SOF anchoring

jakew009 said:
Why doesn't someone come up with a system based around a couple of electric motors attached to the prop shafts?

Surely 100HP each side would be enough to keep a large yacht relatively stationary in the typical conditions you'd wanted to be anchored in? The average power required would probably be a fraction of that and easily covered by silenced genset maybe with a battery bank attached to smooth out the load.

Then you could 'anchor' anywhere and stick to fingers up to the police boat.
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Lovely idea - we have the same problem in the Balearic Islands.
But you couldn't go swimming with two huge egg whisks chomping away under the boat.
 
jakew009 said:
Why doesn't someone come up with a system based around a couple of electric motors attached to the prop shafts?

Surely 100HP each side would be enough to keep a large yacht relatively stationary in the typical conditions you'd wanted to be anchored in? The average power required would probably be a fraction of that and easily covered by silenced genset maybe with a battery bank attached to smooth out the load.

Then you could 'anchor' anywhere and stick to fingers up to the police boat.
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swimmers a problem. With bow and stern thrusters to keep it into wind I doubt you need anything like 200 hp of forward motion though.

@jfm there may be mileage in this. Are your thrusters 3 phase or hydraulic ? If 3 phase a retractable 3 phase motor pointing forward would allow you to stay put without main engines.
 
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Elessar said:
swimmers a problem. With bow and stern thrusters to keep it into wind I doubt you need anything like 200 hp of forward motion though.

@jfm there may be mileage in this. Are your thrusters 3 phase or hydraulic ? If 3 phase a retractable 3 phase motor pointing forward would allow you to stay put without main engines.
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I figured that it would be a very lumpy power demand. ie. when the wind blows you need a big surge of power for a few seconds to counteract the movement, then nothing again for a while. Depends how much you need to stay in one spot vs drifting around a bit.

I don't have a solution for the swimming problem :(
 
jakew009 said:
I don't have a solution for the swimming problem
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Well, I do: just use the anchor! :oops:
I resisted the temptation to reply to your first post on this matter suggesting to go boating wherever these silly rules don't exist, because I was fearing to appear cheeky.
But coming to think of it, that's MUCH easier and more straightforward, compared to the Heath Robinson solutions that are being proposed...! 😜
 
MapisM said:
Well, I do: just use the anchor! :oops:
I resisted the temptation to reply to your first post on this matter suggesting to go boating wherever these silly rules don't exist, because I was fearing to appear cheeky.
But coming to think of it, that's MUCH easier and more straightforward, compared to the Heath Robinson solutions that are being proposed...! 😜
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Well, I could also propose buying a boat < 24M as a potential solution :)
 
Good alternative indeed, but it doesn't work where you can neither drop the anchor nor drag the chain on posidonia regardless of size.
Like in the Balearics, as Hurricane (whose boat is a 67 footer, hence <24m) pointed out...
 
In France there is a 2 hour limit on skyhooking. An ill thought out law, because it doesn't say how you restart the next 2 hours. Can you just drive to a spot 50m away in the same anchorage? Can you just switch off the skyhook for 5 minutes, or 5 seconds, then restart it? What amounts to "circumventing" and what doesn't?

If you fit all this gear and the captain operates it rather than the skyhook computer, you can stay there all day. How will the enforcement process know?

Crazy laws.
 
jfm said:
In France there is a 2 hour limit on skyhooking. An ill thought out law, because it doesn't say how you restart the next 2 hours. Can you just drive to a spot 50m away in the same anchorage? Can you just switch off the skyhook for 5 minutes, or 5 seconds, then restart it? What amounts to "circumventing" and what doesn't?

If you fit all this gear and the captain operates it rather than the skyhook computer, you can stay there all day. How will the enforcement process know?

Crazy laws.
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Bonkers. They really are doing their very best to get you to spend your money elsewhere.
 
Elessar said:
Bonkers. They really are doing their very best to get you to spend your money elsewhere.
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Not sure I entirely agree with this interpretation ... at least regarding the approach they have adopted in France. I accept in the Balearics and elsewhere its different.

I would guess that in the SoF well over 90% of the boats by number are <20/24m and not currently affected by the anchor restrictions at all. Anything much above 30m was already anchoring outside the restricted zones in deeper, quieter waters away from the carnage near the shore. Most affected are those in the range 24-30m, which is quite a small percentage of the total. Many of these are effectively luxury water taxis shuttling owners to/from beach restaurants, with only crew onboard when at anchor and spending most nights in port, while others leave for at least part of the summer to cruise elsewhere.

So, the current anchoring restrictions in SoF don't necessarily translate to any significant loss of revenues or inconvenience owners enough to motivate them to leave. I haven't heard of anyone who has left SoF solely because of the restrictions, some of which were introduced three years ago. I do know people who have chosen to buy a smaller boat, or not upgraded to a larger one, to avoid falling foul of the restrictions. Hence my comment in a post above that they've found a way to fudge the issue, appeasing the environmentalists without driving away too many (if any) boaters.

I'm not defending what they've done and totally agree that the rules as drafted are non-sensical, full of inconsistencies and not based on any legitimate scientific analysis. But in true French fashion they have found a way to introduce voluminous and detailed regulations which in practice have almost no effect and can be safely ignored by the majority of people.
 
Hey
DAW said:
Not sure I entirely agree with this interpretation ... at least regarding the approach they have adopted in France. I accept in the Balearics and elsewhere its different.

I would guess that in the SoF well over 90% of the boats by number are <20/24m and not currently affected by the anchor restrictions at all. Anything much above 30m was already anchoring outside the restricted zones in deeper, quieter waters away from the carnage near the shore. Most affected are those in the range 24-30m, which is quite a small percentage of the total. Many of these are effectively luxury water taxis shuttling owners to/from beach restaurants, with only crew onboard when at anchor and spending most nights in port, while others leave for at least part of the summer to cruise elsewhere.

So, the current anchoring restrictions in SoF don't necessarily translate to any significant loss of revenues or inconvenience owners enough to motivate them to leave. I haven't heard of anyone who has left SoF solely because of the restrictions, some of which were introduced three years ago. I do know people who have chosen to buy a smaller boat, or not upgraded to a larger one, to avoid falling foul of the restrictions. Hence my comment in a post above that they've found a way to fudge the issue, appeasing the environmentalists without driving away too many (if any) boaters.

I'm not defending what they've done and totally agree that the rules as drafted are non-sensical, full of inconsistencies and not based on any legitimate scientific analysis. But in true French fashion they have found a way to introduce voluminous and detailed regulations which in practice have almost no effect and can be safely ignored by the majority of people.
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Hey daw thanx for your balanced comments on the forum regarding anchoring - I’m one of those new guys to the med boating scene - I get a lot of info from a French boat captain friend I have in italy - and boy is he a negative pessimistic Frenchman , complaining all the time - talking about this great reset - and he says stuff like - you can’t anchor anymore anywhere it’s finished - and I’m going WTF I just bought a boat in spain to do exactly that - I did keep it small 44 feet - based on recomendations from this forum to not underestimate how costly marinas can be. I’ll probably do most of my boating in Italy and Sardinia - I like Italian food. But thanx fir your thoughts on the reality of anchoring in a more balanced way - my friend put my mind in a place I didn’t want to be- I’m more relaxed now.
 
Zkaliman said:
Hey

Hey daw thanx for your balanced comments on the forum regarding anchoring - I’m one of those new guys to the med boating scene - I get a lot of info from a French boat captain friend I have in italy - and boy is he a negative pessimistic Frenchman , complaining all the time - talking about this great reset - and he says stuff like - you can’t anchor anymore anywhere it’s finished - and I’m going WTF I just bought a boat in spain to do exactly that - I did keep it small 44 feet - based on recomendations from this forum to not underestimate how costly marinas can be. I’ll probably do most of my boating in Italy and Sardinia - I like Italian food. But thanx fir your thoughts on the reality of anchoring in a more balanced way - my friend put my mind in a place I didn’t want to be- I’m more relaxed now.
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Where in Spain?
 
Empuruabrava - bought there don’t plan to hang there - since I’m close to baleárics will Check em out for this season if repair stuff in time - but I wanna head over to Italy
 
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