Agreed. Free dropping just makes it way easier when it's 25kts or more. It reduces the risk of plough the seabed with the anchor. It's not an issue in clean sand but it's very much an issue is a seabed that is grass. You may never know that you are dragging your anchor backwards like a plough if you only every anchor in sand. I believe it is the single biggest reason why so many charter boats here fail to set their anchors.
You may be right. And it’s the reason why (whether anchoring under power or sail) we are very careful about monitoring the speed over ground of the boat as the anchor hits the bottom and the chain starts to pay out.
I guess you didn’t come across as a (insert your preferred pronouns) so they were happy for the advice.
I have a CQR. It takes time to bite. So I won't give it any welly astern for 10-15 minutes. And then I will gradually build up the revs. To about half power unless I am expecting bad weather, in which case after a couple of minutes at half power I will gradually crank to full power. At full power the chain rode will be bar tight. If the anchor holds at that, then I am confident that it will hold in a full gale (and it has done so).
Except for us and many others, free fall is controlled by a clutch so you can control the speed of descent. We generally get plenty of wind here so no riak of poling the chain on the anchor. The boat is moving. I tend to keep the boat moving forward at 0.5kt when I drop then give the boat a bit of helm so that when we fall back the chain is laid in a small loop. This gets plenty of chain on the seabed away from the anchor. We lay out the full amount we intend to use for the location, normally 4:1. Once the boat has settled back on its chain we power set. Its a very normal way of anchoring here in the .Caribbean. we are doing nothing special
We haven’t been in the Caribbean remotely as long as you but we do tend to try to find clear patches if possible - as much because of rocks as sea grass because I‘ve seen our anchor be fine after a power set but actually just hooked onto a rock so any change of direction would free it completely. But where we do have to drop into the dark it tends to be power drop with boat held just to the wind (almost easier in 25knots than 5) then lay the chain out sufficiently before letting the boats weight take effect.
You need to pull on it very very gently at the beginning otherwise it will just skip over the surface forever.
I think when you are going backwards faster than you can deploy chain, the angle the chain makes with the seabed is so extreme that a large part of the effort is vertical. Compare this with a 5:1 pull on a stationary anchor. The pull is effectively horizontal until the load increased and the chain becomes tight. A horizontal pull makes the correct angle to dig the anchor in rapidly. We have snorkelled on our anchor many times. The seabed is disturbed for less than the length of the anchor shank. This suggests it digs in very quickly
Yes - you need a very flat pull to dig in a CQR. Particularly if the sand is compact and hard.
Surely you mean horizontal in the first bit, not vertical & 5:1 must be around 20 degrees at a guess
I am with Tom on this one if the boats been brought up and holding I may even forget to dig it. Else the tide will turn and will only dig it in the other way.
Agreed. It’s usually how our Spade behaves.
In very soft mud I like to give the anchor plenty of time to sink in a bit. Under these conditions is generally impossible to see what's going on, but it seems to help.
We quite often have one person in the water watching the anchor while we power set. It's interesting to watch it dig in. In any half decent holding it moves less than its own length. You can swim down and help roll it upright which shortens the setting distance even more.
