No idea how to anchor

[boomerangben]

Common sense, 17 attempts, different techniques……. It seems to me that anchoring is plainly not just common sense to low experienced charter skippers. My anchoring is relatively limited and have never tried to anchor on sea grass (at least not to my knowledge). Harvested kelp in Canna as you do, but otherwise with great success. But Scottish mud and sand is pretty straightforward. I wouldn’t know the technique specific to sea grass although perhaps my standard drill would work.

But if you charter, AIUI, you need a Day Skipper or equivalent. Having done my CS last year with a crew who were also doing DS, anchoring instruction was minimal.

I’ve never been to the Caribbean or Med and tended to avoid busy places in Scotland but it seems that effective anchoring is as important in boat handling in marinas but is less well emphasised in the training.

 

[requiem]

So why does it not clog, if left laying ( in the weed)on its side for a couple of minutes?

Take a small bowl, mix some 2 parts cornstarch and 1 part water stirring slowly just until all the starch is wetted (add a little more water if needed) and the mix is extremely thick. Drop a marble from about a few feet above it and watch the result.

(I know mud isn't generally a non-Newtonian fluid, but it's the image that came to mind.)

As for chain dropping on the anchor that must be next to zero as long as one is not moving forward. So why the comments?

The chain always ends up between you and the anchor. If you're moving forward or backward, "between" happens to be on the seafloor. If you're not moving at all and still directly over the anchor, "between" also happens to be on the anchor.

Surely you mean horizontal in the first bit, not vertical & 5:1 must be around 20 degrees at a guess
Neither of the examples are horizontals.

It's heavy chain, not rigid iron rod. Measure out 5 meters of garden hose along the ground, hold one end about waist height, and walk for a bit. Watch what the hose does. Chain will do it even more.

 

[Sea Change]

Common sense, 17 attempts, different techniques……. It seems to me that anchoring is plainly not just common sense to low experienced charter skippers. My anchoring is relatively limited and have never tried to anchor on sea grass (at least not to my knowledge). Harvested kelp in Canna as you do, but otherwise with great success. But Scottish mud and sand is pretty straightforward. I wouldn’t know the technique specific to sea grass although perhaps my standard drill would work.

But if you charter, AIUI, you need a Day Skipper or equivalent. Having done my CS last year with a crew who were also doing DS, anchoring instruction was minimal.

I’ve never been to the Caribbean or Med and tended to avoid busy places in Scotland but it seems that effective anchoring is as important in boat handling in marinas but is less well emphasised in the training.

On my first day skipper, we never got the anchor wet yet it was all signed off.

(Ten years later I did DS again for work, I wasn't going to argue against being put on the course, it was a total skive)

 

[Neeves]

It would be very difficult to teach 'anchoring'. The obvious is to use a local piece of clean sandy seabed and about 5m of depth and an absence of other vessels, either anchored or moving. But a sandy seabed might be the ideal - but how representative? How many of us, having used a modern anchors for at least the last decade, would not be a bit apprehensive with a charter yacht with a well worn CQR (and sea grass)

We have not chartered but how many charter fleets are equipped with modern anchors.

Maybe things will improve once Lewmar get the Epsilon onto the next batch of vessels for charter.

Jonathan

 

[Chiara’s slave]

It would take a chunky tidal range to get me to anchor in 5m of water. And a bottom I wouldn‘t want to sit on.

 

[Neeves]

It would take a chunky tidal range to get me to anchor in 5m of water. And a bottom I wouldn‘t want to sit on.

Chunky? - now that's a word I have not seen used in a tidal context . Australia is a big place and we have tidal ranges from 300mm (on Tasmania's west coast, where its difficult to dry out) to well over 10m. Marinas look most odd at low tide with the enormous forest of pier fingers You need to be flexible with your anchoring perameters. There is a recognised anchorage at the south of Tasmania with a 20m depth, not one we have used - but well documented and where good anchorages are like hen's teeth and the weather character building.

Jonathan

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Chunky? - now that's a word I have not seen used in a tidal context . Australia is a big place and we have tidal ranges from 300mm (on Tasmania's west coast, where its difficult to dry out) to well over 10m. Marinas look most odd at low tide with the enormous forest of pier fingers You need to be flexible with your anchoring perameters. There is a recognised anchorage at the south of Tasmania with a 20m depth, not one we have used - but well documented and where good anchorages are like hen's teeth and the weather character building.

Jonathan

Our Channel islands have a huge range, as do parts of Brittany, and the Bristol Channel. More than 10m in places. Plenty of drying opportunities, but you need to think about your departure time, as it‘s perfectly possible to be afloat for just an hour either side of high water.

 

[Supertramp]

I had to laugh at myself a few years ago. I'd sailed up from Inverness to Holm in Orkney, overlooked by the Italian Chapel. I'd owned my boat for only a few weeks, and had recently had some success in stopping her obvious desire to sink, so was feeling fairly smug.
Anyway, as I'm motoring towards the Churchill barrier and getting ready to anchor, it occurred to me that I'd never anchored a yacht before, ever.
The only time that I'd anchored was as a cadet running the rescue boat on Hayling Island, being told to anchor by the leeward mark, and "stay out of the way", during the OK nationals in about 1973. I'd a vague recollection from my youth of 5 or 6 times the depth to let out as scope, and carried on without anything further to report, resting well after having imbibed some local relaxant.

I can relate to that.

I think that a lot of the time "chuck it all over the side" works. But then you meet the more difficult situation of, for example, deep water, dodgy bottom or strong winds. Then you need to understand what you're doing and try some different techniques. The experience shared on these threads is useful.

I'd love to say I've mastered it but the reality is I haven't. Arriving in a new anchorage, often tired, often singlehanded, sometimes in the dark and I confess it doesn't always go right first time. But I am acquiring a battery of approaches to use and a small arsenal of anchors.

 

[Zing]

In fact it’s the official Rocna method of anchoring…drop the chain and then reverse

Be careful with that and fit a snubber if you want to do that. The sudden stop if you are on good ground can break the teeth on your windlass gearbox. I have the T shirt.

No, drift back very, very slowly, let the wind dig you in, then test it if you wish with engine power after half an hour or so. Almost never necessary. I’m pretty good at this now. I held in gales a few nights ago in a 3.1:1 scope on my Rocna. I was very impressed.

 

[Neeves]

Our Channel islands have a huge range, as do parts of Brittany, and the Bristol Channel. More than 10m in places. Plenty of drying opportunities, but you need to think about your departure time, as it‘s perfectly possible to be afloat for just an hour either side of high water.

Its not only departure time.

We have bays open to the Tasman Sea or Indian/Southern Oceans. The bays might not offer shelter (from swell) to the Sea or Oceans but they do offer protection from the Southerlies (which bring our weather changes) or strongly developed sea breezes (from the North)

Anchoring in 10m and the swells gently roll under the hull(s). Move closer inshore to 5m and at high tide the swells still roll gently under the hull - come low tide, say 2m under the hull, the swells build up to breaking waves. The anchor might hold tenaciously but you don't get much rest sleeping on a wildly oscillating bunk - deep water has merit.

There are no typical conditions - infinitely variable and what works in sea grass (in Sydney/Pittwater) has no bearing on the conditions in Queensland nor Victoria.

I think our biggest tides are around 11m, which is why you need decent ground tackle if you are circumnavigating the whole island. Such monster tides are commonly associated with stunning tidal races.

We would often dry out, even in Pittwater whose tides are a max of around 2m - but we would not dry out where the waves might break.

Jonathan

 

[Chiara’s slave]

Drying out where you could be affected by swell would show a distinct absence of common sense.