Portable Anchor Alarm - any ideas?

[Hurricane]

Rather than power up all my main electronics, I was thinking of a simple hand held GPS with an anchor alarm facility that I could take to bed with me.

Any ideas?

Any good models of GPS out there that would do the job?

 

[sailorman]

any hh will do

 

[jfm]

I have the Garmin 176 (now 276 or even 376) as back up plotter. Great machine, lots of fans on here, and would do what you want powered by 12v

I also use the GPS locator - this texts my phone (which then bleeps incessantly) if the boat moves 50metres, using the geofence alarm

Finally, i sleep with my head 1 foot away from the anchor chain so I know if the anchor is dragging. See, I knew there was an advantage, somewhere in the depths of boating detial, in not having a palatial owner's mid cabin Hurricane /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

 

[benjenbav]

There's an anchor alarm on the GPS76Map. I find it really useful.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

I've always thought that it's not the boat position that you should worry about but the anchor position. Within reason it doesn't matter if the boat swings about as long as the anchor isn't dragging. The link has been posted on the forum before but the Anchor Alert seems like a useful bit of kit. I guess you could have 2 display units, one in the saloon and one in the cabin. The system would be better still if it could work remotely as well, as in you're eating in a shoreside restaurant and the system sends you a SMS if the anchor drags. Surely somebody has invented this already?

 

[Cliveshep]

Put SWMBO up on the foredeck to keep watch, assuming you have neither kids nor guests aboard. Saves a fortune!

 

[JKay]

fishing line around the anchor and your JT works /forums/images/graemlins/shocked.gif

 

[gravygraham]

Garmin gps72. I'm sending this post from a swinging mooring in the Swale so if you never hear from me again you'll know not to get one!

 

[Chill]

Would a handheld unit be able to get a GPS fix in your stateroom?

Chill

 

[Alrob]

I am very nervous about leaving the boat unattended whilst anchored, Ive heard too many sorry tales

 

[noelex]

I just purchased a Furuno Gp32 just for an anchor alarm next to the bed and as a back up gps that can be integrated with the chart plotters.

Pros
low power consumption
will get an EGNOS fix (many GPS units (listed as WAAS?/EGNOS ready will not do this at present)
Low price
An offset anchor alarm is easily set

Cons
Looks a bit "plastic"
Display B&W and fairly low resolution

Overall very happy .It is ideal for this application.

 

[oceanfroggie]

We've used the Garmin GpsMap76 handheld's anchor drag alarm for the past 7 years. We place it by a window in our cabin so it's close enough to wake us if the alarm goes off. Only twice in 7 years and both times because I set the swing radius too small, we were'nt actually dragging.

 

[Hurricane]

Thanks everyone - a bit more research then.

I had a quick look at the bits and pieces that I've already got and found that Memory Map on the PDA allows you to set an anchor alarm. You first enter a "Mark" and then give that "Mark" either a proximity or an anchor alarm. The Mark can then be moved to wherever you want so it could sit over the actual anchor. The proximity alarm might be good to protect against an isolated danger.
My PDA doesnt have an inbuilt GPS so I have a Bluetooth GPS dongle which in the past has worked quite well.

I'm also thinking of looking at the way that the main electronics powers up. If I could "split out" the high power usage kit and just power (say) the GPS mushroom and a depth transducer, I may be able to have a more sophisticated system.

 

[oceandrive]

In front of you for once!!! On the new boat I had a extra Raymarine repeater fitted in the galley / crew mess on this unit I had an extension speaker fitted. Idea being that if I went down to the galley or engine room I would hear if the boat started to drift. Dont think I would trust it to wake me up but it is a lot louder than the standard Raymarine built in speaker. Raymarine fitted this themselves at my request so I dont know how they did it but it works. I supose no limit to length of cable.. One other option I thought of was a baby alarm on the helm next to the plotter with the other in the cabin. "set the anchor alarm" surely this would have the effect of extending the alarm to anyware on the boat and boosting the volume clever I think /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif