forums/images/graemlins/tongue.gif

Jim
 
I had misgivings about anchors on bow fittings and had to move mine for the RTIR - but what a pain! Apart from the difficulty in reaching over and lifting a large heavy chunk of metal off the rollers - where do you put it? It doesn't fit in the "anchor well" as it is too long, I couldn't consider carrying it aft to the cockpit locker, the deck is too flat and would need suitable attachments fitted to it - so I tied it to the underside of the pulpit and the toerail. If I'd needed to drop it in a hurry, goodness knows what would have happened.
My misgivings come from an accident on a boat my daughter happened to be sailing on. A heavy displacement boat "T boned" a lighter Bav style boat and scrunched the deck, hull toe rail and subsequently the danforth anchor (stowed on the roller) then tried to take down the mast by pulling on the shrouds and moving the guard rails by hooking on. The owner of the Bav is emphatic that the anchor made the damage much worse. I saw the deck/Hull damage and am not so sure as there was already a big repair bill.
 
I agree with you, my anchor is left on the roller, properly secured, but ready for release, so in a panic I could actually drop it and quick!!

BUT I do agree that no boat should be moored with the anchor over the jetty/pontoon etc., even without the vino it is a positive danger, and I would agree that it is a negligent act, but as for the bow roller, well that is where my anchor will stay.
 
But does it matter? If the boat is designed to store the hook at the front why move it? At the risk of labouring the point any more, it is not necessarily laziness that puts the hook up the front just design.

As I'm in that kind of frame of mind today, a line of argument one might pursue is that anchors on front of boats predate marinas so perhaps we have to alter the design of the marina rather than the boat? /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif
 
How many accidents do you see? and out of the ones you do how many are caused by the anchore being where it is? and out of those involving the anchore how many of those are the fault of the boat with the anchore in the rollers (the place it's designed to be)?!?!

Just courious cause I've only ever seen ...er...none.
 
Yes but why is it designed to be there? It's not because it's the safest or most seamanlike place for it to be, it's certainly not a racing consideration, it's there because that is where the least amount of effort on the part of the potential purchaser of the vessel is required. I would maintain that the design parameters are skewed.
 
CQR handling

I have a 45lbs CQR bower and a 35lb kedge, both stowed on deck.

The trick to manhandling a CQR is to do what its designer, Professor Geoffrey Taylor, FRS, suggested, in the very first article about his new anchor, in the January 1938 Yachting Monthly.

If you splice a fathom or so of rope onto the eye on the back of the anchor, fish for that with the boathook, grab it and use that to pick the anchor up with, it behaves itself, does not try to bite you, and can be plonked down where you want it, with less risk of bad back.

For some reason this bit of advice got forgotten in all the publicity and articles and books that mention the CQR.

On the other hand, in our boat, SWMBO drives whilst I do the anchor stuff...

Oh, why do I read 1938 Yachting Monthlies?

Two reasons - they are commonly better than the new ones - and the January 1938 issue has the review of my boat in it! /forums/images/graemlins/smirk.gif
 
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