Prevent rolling, at anchor (the boat, not the crew!)

Greenheart

Well-Known Member
Joined
29 Dec 2010
Messages
10,384
Visit site
Has anyone tried the bucket-on-a-rope-from-the-boom-end trick, to prevent rolling at anchor?

Or, a better, alternative trick?
 
ply triangle on a 3 cornered bridle (suitable for size of boat say 2 foot side for a smallish boat ) with a weight on 1 corner to enable sinking

edit hung from boom instead of bucket!!
 
Last edited:
Has anyone tried the bucket-on-a-rope-from-the-boom-end trick, to prevent rolling at anchor?

Or, a better, alternative trick?
I've found the most successful is to put out a kedge from the stern, to pull the bows round into the swell.
Always providing you're lying to < 40degrees to the line of the bower.

As Vyv points out - you substitute pitch for roll.
 
Thanks for those.

Just thinking about it...if one could run a wire through a ring beneath the keel, and carry on board a couple of lengthy aluminium spars (sawn-off dinghy masts?) with very secure mounting points on the rail, port and starboard...maybe the outside end of each spar could hold something like one of those inflatable dinghy-rollers...so the yacht imitates a trimaran and the tendency to roll is inhibited by the inflatable's buoyancy? It wouldn't have to weigh much.

I'll keep thinking...
 
Thanks for those.

Just thinking about it...if one could run a wire through a ring beneath the keel, and carry on board a couple of lengthy aluminium spars (sawn-off dinghy masts?) with very secure mounting points on the rail, port and starboard...maybe the outside end of each spar could hold something like one of those inflatable dinghy-rollers...so the yacht imitates a trimaran and the tendency to roll is inhibited by the inflatable's buoyancy? It wouldn't have to weigh much.

I'll keep thinking...

Too complicated.

Waves, like ****, happen.
 
Apologies. My explanation was certainly too complicated. The plan itself wouldn't be much harder to employ than buckets on boom-ends; whether it would work, I don't pretend to be sure.
 
Lead-mining?! I'm losing track, here. Or maybe I'm losing what I like to call my mind? God forbid I'm losing my sense of humour. :D

Do trimarans roll less, in swells, than hefty round-bilged monohulls?

I'm just picturing twelve hours in an anchorage that ought to be bliss, putting up with rolling, clanking from the galley, nauseous expressions from SWMBO...

...ah, if only I'd had a couple of 12' dinghy-masts with 80-litre airbags on their ends, sticking out like oars and tethered to the keel.

It might work.
 
The easiest way must be to carry a cross bow, then any RIB or jet ski that approaches can be dealt with before they become the annoyance they surely will, creating the rolling to start with.
 
A diver's spear gun would be a touch more 007 than Galadriels' crossbow, and one may have a better excuse for carrying it; just don't tie on the line unless requiring a tow, first along then downwards...

I've tried the bucket from the boom with some success; a sea anchor or inflatable tender secured from the boom end works too, but be careful of the conditions, not to break anything.
 
Not sure I understand the inflatable tied to the boom-end...does the dinghy have to be filled with water? And/or tethered to the keel? Hmm, the more I think on it, the better I like this idea...

...an Avon Redstart or similar, tethered to the boom end, and also to a point at the base of the keel. Boom out at 90 degrees, boat is half-filled with seawater...buoyancy prevents the yacht heeling one way, while the weight of the water prevents the yacht heeling the other. This is a loony-enough idea for me to try it a.s.a.p...
 
Not sure I understand the inflatable tied to the boom-end...does the dinghy have to be filled with water? And/or tethered to the keel? Hmm, the more I think on it, the better I like this idea...

...an Avon Redstart or similar, tethered to the boom end, and also to a point at the base of the keel. Boom out at 90 degrees, boat is half-filled with seawater...buoyancy prevents the yacht heeling one way, while the weight of the water prevents the yacht heeling the other. This is a loony-enough idea for me to try it a.s.a.p...
to tether to the keel presents its own problems in the event of an emergency. Why not use the kedge and the chum suspended below the half filled inflatable for the downforce?
All a right phaff to rig up but if you'r in a rolly anchorage for a few days it would be worth a try.
 
dancrane,

I wouldn't bother part - filling the inflatable with water, as

A, this will be somewhat of a pain if wishing to use the dinghy,

B, it would place a serious load on the boom, topping lift ( if that's particularly weak the main halliard could be used, but it's another delay in getting going off the anchor quickly under sail ) etc, when I've tried this - 22' boat and Zodiac 240 dinghy - the weight of the dinghy was plenty, I wouldn't fancy lifting it completely from the boom end; a bit of adjustment to find the vertical line length will be required, a bucket or sea anchor is safer.
 
Interesting. I think the appeal of the dinghy's use in place of the bucket, is the critical part here. A bucket can really only restrict a little up-surge, while the weight and buoyancy of a three-meter tender, part-flooded...I'd be tempted to keep a tough old Avon just for that purpose, with reinforced patching for the stressed areas.

I was only thinking of a loop of light steel wire rigged semi-permanently from a ring on the keel. Not an unendurable drag under sail, and very easily hauled out from the deck, if required. No great burden to reset either, if you're as fond of swimming underwater as I.

Have we any mathematics/physics-obssessed contributors on line? I wonder what the curve on a graph would be like, if it represents the weight required to induce 1 degree of heel, and 2, and 3, relative to the vessel's total displacement? (Doubtless infinitely variable with hull form)...and conversely, the weight required, dangling nine feet to port or starboard, in order to prevent that heel developing?

Isn't a craft with one main hull, balanced by a littler one, called a Proa? I think I'll christen this the CraneInflatablePintSteadier. The "CRIPS"? :D
 
Last edited:
Top