Should your anchor always be on the bow roller?

[snooks]

Ours lives in it's locker when it's not being used.

The one time I lost drive from the engine, after hitting a bit of wood on the river Trieux, I was able to launch it in no time at all.

I feel it's a bit vulnerable leaving an anchor on the bow roller unless it's tied down well.

I've seen the aftermath of someone who lost their hook and 40 metres of chain off their bow roller going through the Alderney Race on a lumpy day - It knackered their short bowsprit before the line on the bitter end snapped.

If it was on the bow roller and over hanging the pontoon you'd be likely to injure yourself on our pullpit first

 

[[70521]]

Where do you keep yours?

Depends on what I am doing and the conditions.

 

[fastjedi]

+1 Can be very stressfull parallel parking between boats with their anchors on the bow roller in challenging conditions. I have witnesses accidents where damage would have been less or non existant if the anchor had been stowed in the locker

How lazy to leave an anchor overhanging the bow 'Just in case', as most yachts carry their anchor forward, is it not a matter of going forward to deploy it ?
the additional 15 seconds to get the anchor from the foredeck and over the bow roller is unlikely to make any real difference to the outcome of an engine failure etc.
Carrying an anchor overhanging the bows which in the majority of cases is never used anyway is pointless, dangerous and generally rude. Most of the boats here on the East Coast actually drop their hook on about 2% of their outings, the rest of the time marina hopping or daysailing from-to their home port.
As a racing sailor I have been on the receiving end of a ' Just in case' bow hung anchor that has only been used TWICE in the current clumsy owners five years of use !
Luckily the damage received was fairly minor but strong words were certainly exchanged...
Keep it on deck or in the anchor locker where it will not bother anyone else.

 

[fireball]

Do you always keep your anchor on your bow roller ready to be deployed or do keep it in the anchor locker.<snip>
Where do you keep yours?

Personally - we keep ours in the anchor locker because we don't use it often and it interferes with the mooring warps coming over the bow.

However, I have seen a good reason to keep it on the bow roller... in fact, if the anchor had not been on the roller at moment of impact I believe there would've been significantly more damage to the boat. As it was the anchor seemed to take the main brunt of it ...
I know the answer is not to hit anything - but accidents do happen ...

 

[ChrisE]

Anchor sits on roller, whether on ocean passages or not, tied down though to avoid accidental deployment and damage to the stem in rough weather. Apart from, as Robin says, the effort of moving 45lb of anchor about the boat why would you want to put it somewhere else (unless you have a smaller craft then I can see the point)? Moving 45lb anchor vs over quarter of ton of anchor chain is hardly going to make much difference.

As regards their being on the bow being dangerous, other than racing when, of course, you put the anchor elsewhere, wtf? Next we'll be damning bowsprits...

 

[Robin]

Our current main anchor is 88lb and sits in a bow plank. Anybody that thinks I'm taking it off so that folk who don't look where they are going are not inconvenienced are optimists, if that is rude then so be it.

 

[whipper_snapper]

How lazy to leave an anchor overhanging the bow 'Just in case', as most yachts carry their anchor forward, is it not a matter of going forward to deploy it ?
the additional 15 seconds to get the anchor from the foredeck and over the bow roller is unlikely to make any real difference to the outcome of an engine failure etc.
Carrying an anchor overhanging the bows which in the majority of cases is never used anyway is pointless, dangerous and generally rude. Most of the boats here on the East Coast actually drop their hook on about 2% of their outings, the rest of the time marina hopping or daysailing from-to their home port.
As a racing sailor I have been on the receiving end of a ' Just in case' bow hung anchor that has only been used TWICE in the current clumsy owners five years of use !
Luckily the damage received was fairly minor but strong words were certainly exchanged...
Keep it on deck or in the anchor locker where it will not bother anyone else.

Well to me that is the height of laziness and is completely unseamanlike.

15 seconds to get an anchor properly secured on the foredeck to properly placed and ready to run freely on the bow roller ?? While some other merde is hitting the fan ?? I don't think so.


My philosophy is that the anchor is an important bit of kit that should be in the appropriate place, with the appropriate level of securing, at the appropriate time. That is sometime on the bows ready to let go. It is laziness not to move it around to achieve this.

I must say that I also don't like pins, I have seen them bend and jam. It is invariably possible to achieve complete security with a lashing or two.

 

[fireball]

the additional 15 seconds to get the anchor from the foredeck and over the bow roller is unlikely to make any real difference to the outcome of an engine failure etc.

15 seconds?

Blimey - you're fast ... I consider myself reasonably fit - but it takes me far longer than that to get my 35lb anchor out of the locker, through the pullpit and into the bow roller ...

 

[Tradewinds]

On the bow roller all the way round.

No problem at any time (45 CQR).

 

[nimrod1230]

Everyone here is quoting their own experience and boat. Your profile says 34ft which I guess means not too physical to move the anchor around. Some have no anchor locker so alternative ways are found too stow the anchor. I have over the years had smaller boats with no locker through medium sized with anchors still within my capacity to move around and choose to stow in a locker/deck/roller. My current boat has an anchor weighing 45lbs which I cannot move easily so stays on the roller with all the care required to stay in place when on passage and consideration in marina siuations. No overall answere will suit all boats so is going to depend on personal/practical decisions. Why throw mud at others who have chosen different ways to tackle a very individual decision?

 

[whipper_snapper]

I am quoting experience from boats from 80' to 18'. Of course they are different in practice but the basic philosophy is the same. I doubt if an anchor for a 34' boat can be moved in 15 seconds from a secure place on the deck to ready to go on the roller without risking rupture, snagging, lost fingers or chain round ankles or through sheets, even on a calm day. It seems to me to be 'brave' to assume that you can achieve that in an emergency.

I think smaller boat owners can get away with laziness about these things while practical issues force better practice on bigger boats. But very often the best practice is the same.

 

[RobbieW]

Our current main anchor is 88lb and sits in a bow plank. Anybody that thinks I'm taking it off so that folk who don't look where they are going are not inconvenienced are optimists, if that is rude then so be it.

+1 even though ours is only 60lb and mounted thus...
View attachment 16214
this takes several minutes to manoeuvre through the pulpit and drop onto the roller.

The anchor fittings that scare me are those fitted to the likes of the newer Benny 37's, exemplified by those operated by Fairview out of Port Hamble. They look like the sort of thing Boadicea might have put on her chariot

 

[fireball]

I doubt if an anchor for a 34' boat can be moved from a secure place on the deck to ready to go on the roller without risking rupture, snagging, lost fingers or chain round ankles or through sheets, even on a calm day. It seems to me to be 'brave' to assume that you can achieve that in an emergency.

Well - without risk is obviously not true - but minimal risk is true ... I do this almost everytime we want to anchor (only don't need to do it if we've been anchored before during the trip and the anchor hasn't been put away).

Could I do it in an emergency - depends on the sea conditions and the emergency ... !!

 

[Seajet]

Nimrod,

you make a good point that every boats' situation is different.

When I said an anchor should be stowed as centrally as possible on long voyages it was a bit of a 'council of perfection', more traditional boats often carry the chain - let alone anchor - further aft than modern boats; a chum used to carry his anchor on the midships cabin sole of his Folkboat, he wasn't racing or anything, just the way he'd learned - he was also an aircraft designer so placing weights was simply instinctive.

Perhaps carrying such heavy items as anchor & chain centrally - and handling this heavy kit to and fro - on blue water boats is a thing deserving more design effort ?

As I'm currently a Solent / cross Channel type, I just keep the anchor & 20' of chain + warp in the bow locker ready to deploy, though I wouldn't dream of using all chain due to the crippling weight.

Anchors protruding over pontoons are certainly a problem, but only a big one if the boat is badly tied up or the berth too short; after all, when strolling down a pontoon there's the 'oggin either side too, and most people manage to avoid that !

 

[jimi]

you're all bad paople, you've got me singing ..


Does your anchor lose its polish
In the locker overnight
If the skipper says don't stow it
Does it dangle there in spite
Can you catch it on your neighbour
Can you heave it left and right
Does your anchor lose its polish
On the roller overnight

 

[Stork_III]

Anchors on rollers are normal. Anyone walking into one in a marina should be able to sue. Boatowners should without anything overhanging, be that pulpit, bowsprit or anchors.

There I have corrected that for you.

 

[whipper_snapper]

Well - without risk is obviously not true - but minimal risk is true ... I do this almost everytime we want to anchor (only don't need to do it if we've been anchored before during the trip and the anchor hasn't been put away).

Could I do it in an emergency - depends on the sea conditions and the emergency ... !!

Oops, sorry, I missed the critical "in 15 seconds", obviously it can be done!!

 

[RobbieW]

Does your anchor lose its polish
In the locker overnight
If the skipper says don't stow it
Does it dangle there in spite
Can you catch it on your neighbour
Can you heave it left and right
Does your anchor lose its polish
On the roller overnight

there's at least two ditty's mixed up in there - any others ?

 

[whipper_snapper]

Cool.


Can we add this to the list of things it is possible to have religious wars about ?

 

[fireball]

Oops, sorry, I missed the critical "in 15 seconds", obviously it can be done!!

just seen you've edited your post - glad I quoted to start with!