Single handed anchoring

Slow_boat

Slow_boat

Well-Known Member
Joined
13 Sep 2005
Messages
15,101
Location
My own cosy little world where nice things happen
Visit site
I intend to do a fair bit of single handing round the East Coast this season but can't figure how to anchor single handed. I don't have a windlass, the hawse pipe is aft facing and I have an all chain rode.

If I flake the chain out on deck before approaching the anchorage I'm worried that it will fall overboard if I get bounced around or have to tack on approach. If I don't flake it out I can't get it down quickly enough.

Then when weighing anchor I can see a choice between helming or getting the chain up and stowed could be a bit of a problem.

How do others do it?

Any suggestions other than to go for visitors moorings?
 
What about a plastic laundry basket or similar? Someone on here said they used a bread basket to flake it down in but bigger boat than mine.
 
whilst I do have a windlass and can therefore cheat on the recovery ( /forums/images/graemlins/cool.gif) and letting go in shallow tight anchorages I do find I have the same sort of issue you face when I wish to let go quickly in deep water. Loosening the clutch to release the anchor is a recipie for the splitter and either chain or rope to end up snagged and bent so I started off by releasing the chain from the gypsy and guiding it out by hand, then gloved hand when I got fed up with the pain and finally to an open pulley made up with an old anchor fitting.........in your case you would simply use this to redirect the pull on the chain from your hausepipe back over the roller and off to your bow roller .....if you see what I mean.

downside is the chain will fly out and can be dangerous - I now hold this in my left hand and use a gloved right hand to control the speed ie the gloved hand is outside the hand held roller, and well away from the bow roller in actual use.

I hope you get the picture? Basically leave it locked in the hause pipe but engage the hand held roller to enable it to run out at will.
 
Take heart. I know lots of single handers in the Caribbean and they all manage fine. As I'm not a single hander I won't presume to pontificate on anchoring alone. But did you know there's a new forum for single handers which may be helpful for this and other queries
www.pbo.co.uk/jester
 
If it's any help, we always flake out our all-chain rode on deck, hence, errmm, the the paint is flaked as well..

The chain is unlikely to fall overboard - if it's that bad you might be better staying offshore. I've only anchored singlehanded a couple of times, but didn't find it much different from usual. Preparation is the key.

Are you using a CQR, or perhaps a Spade or a Rocna?
 
use a lightweight anchor, kedge - and when you have secured yourself temporarily, use the main hook as necessary.
 
Get a couple of chain hooks and splice on a few tails to them long enough to secure them to the back of the anchor and then an appropriate bit mid rode.

Secure the anchor and rode and when in the designated space release the first hook with half the rode. Let the yacht fall back then relese the second hook.

Return to the cockpit and back sails or put engine in reverse.

If you use long tails that will go back to the cockpit primary winches you can pull in the first bit by hand and then put on the first hook. winch it the full length from the stem to the winch and then go and put the second hook up by the stem and repat the exercise. You should then be broken out and just haul the remi
aining bit up by hand,, secure with the lazy hook and be ready to go again.
 
I do not recall where but I saw an interesting suggestion that you hang the anchor over a bow fitting secured by a pin attached to a length of rope led back to the cockpit. When you need to deploy the anchor you pull the rope, releasing the pin and the anchor drops!
 
I often anchor single handed. Although I feed out the chain straight from the on-deck anchor locker I recover it to the deck then sail offshore before going f'wd to return it, and the anchor, to the locker. I have never experience chain jumping off the deck but if you're worried, keep a bungy handy to secure it en masse: chain is far denser than you /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif and will stay rooted to the deck.
Andy
 
[ QUOTE ]
use a lightweight anchor, kedge

[/ QUOTE ]

certainly makes sense to lie on a lightweight kedge if only anchoring for lunch or waiting for the tide.

Work out the length of rode you need ,make fast to your foredeck cleat and run the rest through the bow roller/fairlead and back to the cockpit.Stop the boat over your spot lower hand over hand from the cockpit then motor astern to set.

if you have mostly rope on the kedge and a good bow roller you can recover it all from the cockpit then just pop forward to recover the anchor itself.
 
[ QUOTE ]
On leaving, I'm still a little worried about being away from the helm while getting the anchor up or motoring out with the anchor dangling.

[/ QUOTE ]Honestly, I don't think it's a problem - under normal circumstances. Don't know your area, but where we are, it's not normally a problem lifting the anchor from the mud/sand, and the bringing it up a few metres - that's usually enough to motor, sail, or drift, into safer water where the anchor can then be brought on board and secured. We don't have a windlass so it's all done by hand. Give it a try in reasonable conditions.

EDIT: Sorry, I meant to add that, if the wind has turned and blowing you into shallow water, then you may have a problem. Taking the first few metres of the rode back to cockpit, and lifting it from there may be feasible...... although I guess there's a greater chance of an accident waiting to happen there (leaning over the side, pulling up an anchor).
 
You should find it pretty easy as you will always be able to anchor in minimum depth and almost always shelter or a short fetch. There is usually good holding, and a light anchor or an undersize Bruce will do fine. Our 5 ton boat is quite happy with a 10 kg Bruce and mainly warp even on the hardish bottom on the Deben.
 
Duncan,

I'm not sure of the brownie point gained by single handed anchoring, I've always preferred to use both hands. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Seriously tho, I have had some fun doing it all myself.
Forethought and preparation is the key - as mentioned before.
If you've thought it through beforehand then it is usually not too scary.
 
Mark your chain every six metres so you know how much to let go without having to flake it. Hook the anchor over the bowroller ready to go, run the chain back to the cleat and secure in place. Choose a spot with enough water and not too much tide, saunter up to the bow and feed out the anchor and chain. If you can't saunter then you probably shouldn't be anchoring there. I don't ever have a problem with knots in chain (so far!). Check it's dug in OK.

Weighing is more of a problem with a hawse. My chain drops into an open anchor locker, so it's as easy as dropping it on the deck. The main problem is motoring forward so you don't have to haul the yacht against wind or tide until the anchor breaks out. You have to haul the chain in as you go, so you have to leave the engine in gear while you're at the other end of the boat. Can be nerve-wracking if there is a strong tide or wind. Make sure you're ready to cleat the chain and go back to the helm. If the anchor stays fixed then you can slip out of gear and start again (but with less chain). If the anchor comes out then you have steerage way and can motor into clearer, deeper water to finish the job. Be careful not to run over your anchor (scratches the topsides). Try not to hook anyone else's anchor line or mooring chains. If conditions are dicey then you may want to run a line to the back of the boat and lift it out from there, either over the bowroller (careful of scratches on your deck) or over the side (scratches on your topside).

Works for me.
 
[ QUOTE ]
How do others do it?

[/ QUOTE ]

Duncan, I can perhaps help with the 'getting it down' phase.

I sailed a friend's Rival 34 over several summers, short- and single-handed and, in shoal waters, much preferred to have an anchor ready to go 'in a hurry'. The chain habitually snarled itself up in the chain locker and wouldn't easily run out, so had to be brought slowly - too slowly in a crowded anchorage, or when it was blowing - onto the deck. My friend was trained in the RN to 'fake' the required chain along the lee side-deck, but I considered this a potential hazard to me going forward.

This solution worked very well, and is still in use..... I scrounged a green plastic vegetable tray from a Tescos in Oban, and strapped that to the foredeck with some webbing to the stanchion bases. In safe waters, I would bring up 30 metres of chain into this basket, and make it secure around the samson post. The anchor would be held secure in the bow roller by a horizontal dropnose pin secured on a string.

When brought up stopped at the anchoring point and starting to make sternway, I would simply walk forward, remove the dropnose pin, the anchor would pull out/lay out the chain as it dropped to the seabed, and by the time I had got back to the cockpit, the anchor would have set. A gentle pull in astern then got the hook bedded.

If I wanted less than 30 metres, I simply took in as required, later.

This worked for us under sail, and under engine, in a range of environments. It was only necessary to ensure the chain ran out from the top of the heap.

Bringing the chain in was a manual task. However, it all went back into the plastic basket where muck and weed could be sluiced off, instead of that being deposited inside the chain locker. There are plans to build a smarter teak enclosure, but this will still surround the 'sacrificial' and replaceable Tescos plastic tray.



/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
As others have said, forethought and preparation will do the trick. Having a hawse pipe too I always flake out the chain and get the anchor off it's chocks and onto the roller. Just as we arrive at the chosen spot I put the engine into reverse at tickover and lock the tiller before going for'ard. Ideally the anchor hits the seabed just as we start to move astern and I pay the chain out through a gloved hand before snubbing it.

When weighing, you're still anchored when the chain is up and down and can catch your breath and wait till she blows into the right attitude to the wind or other boats etc. Particularly if you're in shallow water it's only another few pulls until the anchor is at the bow and you're free to manoevre. I usually leave the anchor dangling in the water to wash off the mud while I get her on course on the tillerpilot before going back up for'ard to tidy up.

Having said all that I've never tried it single-handed under sail or in a lot of wind. I suspect if it was blowing a hoolie and I had the hook well dug in I'd leave it there and sod getting back for work on Monday!
 
For lowering the anchor in a controlled manor I saw something in a mag using a rope snubber. Tie a short length of rope to a forward cleat and wind it twice round the chain and hold the other end. With the chain flaked out you can regulate the speed by loosening or tightening the rope snubber.

Can't help you get it back though!
 
an additional one which might be useful: at least on my boat, if chain drops too quickly is begins to whip up and down all over the place, potentially damaging the genoa roller drum and other fittings, so it might be useful to protect them

I used a slit 10cm diametre pvc pipe around the base of the roller furler drum, and it saved it from more severe damage a few times already
 
You must log in or register to reply here.

Share this page

Top