'Sailing the Anchor'?

Little Rascal

Little Rascal

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We spent one night at anchor last year in my little Hunter Europa in Hamford Water. IIRC the wind would have been across the tide.

During the night when the wind got up she was 'sailing the anchor' or 'kiting'. We use a rope and 5m of chain and there was antifouling on the rode afterwards.

Any ideas how I can stop this ? Add a riding sail of some sort?
 
Hang a bucket ( drag) off the stern . Or two. Try angling the helm a bit one way or t'other. All chain rode helps. Or lay two anchors like a mooring if no one else around.

Plenty to play with there!
 
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The problem is caused by windage of the mast being in front of the centre of resistance of the hull.

one solution is to add a riding sail which adds more windage astern to get the windage behind the centre of resistance.

Or attach the anchor line to a stern cleat.

Buckets or sea anchors off the stern or the bow dosent really work in my experience.

The theory is here:
http://www.jordanseriesdrogue.com/D_14.htm
 
In my Europa I used to use a small folding grapnel anchor on about 5 metres of rope which I used to toss over the stern after making sure the soft eye on the end was on the stern cleat. The anchor served to slow down the movement of the stern and make it comfortable. Great boat for sailing.
 
Try with the helm over 20-30 degrees. If that doesn't work take a line from say 7m down the anchor rode to an aft cleat to act as a bridle and adjust so the boat lies at an angle to the wind .... 10 deg or so.

Riding sails are okay .... especially the one that is double-backed on the backstay or topping lift, forming a V .....It's better to do without if you can, especially if there are other boats close as you may move differently to them.
 
IMHO you are describing two issues

1. How your boat behaves when wind and tide are in different directions
2. The yawing or sailing at anchor that occurs in high winds

Taking each in turn: -

Most keel boats are tide rode more than wind rode ie they are more likely to align themselves to the prevailing tide or current, but at times of slack (ish) water or high winds they can become wind rode, or worse go through a cycle of alternating between the two. Generally, in my experience, trailing a bucket off the stern greatly improves matters either by eliminating the problem or at least slowing the cycling down greatly.

Turning now to yawing or sailing at anchor in high winds. As a previous poster has already said this is a subject that has been discussed at great length by Don Jordon of Series drogue fame. A modern yacht, (unlike its traditional forebears) has most of its grip on the water amidships and stern (keel and rudder) whereas the windage (mast and rigging) is mostly forwards. When at anchor a gust of wind blows the bow off slightly and is trying to turn the boat round. Once askew like this the boat under the effect of both wind and current sails off in a semi circle until it is almost abeam of the anchor at which point it stalls drops back and then repeats the whole process often on the alternate tack. This behaviour puts a much greater load on the anchor than id the boat was more passive

I have seen video of a yacht being blown flat whilst following this pattern in a storm.

The standard solution to this problem is to fly a riding sail at the stern of the boat. Don Jordan proposed mooring by the stern rather than the bow. I have yet to try either but I do intend to get a riding sail made.
 
Thanks for the responses.
That Jordan series article was interesting. I'd agree with it in principle but the analogy with flutter is stretching it a bit :rolleyes: There are some similarities with static longitudinal stability though - you need to provide some corrective (rather than divergent) moment as a response to a gust. I will try some kind of riding sail and see if that helps.


silver-fox said:
IMHO you are describing two issues

1. How your boat behaves when wind and tide are in different directions
2. The yawing or sailing at anchor that occurs in high winds
Click to expand...

Yes, that's true. If I remember correctly (it's many months ago and I was bleary eyed at the time) there was a combination of the two factors - the tide was increasing the effect and allowing the boat to sail off at quite an angle to the rode. Kind of lee bowing on the anchor :eek:
 
My boat is basically a 22' version of Little Rascals' Europa; and mine sails the anchor whenever it's a light wind over tide - the keel will wrap on the warp if left to her own devices.

I trail a bucket or the sea anchor over the stern, it reliably works a treat.
 
Thanks Andy, I'll try that too.

I really need to spend some time anchoring in trickier conditions but in daylight and play with a few different combinations. Less pressure than in the pitch black and trying to sleep :ambivalence:
 
Seriously Little Rascal, a strong bucket on about 6-10' of warp off the stern is all you need; a sea anchor or similar is better for a nights' sleep as one knows the handles shouldn't pull off !

One thing to beware of when doing this is it makes the boat trail back to max warp, so taking up a wide swinging cicle which other boats using all chain may not appreciate, and anchor too close.

In the unlikely event I'm at a crowded anchorage or otherwise short on space, I use Plan B and lower my kedge anchor, a folding grapnel, halfway down the bower warp as an ' angel '; this helps the anchor hold in tough conditions too, lowering the pull on the warp & chain & taking out a lot of the snatch.

The folding grapnel makes an ideal kedge for our sort of sailing I think; in folded state it can be used as an angel and not snag on things, and if used as an anchor it's pointy enough to hopefully penetrate weed & hold on rock which the bower anchor won't - ie in emergency in places one wouldn't choose to be.

I wouldn't trust a grapnel for too long though, as it relies on the strength of the pivot pins.
 
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Interesting reading. Our first night at sea was in the Aberdovey estuary on one of the harbour's swinging moorings out in the channel. The predicted force 3 was more like a 5 or 6 funnelling down the valley, and we weren't far off springs. I was woken at about 3am by the weird boat movements. The actions of wind against tide had the boat (20ft bilge keel Vivacity) "sat" on the mooring rope - the rope had caught around the keel. Spent a good few hours "in a state of worry"! :D Eventually insisting the captain got up and put her life jacket on...even though she felt sick. I got the boat off by releasing more warp on the anchor - a sea anchor would definitely have helped prevent the situation. Not the best introduction to sleeping at sea - but it didn't put us off! ;)
 
Anchoring a light boat on a mostly rope rode is one of the few circumstances for which an anchor chum might be recommended. All-rope rodes are notorious for the problem described by the OP, there is no weight to prevent the boat from reacting to every shift in wind direction. Lowering a heavy weight down the rope until it touches the bottom will help to stop the boat from wandering.
 
When I use an angel in this situation I do not let it near the seabed in case it fouls on something, just lower it halfway down the bower warp to give maximum effect.

I do use 3 metres of heavy chain at the anchor too, for weight and chafe reasons.

These boats are not ultra light and ' reacting to every wind shift ' at anchor, they are quite steady; the problem seems to be when the aft face of the coachroof acts as a sail, bizarrely light winds are when it happens, in stronger stuff I suppose she's off at a more constant offset angle to the rode.
 
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