Do you use an anchor watch alarm ?

Do you use an anchor watch alarm ?

  • I always use an alarm

    Votes: 43 40.6%

  • I never use an alarm

    Votes: 38 35.8%

  • I only set an alarm if strong winds are forecast

    Votes: 19 17.9%

  • I never use an alarm but would do if I had few false alarms

    Votes: 6 5.7%
  • Total voters
    106
When I anchor and I perceive there to be an element of risk, I switch on the handheld GPS once anchored and look at the tracks it makes as we swing. Usually, it forms a consistent arc, without moving further away from the original anchor point. If all is OK, I usually switch it off again but occationally wake up and check our position relative to the anchor point and previous tracks, which will clearly show if we are dragging. Nice thing about handheld is I can take it to bed so no getting up to check it. If the risk is particularly high, I would set a distance alarm from the anchor drop point around anchor chain + boat length.
 
We use an alarm only when the conditions are sufficiently awful to merit caution. We are like Vyv, would not use one normally as the power consumption of the chartplotter does not merit using an alarm when winds are 10 knots (and we are in a sheltered anchorage). Anchor alarms are unfortunately a total misrepresentation as you would need to have the chartplotter in your berth to hear one. If in fact your chart plotter is at the helm, as many are, and you sleep in a massive queen berth in the forepeak of your 45' yacht then you will never, ever , hear the alarm. We have wired our alarm through a A$6 piezo electric alarm which does wake us, and most other people we guess within 1 nm! Most new chartplotters have a facility to wire in a separate alarm - its very easy (and as mentioned - cheap and heart stoppingly effective.

If we had a low power consumtion unit, we still only use it under adverse conditions.
 
AntarcticPilot said:
I have attempted to use on, but found the number of false-alarms unacceptable if it was to give useful warning of danger. Further, mine is through my chart-plotter, so it also uses an unacceptable amount of power for overnight usage.
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I don't know why this should be, but I have experienced it with various pieces of kit: chartplotters occasionally throw spurious positions (and thus spurious alarms if anchor watch is set); fixed GPS sets very rarely do so. (I don't know about hand-held GPS: the alarm's so feeble, and my hearing not the best, that I'd never use one for this purpose.)

Chartplotters, as said, use too much power and are usually in the wrong place. The other trouble is that so far as I know only two fixed GPS units are now sold: Garmin 152 and a Furuno model. Both can be wired to an external alarm. The Garmin, for reasons I can't fathom, bleeps four times and then stops. This can be overcome, but at the expense of extra circuitry. On the whole I don't think we're best served by the geeks who make our kit.
 
All the replies citing power drain are relevant to my non-use too, but also a factor is where I anchor. Where I cruise I am fortunate to be able to choose very protected anchorages and only very strong winds could pose a problem and I always am woken up by them. Usually I would be more at risk by a neighbouring boat swinging into me and that also is likely to be precluded by some warning noises before anything serious can occur.
 
Interesting thread.

Navionics on iPad seems to work well enough for a wee visual check whenever you stir, just put a wp in when you anchor, so you can easily see, with stupid sleepy head on, if you have moved, and the batt life is fine, gps stays on when the screen sleeps. Advantage is, can be used from any berth on any boat.

On my own boat, I can see the non plotter old garmin gps from my bunk, and leave it in graphic mode, zoomed in, with a safe wp and a couple of danger wp's set for scale. Uses very little power, and you cant beat the ability to have a quick glance from a warm bunk, as often as paranoia dictates, without getting up too often.

The only time I dragged with an anchor alarm setup on a fixed set, I was expecting a klaxon or gong, to alert me to danger, but the alarm provided made a casio watch alarm seem majestic, after that I just fell out the habit. I guess I just don't want the false sense of security if having an alarm set, to lull me into feeling to secure, and sleeping too deeply as a result.
 
Neeves said:
We use an alarm only when the conditions are sufficiently awful to merit caution. We are like Vyv, would not use one normally as the power consumption of the chartplotter does not merit using an alarm when winds are 10 knots (and we are in a sheltered anchorage).
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You would think it would be impossible to drag in less than 10 knots and you would be close to being right, but I managed it once. In fact I think it was about 6-7 knots.

I was using an anchor buoy because there was a lot of abandoned moorings. The buoy rope wrapped around the stern ladder and with the 1:1 pull unset the anchor. The alarm was all that woke me.

I know people will say "I don't use an anchor buoy", but then there was that case where the shank pulled out of the Spade and the boat was lost, people will say "I am not so stupid as to forget the locking nut" but then there are cases where swivels have broken, shackles have come undone etc etc. Yes with diligence you should be able to prevent all these problems, but sooner or later we all make mistakes, or equipment lets us down in an unexpected way.

Are you sure you will wake up if the wind rises? Are you sure the forcast is right?

An anchor alarm provides an extra layer of protection.

At 4 AHrs a day it earns it keep.

I agree about the loudness of the alarm. A B&W low power unit next to your bed is ideal. You can turn over at any time and see what the wind and boat is doing. It can be tied into the main navigation system as a backup GPS which is a great safety addition on its own.
 
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noelex said:
You would think it would be impossible to drag in less than 10 knots and you would be close to being right, but I managed it once. In fact I think it was about 6-7 knots.
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Other than times when the anchor didn't set properly in the first place, mostly due to weed, we have dragged four times totally unexpectedly. One was in quite a lot of wind when we were in bed. The cause turned out to be a massive ball of fishing line around the anchor, which having held us all night suddenly decided to let go at 0600. The other three were all in light wind, one in F3 when the connector broke, the other two in F 1-2 when our Fortress failed to reset after the wind changed direction. In one of the latter two we were in bed but not yet asleep, in both the other two we were eating in the cockpit.
 
We have a handheld Garmin GPS unit which is dedicated to anchor watch and therefore stays in our cabin. We have added an external aerial (we are steel) so that we don't get woken because the unit has lost the signal. We also set the wind speed alarm if we are expecting anything to worry about and the sounder alarm if we haven't been totally sure of the anchor set.

All that might seem overkill but as we anchor 365 days a year we find the use of an anchor alarm, and the others, invaluable in enabling us to get a good night's sleep.
 
If power consumption is a significant issue you could always try an alternative system that an instructor recently described to me. It was used, he says, by an old American liveaboard.

4-pound lead weight. Length of monofilament fishing line. Tie line to weight and lower over the side when at anchor. Create adequate spare length of line, route other end through galley hatch and tie to kettle. Simple, cheap?
 
The chart plotter one is rather quiet and uses a lot of power, so the 'anchor drag' app for the i-phone does the business and sits beside the pillow. Pretty accurate and doesn't give false alarms..... the one time it did go off in a tight bay at Rona, was 0300hrs and it was right! Gave me the time to re-position and redeploy the hook.
 
Seatrout said:
The chart plotter one is rather quiet and uses a lot of power, so the 'anchor drag' app for the i-phone does the business and sits beside the pillow.
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The YAPP open source anchor alarm uses 28mA (so quarter of an Ah over a night), is configurable, watches 6 parameters, can be placed right beside your pillow, and I find much more useful than a current guzzling chart plotter or a depth sounder alarm beeping away to no-one in the cockpit. It's Seatalk only, but a NMEA version could be made available if there's enough interest.

http://www.yappelectronics.co.uk/SAW.htm
 
I like to keep electricity consumption to an absolute minimum; generally everything is off at night. In particularly blowy conditions I switch on the GPS (old Garmin 128), press the MOB button and watch it for half an hour to spot any untoward movement. If all's well it goes off. Same routine if I'm concerned at night. Generally speaking, though, I prefer to take my comfort from a well set anchor than from an alarm.
 
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