Raising the anchor in waves

James_Calvert

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Years ago a friend got a Danforth style anchor thoroughly stuck at Salcombe. He'd had another boat or two alongside and I guess buried it deeper than usual. Nothing could get it up, we even tried tripping it with a chain run down the rode between two harbour launches.

So we buoyed it and left it. Next morning at slack water it came up hand over hand, no winches involved, as easy as anything.

Perhaps it was the release in tension on the rode that helped it trip?
 

Canopy Locked

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Is there not a technique for sailing an anchor out of a mooring by tacking ( or letting the boat tack itself) & just recovering slack rode as required? The side pull of the craft working the anchor in the process so that the problems above are reduced.
Or am I on a different tack?
In theory you could use the Alderney ring retrieval, but not sure how good / easy this would be on a larger sail boat. Reolatively simple with practice on a small boat, I suspect it might be "challenging" on a sail boat.

Reading this thread I did wonder why the subject of tripping an anchor wasn't raised. If my understanding is correct the anchor is burried and the chain (ideally) is stretched out along the sea bed so the force on the anchor is forward and so shouldn't break the trip. only when force is applied from above would the trip break and the anchor come out backwards.

Clearly I have no practical experience of doing this on a sail boat or in sh1t weather conditions - just wondering!
 

Supertramp

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In theory you could use the Alderney ring retrieval, but not sure how good / easy this would be on a larger sail boat. Reolatively simple with practice on a small boat, I suspect it might be "challenging" on a sail boat.

Reading this thread I did wonder why the subject of tripping an anchor wasn't raised. If my understanding is correct the anchor is burried and the chain (ideally) is stretched out along the sea bed so the force on the anchor is forward and so shouldn't break the trip. only when force is applied from above would the trip break and the anchor come out backwards.

Clearly I have no practical experience of doing this on a sail boat or in sh1t weather conditions - just wondering!
That is a good point. I always use a trip line if there are moorings around. But if I'm anchoring free from mornings risk I often disconnect the trip line. I also disconnect it if I know I will be raising the anchor in the dark as its one less complication.

But using it to help break the anchor out is a thought.
 

alahol2

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Is there not a technique for sailing an anchor out of a mooring by tacking ( or letting the boat tack itself) & just recovering slack rode as required? The side pull of the craft working the anchor in the process so that the problems above are reduced.
Or am I on a different tack?
That's how I do it if single handed and there's enough room. Main sheeted in hard, tiller free and the boat will usually start tacking to the extent of the chain. Haul in as the boat passes the chain on one tack, hook the chain until it tacks again. Repeat. Be patient. Never had to do it in really bouncy conditions but it should still work.
 

Poignard

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That's how I do it if single handed and there's enough room. Main sheeted in hard, tiller free and the boat will usually start tacking to the extent of the chain. Haul in as the boat passes the chain on one tack, hook the chain until it tacks again. Repeat. Be patient. Never had to do it in really bouncy conditions but it should still work.
That's very interesting.

I have done it but not single-handed. How do you handle the headsail sheets when you are on the foredeck getting the chain in and there's nobody in the cockpit?

Or do you have a self-tacking jib?
 
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