Kedge anchor

Gosh, how amusing! What has this story got to do with laying out a kedge, please?

Never, ever, put the anchor in the dinghy. Lower it overboard from the yacht into the water and then hang it off the stern of the dinghy with a slip line round the thwart.

Never, never, “into”!

Oooeeeeerrrr .... you won't last long on here with that attitude. ;)

If I were you, I'd put me on ignore. :encouragement:

Richard
 
Oooeeeeerrrr .... you won't last long on here with that attitude. ;)

If I were you, I'd put me on ignore. :encouragement:

Richard

I am sure there are many readers who enjoy your comic talents, and others who wonder why anyone would repeatedly drive the length of Europe with a 25kg anchor in his car, but there may be some who actually don’t have much experience in laying out a kedge anchor from a dinghy and who don’t understand why, in common with most people who do know what they are doing, I say “don’t put the anchor in the dinghy when running out a kedge!”

Feel free to put me on ignore whilst, for the benefit of people who, unlike you, don’t know all that there is to be knowed, I spell it out:

If the anchor is in the dinghy, you are going to need to pick it up and throw it overboard. In doing this, if it is a big anchor, you stand a very good chance of capsizing the dinghy and / or going overboard yourself, and in any case you will, in the course of picking up the anchor, have been unable to keep the dinghy where you want to drop the anchor.
 
Minn, surely your warning is aimed at people who have large kedge anchors and round bottom dinghies. A light weight anchor deployed from an inflatable doesn't pose that risk.

Yes, indeed, but the second part of the warning still holds good - by the time you have either shipped the oars or put the outboard to idle and let go of the tiller, in order to chuck the little anchor, the flat bottomed inflatable will have drifted away from the spot where you want to drop the kedge. It's so much easier to just slip a short line to drop the anchor.
 
Normally, when we're laying out a second anchor (Fortress FX23), I row the dinghy, and my wife sits in the back with the anchor. As we approach to the required position, she will be paying out the line, followed by the 5m of chain. As she slides the anchor over, she will then pay out the tripping line until the anchor is on the bottom. Doing it this way, means that not only is the anchor facing the right way, but it is impossible for the chain to be caught up in the flukes, which can happen with a Danforth/Fortress type if it's just chucked over the side.

I always rig a tripping line on a second anchor, and on both if I'm rigging a Bahamian Moor.
 
As she slides the anchor over, she will then pay out the tripping line until the anchor is on the bottom. Doing it this way, means that not only is the anchor facing the right way, but it is impossible for the chain to be caught up in the flukes, which can happen with a Danforth/Fortress type if it's just chucked over the side. I always rig a tripping line on a second anchor, and on both if I'm rigging a Bahamian Moor.

What's this place coming to?

Sound practical sense, an' all. 'Damn good idea , that!'

What happened to the familiar and conventional dose of abuse? ;)
 
What does "kedge" mean to you?

From the Oxford English Dictionary:

kedge
verb

(with reference to a boat) move or be moved by hauling in a hawser attached at a distance to a small anchor.
with object ‘I kedged the dinghy to the port’
no object ‘most of the smaller boats had to kedge for a while’

noun

A small anchor used for kedging.


Some (not most) of us seem to be using the word "kedge" as a synonym for storm anchor. If it is, share a reference.
 
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I tend to refer to a "second" anchor, so it's a multipurpose thing, and can be used as an additional anchor, an alternative anchor, or could indeed be used for kedging. I don't think there's a lot of doubt as to what is meant.
 
I tend to refer to a "second" anchor, so it's a multipurpose thing, and can be used as an additional anchor, an alternative anchor, or could indeed be used for kedging. I don't think there's a lot of doubt as to what is meant.

Agreed, but when hear folks talk about really heavy, old iron, I'm not so sure what meaning is intended. To me, a kedge would always be a light, extremely high holding anchor, which generally means something like a Fortress (many other possibilities).
 
I don't use the word, because I'm not entirely sure what people mean when they use it. It does usually become clear when the word is used and how it is used is available in the script.

However the idea of carrying a small anchor for one specific application is illogical - when you can carry a full sized aluminium alloy anchor (or steel if you are a dinosaur) that can also be used as your primary, supplement to primary and as a kedge (using that English dictionary meaning).

As this thread has developed I have wondered how many people actually 'kedge' - we have never done it, never had the need - but we have had the need for a second anchor, to use in a 'V', to replace the primary when we lost one (retrieved later) and to lend one to others. Unlike Norman we have never Bahamian moored either - but then we have never experienced directly 75 knot winds (and our wind gear does not measure that high!) - nor want to :(. I understand why Norman Bahamian moors - leaving the yacht for a considerable time - but in Port Davey (Tas) its so isolated you cannot leave the yacht - its a 4-5 days hike out to the nearest road - and everywhere else would have decent shelter - somewhere.

The word is not used that much here - so I assume people don't do it - much.

Jonathan
 
I most certainly have kedged off, more often than I care to think about, after going aground, and I suspect that many people who sail in and around the creeks of the Thames estuary have done so, and I have also kedged in the other sense of dropping a light anchor to stop the current taking you back when it falls calm when racing. This latter situation often arises when the land breeze dies and there is a lull before the sea breeze sets in.
 
The Volvo fleet, all of them, kedged to stem a tide in Storm Bay after leaving Cape Town, so not uncommon - except they do not carry kedges and deployed full sized Fortress, don't recall but I guess FX85, maybe even the FX125 (but both are pretty hefty bits of kit).

Running aground in a cat is not the anguish of a keeled yacht - and its better, usually, to accept the situation and clean the hull (rather than the possibility of damaging the gelcoat).

Jonathan
 
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Down here we have things we call tides :). when the tide rises - we float off - and reverse the course (easier if you put a track on your gps). It simply requires patience. Because we dry out flat - running aground is 'easier' on sand for cats - and we tend to be a bit less worried about grounding. I'm going to 'ground', dry out, in 2 weeks time (the tides are right) - to clean the props. We tend to inspect in advance to make sure the seabed is 'clean'. Obviously if you ground at high tide and the next high tide is lower (you grounded by accident) and then you need lot of thrust (from engine), discharge all your fresh water or need to deploy a 'kedge'.

The Volvo yachts carry 2 Fortress, both the same size. The equipment, including the rode, is supplied as standard - all yachts carry the same kit. Clipper yachts carry Delta, one big, one smaller, don't recall the sizes (but the big one is quite large 45kg ish). I assume the small one is a 'kedge'. (Why they do not use aluminium alloy is a mystery) They are stored in the forepeak and use a halyard to take them out through a foredeck hatch. Vendee Globe yacht also carry 2 x Fortress (or Guardian). I think FX85 (or the G85) - and they have been used in anger. On one race 4 - 8 year ago - anchored in Sandy Bay, Auckland Island (on an authorised or approved stop) the nylon rode cut through, they have no bow roller, and the second Fortress deployed - on leaving the rode was simply cut - there are 2 x FX 85 in Sandy Bay if anyone is passing.

Jonathan
 
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