Best anchor gear for East Coast

AntarcticPilot said:
When I was a lad, back in Noah's day (1960s), 3:1 was regarded as the standard with more only if extreme weather was expected. On the West Coast of Scotland (where anchorages are often quite small), it's still fairly usual. Larger scopes, as well as the disadvantages you mention, can be anti-social in some situations. In a sheltered anchorage (and I wouldn't use any other kind), I'd only use more if a) I was expecting extreme weather and b) there was swinging room for a longer scope. Of course, that's 3:1 at high water; around the East coast that will be a lot more at low water.
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The tendency in scotland is all chain though, which would fit with the 3:1 scope.
 
Back in the '70s when we were keen we would often lie to two anchors, fore & aft, because that was what the books recommended. This was especially beneficial off Orford Quay and in the Butley. There were, if I remember, three ways of laying out the second anchor but the only one we used was to take the second anchor with its line out in the dinghy. I would like to have done the 'running moor' but the risk of anyone watching was always far too great.
 
johnalison said:
Back in the '70s when we were keen we would often lie to two anchors, fore & aft, because that was what the books recommended. This was especially beneficial off Orford Quay and in the Butley. There were, if I remember, three ways of laying out the second anchor but the only one we used was to take the second anchor with its line out in the dinghy. I would like to have done the 'running moor' but the risk of anyone watching was always far too great.
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Snap!
 
On the whole around the East Coast, with several different anchors including Danforth and Bruce copies (which are generally rated poorly), I have found more problems getting the anchor to let go of the bottom than getting it to hang on!

Kukri said:
There is of course the Notorious Pipeweed Problem in Hanford Water…
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I have not often found that a problem in recent years. Occasionally the anchor won't set (presumably because of pipeweed) and has to be done again, usually successful second time.

The exception being some decades back when I arrived in Hamford Water (from Burnham IIRC) with a friend in his heavyweight deep draught long-keeled boat. We had scraped in at predicted low tide, and I helpfully suggested that made life easy, as anywhere we could get to to anchor now would obviously have enough depth for us, thus saving having to calculate it.

We had multiple unsuccessful attempts to set the anchor (CQR) where we intended to anchor. Quite tiring and time consuming with a very slow manual winch, and a skipper who favoured a mile of extra heavy chain (and the crew doing the winching). Eventually we gave up there, and moved upstream a bit to where there were a couple of other boats already anchored. There we repeated the same palaver. One of the nearby boats called over to sympathise, and said the pipeweed was particularly bad that year.

So we headed off again further upstream and edged inshore where, at long last, the anchor finally bit. Exhausted from the trip and the marathon anchoring session, we put the kettle on and relaxed. A pleasant evening ensued.

A little before dawn I found myself half-awake, and it drowsily crossed my mind that I'd never previously noticed that this settee berth sloped slightly towards the centre of the boat. It was probably not very long before I realised it was increasingly doing so, and woke up with a start. I tiptoed around, trying not to wake the skipper, went on deck and in the early dawn concluded we were, as I feared, aground. A check of the almanac showed that predicted low water was not at all imminent.

A little while later I heard the skipper sleepily calling me from the forecabin, asking 'What's going on?' He dragged himself up, and we had an early breakfast, wondering how far we'd heel before the tide turned. We then sat drinking tea as we slowly found out.

Eventually the gunwhale was in the water, then it crept up the side deck, and then started coming up the saloon windows, and trickling through the windows' (obviously not very successful) bedding! To our enormous relief the tide then started to come back up, and the event turned into one of our many 'adventures' we could laugh about.

My advice to you is that if you are going to base your assessment of the adequacy of the depth for anchoring on the low tide on arrival, don't forget (a) the next low tide may well be significantly lower than the current one, and (b) any time elapsed, and areas becoming accessible, after the arrival low tide before you actually get the anchor set! :whistle:
 
dont know if the east coast is special in any particular way ,but i have a sadler 26 last year i bought a Rocna anchor and have found it wonderful, sets easily , comes up easily, i have 25 mtrs 8ml chain and 30 mtrs 8 plat rope, usualy for overnight put all the chain out and some 8 plat for stretch, never been so happy about anchoring ,now sleep well . with my old plough would often take many attempts to feel it had set and then really just felt so worn out of pulling it all in and resetting it that i convinced myself it was set when really i was too tired to do it again, with the Rocna drop it over the side reverse back and you feel it grab in seconds and your not moving, then a quick blast of full on reverse and you are reassured , then its beer o'clock.
 
Kukri said:
It’s “notorious”.

It used to be a real issue, but less so in recent years.

(Forty years ago I was using a Danforth..)
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Interesting! We've not anchored there a lot over the last 11 years but when we have I haven't noticed any weed nor do I recall reading or hearing about it hence my curiosity :)
 
I think we had some difficulty there about 20 yrs ago but like others not in recent years. Perhaps we have all ploughed it away. There are probably no seahorses around either.
 
Kukri said:
The fast flowing lowest reaches of the Deben and the Ore have shingle bottoms and nothing will hold against a strong ebb in that.
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I have anchored with a CQR against 6 knots of ebb in the entrance of the Ore. We had snuck in at dead low water (a few years ago, I believe it has shallowed since) but found we couldn't make reasonable headway once the river narrowed so dropped anchor for an hour or so.
 
TLouth7 said:
I have anchored with a CQR against 6 knots of ebb in the entrance of the Ore. We had snuck in at dead low water (a few years ago, I believe it has shallowed since) but found we couldn't make reasonable headway once the river narrowed so dropped anchor for an hour or so.
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Well done! In similar circumstances I found myself moving slowly backwards.

(We should explain to non-natives that the ebb runs hard for a good hour after low water).
 
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