More anchoring madness??

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webcraft

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Just read the anchoring article in this months mag . . . where Tom Cunliffe appears to favour breaking out an anchor by going hard ASTERN on it.

The accompanying pic appears shows this procedure being carried out with the rode at 45 degrees or less to the bow roller, indicating at least 2-1 scope still out.

I have watched someone trying this manoevre in Puilladobhrain - very entertaining for spectators, but not very effective.

According to this article the reason is that you might damage your gel coat by motoring forwards . . . what on earth is wrong with simply motoring until the rode is straight up and down, which is the normally accepted practice.

Looking forward to hearing Tom's explanation on this one.

- Nick
 
Going astern would only work if you had an anchor lifter buoy, but is still not as effective as changing the angle of the anchor by driving round it.
 
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According to this article the reason is that you might damage your gel coat by motoring forwards

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Yup - I find my rope does untold damage to my Gelcoat ....
 
Bow fenders

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According to this article the reason is that you might damage your gel coat by motoring forwards

[/ QUOTE ]
Yup - I find my rope does untold damage to my Gelcoat ....

[/ QUOTE ]

A nice big bow fender makes all the difference. I don't just motor until the rode is up and down. When its really well dug in I sometimes break it out by nudging forward with the rode hard up against the fender. Very effective and no topside damage whatsoever.
 
I haven't read the article, but sounds like a case of the sub-editors not doing their job. /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
 
The paragraph in question reads:

" Rather than 'busting a gut' to pull out the anchor, which was well dug in, we shortened the scope as far as we could, then motored hard astern. This flipped it clear with no nasty side effects. If we'd motored ahead over it, the anchor would have broke out all right, but we'd have crunched the cable along our topsides and even risked it interfering with the propellor. Much tidier to go astern. "

Webcraft is right, the rode looks like its still at least 2:1 which doesn't really comply with the words.

So no editorial mistake - he meant it!
 
All the text books seem to show anchoring on a flat sea-bed.

I cruise in the Western Isles and rarely find anywhere flat and yet swinging room is often restricted by rocks and shore. Last year we dragged at 3knotts down a very narrow loch after anchoring in kelp!

Any advice on anchoring in rocky coves, in the mountains in poor weather would be very welcome.
 
It's not as convenient as just dropping the hook and some rode, but other nations having scoured and glaciated inlets find a use for rockclimbers' 'pitons' and a hammer. This usually requires use of the dinghy for a few minutes, while hammerig the pitons into cracks in the rocks, and securing your lines. What's good enough for Sir RKJ.......

The Norwegians and Swedes use these much of the time, and the more popular spots have permanent pegs cemented into the rock, with rings. You'll find this is a well-used practice in old commercial ports and landings in the Isles - such as Loch Scavaig, where the downdrafts have been known to 'flip' an 8-metre trimaran. So visit your local climbing shop, and acqaint yourself with 'Z-pegs, Leepers and Bongs'.
 
LochScavaig2004.jpg
 
Strange advice from somebody with so much experience. We got an anchor well and truly stuck under a rocky ledge off Majorca this year and had we kept going astern we would have pulled the winch out of the deck. Similarly going forward and pulling up vertically was not successful either as the flukes were still pulling on the ledge
Eventually decided the only way to get it out was to rotate the shank so I laid out some more chain to get a more horizontal pull on the anchor and managed to get the boat crabbing sideways around the anchor. This had the desired effect and rotated the anchor sufficiently to get it free of the ledge
 
Re: Bow fenders

Thanks for the advice - but I was being sarcastic!
I would've thought the only damage to topsides would occur when your dealing with chain.
 
Probably just a poor choice of photos to illustrate the article. If you pull in until the anchor is up-and-down, a tug astern will certainly break it out.
 
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Last year we dragged at 3knotts down a very narrow loch after anchoring in kelp!

[/ QUOTE ]Happened to us at Craighouse in a gale - we'd dragged a lot more than 200m before we realised (down below, feet up, reading a book at the time). Craighouse kelp can be enormous - I'm sure about 10m. Takes ages to get it off the hook.

Saw a few good drags in Canna last year on two separate occasions. One boat hit us, another lifted our second anchor, and another had the skipper doing his anchor transits - blissfully unaware that he was passing us going about three knots backwards. Wasn't you was it?. /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

There are places where kelp is unavoidable. We find that our usual CQR doesn't hold well in kelp so we use a heavy fisherman's anchor as a second anchor in a "V" layout. I'm normally not keen on using the fisherman's anchor as it's almost impossible to avoid damaging the gelcoat when recovering it (too lazy to recover it with the dinghy).

Fisherman's anchor is also about the only one that's got half a chance of working on rock.
 
Re: Bow fenders

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Thanks for the advice - but I was being sarcastic!
I would've thought the only damage to topsides would occur when your dealing with chain.

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Mine is chain. On the other hand, my springs (rope) most certainly do damage my paintwork if I don't loop them out of the way. I wouldn't motor forward on the anchor without a bow fender with rope or chain.
 
Re: Bow fenders

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On the other hand, my springs (rope) most certainly do damage my paintwork if I don't loop them out of the way

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I'm curious now - how do your springs damage your paintwork?

Just for reference, we pickup the racing marks at the end of each season with our club workboat, all chain and a big concrete weight at the bottom, motor over the top of it every time, to break it free from the bottom. - Method goes:
1) Haul in as much as possible over the bow
2) Tie off (either turn around a cleat or rope it off)
3) Move to the back of the boat
4) engage !
5) once it is broken free, haul in a bit more until it is suspended a foot or 2 below the bow.

We did try reversing out once or twice, but it did work because:
1) Reversing does not excert the lift that is apparent when driving forwards
2) Not as much power available in reverse
Mind you, a concrete block sat on a muddy bottom for 8 months can be very difficult to extract!
 
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