Suitable river anchor?

[bcutts]

I'm currently in the process of getting my first boat ready for the water which is a Norman 24. I'm going to be using it only on the non-tidal Thames and was wondering what type and size of anchor would be best and whether the 5 x boat length for the line still holds true when inland?

 

[hlb]

Nothing to do with boat length. It's depth thats important.

Firstly, rope is not much good, you need plenty of chain. Idealy all chain. There are no scientific facts, all places are different, depth, wind current, ground, holding. All are factors. In a river you will not have to much depth, but current, holding power on the bottom?? I'd go for 3X depth with chain, then some rope. Might be a bit OTT, but do you want to find out??

Just cos you've got it dont mean you have to drop it, on the other hand................................. I have 60 metres of chain by the way, mostly dont use half of it......But!

 

[craigsmith]

A boat length of chain can be considered the safe minimum for chain, but you clearly need to carry enough rope to make up a total length of at least 5x the maximum depth you'll be anchoring in.

On anchors...

 

[Chris_d]

To be honest you don't really need one on the non-tidal Thames, normaly if you find yourself powerless in the middle of the river, someone will comes along and help you to the side, if not a long boat hook is more usefull than an anchor.

As your boat does not have an anchor locker or roller, probably the best compromise is a stow flat Danforth laid on deck, with about 2m of chain and 20m of rope. That will be the easiest to lob overboard should you need it an emergency.

 

[ms1]

If you have a small pulpit rail some owners use that to 'hang' a Danforth anchor (upside down) to keep it tidy.

 

[bcutts]

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

Alothough I take the point about probably not needing one on the non-tidal Thames, I would feel happier if I had one should the engine fail close to a weir and there is nobody close by.

So can I assume that the best anchor would be a Danforth type and (assuming the Thames averages around 2M depth), 6M of chain and 20M of rope?

Brian

 

[hlb]

Think you would get away with a bit less chain and rope, certainly rope. But like I said earlier, it all depends how much you want to be sure of stopping. At a wier, I would think you want to be dam certain.

 

[Andrew_Fanner]

Always have an anchor on the river, this last week has shown that Old Father Thames is not as benign as he sometimes looks. I've used Danforth, Bruce and CQR anchors on the river with, so far, equal effect, success btw you cynics