laying to two anchors.

[BrianH]

Incidentally, when I do use the dinghy to set an anchor or take a line, then I use Vyv's trick - the anchor is held outside the boat by a quick release line. Chain (not more than 5m) and rode (anchor end first) are then flaked on the dinghy floor. The bitter end is then cleate to the mother ship. Then I row, and the rope pays itself out, and doesn't have to be towed towed through the water. When you reach the chain, pay it out quickly and drop the anchor. Back to the boat to pull in.

Yep, hanging the anchor outboard of the dinghy would be a great advantage that I have not considered.

This thread prompted me to discuss the subject with the SO and she assured me that we had once (in the days long ago that she crewed with me - and very well despite her fears) laid out two anchors in a V and that I had used the dinghy. It was in a very large bay, Pantera in the north of Dugi Otok, Croatia, in a very rare sirocco gale with enough fetch to raise quite a sea, and slowly the memory came back - probably suppressed because it was so horrid and probably why I hadn't considered using the dinghy in the later event described above.

 

[NormanS]

An interesting thread, which I have missed because I've been away sailing for the last couple of weeks.
We now (for the last 10 years) have a 36 ft ketch, and if conditions merit it, deploy two anchors in a vee. Our second anchor is a Fortress FX23, so easy to lay with the dinghy provided that it's done in time. However, our previous boat was a 60ft converted Scottish fishing boat, whose anchors (various) each weighed 140lbs, so normally any second anchor was laid using the boat, rather than the dinghy!

My experience suggests that there is a huge gain from using two anchors, probably with about up to 60° between them. It generally means that the load on the anchor is always in line with the anchor, and not pulling it from side to side.

A Bahamian Moor is different. I leave my boat anchored, unattended, for a period of four weeks each year, in a sheltered (from the sea) sealoch in the Outer Hebrides, and to save the anchor having to re-set every time the wind changes, I use the Bahamian Moor. I accept that when the wind blows across the line of the two anchors, there is a disproportionate load on the anchors, but in the places where I do this, I know the holding to be excellent.

Some have mentioned the use of a riding sail, and I use one at times, and find that it greatly reduces yawing at anchor, which in turn tends to cut down on pulling the anchor from side to side.

 

[jimbaerselman]

A Bahamian Moor is different. I leave my boat anchored, unattended, for a period of four weeks each year, in a sheltered (from the sea) sealoch in the Outer Hebrides, and to save the anchor having to re-set every time the wind changes, I use the Bahamian Moor. I accept that when the wind blows across the line of the two anchors, there is a disproportionate load on the anchors, but in the places where I do this, I know the holding to be excellent..

Yes. In these conditions I leave enough slack at the rode join so that the "splay" between rodes at the join is about 120 degrees. The strain on individual anchors should then not exceed the strain exerted on a single anchor "in line".

Of course, what's needed to achieve 120 splay is a wild guess . . . but I reckon if there's some drag, the anchors will be pulled together, so it's self healing!

Best riding sail is a triangle folded in half. Head is top of the triangle. Tack is centre of the foot, where it's folded. Two clews are led aft to the quarters of the boat, splayed about 30 to 60 degrees. Some use a spreader bar between the clues. If you're not a ketch, cut the tack up, so its not a triangle, but a quadrilateral indented at the bottom. Inelegant, but can then hoist from the masthead and tack to the boom end - or whatever suits.

 

[GHA]

An old foresail, some time at a sewing machine and a few hours splicing fiddling today. Might be breezy Friday, we'll see.

Friday was indeed breezy.

Oops......

Top tip, if it's gusting 30kts and you're playing around rigging a riding sail, do try to remember there's a whirling dervish of a wind gen just above the solar panels..

Rrrrrrrrrrip.....

Oh well, It was always a trial run, the idea and size was in the right neck of the woods. Maybe a touch smaller and out of heavier cloth.