Sunken yacht in Solent

It is a low resolution photo, but you can see the anchor ball just behind the staysail. We now display it further forward and higher.
 
noelex said:
It is a low resolution photo, but you can see the anchor ball just behind the staysail.
Click to expand...

The rule specifically says "where it can best be seen", so if that black smudge next to 5 other black smudges really is an anchor ball - (I did wonder), it still fails to comply with the rule.
 
Mark-1 said:
The rule specifically says "where it can best be seen", so if that black smudge next to 5 other black smudges really is an anchor ball - (I did wonder), it still fails to comply with the rule.
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I agree it could be displayed better (but it is there), hence why we moved it.
 
IMG_5464.jpeg

The anchor ball we inherited with our boat got mangled up by the previous owner. He never used to take it apart but just folded it together which meant that it never clipped together in the correct shape properly afterwards. No matter what I tried it always went a bit squished. I replaced it last year.
 
awol said:
Mine seems to act like a wind turbine, spinning if there is any breeze.
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Indeed I've often joked that if I could harness the "spin" then I'd make more power than my solar panels.
awol said:
Wonder why ships don't have bigger balls than yachts?
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They do (unless you have a massive ball) - they just aren't as huge as you might expect - probably because they become unweildy.
 
This is a long thread for what seems a simple objective.

I have found the answer simple.

I do not want to be hit and I wish to comply to rules and regs.

So from the very beginning many years ago (after reading PBO mags before even buying a cruiser) I always hoist an anchor ball that is very visible; takes a minute or thereabouts and I am good to go ( or stay).

Not rocket science and not laborious, so no excuse to be lazy really as far as I see it.
 
john_morris_uk said:
View attachment 199216

The anchor ball we inherited with our boat got mangled up by the previous owner. He never used to take it apart but just folded it together which meant that it never clipped together in the correct shape properly afterwards. No matter what I tried it always went a bit squished. I replaced it last year.
Click to expand...
How big is that ball? Looks like about a foot across to me?
 
Little Tern said:
How big is that ball? Looks like about a foot across to me?
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It’s regulation size for our vessel. See IRPCS. ‘May be proportionally smaller.’ I can’t measure it as it’s on the boat 3600 miles away.

I’ve just found a reference to a boat or boats not being compensated due to not showing correct day shapes.
From Trawlerforum: ….I was in St'Johns Harbour in Antigua about 20 years ago when a cruise ship lost its steering and ploughed into several sailboats in the designated anchorage. The only one that was compensated was the one flying a day anchor signal.
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Anchor Ball
 
The boat at anchor is stationary so there isn’t an excuse for hitting it....however if the anchored boat is moving around it’s anchor with the wind...then not only could you hit it...but it could hit you. In which case who is to blame ?...either way you might get accused of getting too close
 
I use an anchor ball. I also use a motoring cone when the sails are up and using the engine. I don’t do it because of insurance. I do it because it’s the regs and I’ve always done it. If that’s good reason or bad, I don’t really care. To my mind, if it’s good/rules/ insurance//safety/etc good practice to use an anchor ball. Then it is the same for a cone. One cannot argue (in my opinion)that anchor balls are essential but motoring cones aren’t. To me, that makes no logical sense. I find it far more unsafe when I see a yacht that I assume to be sailing (and therefore take action if I am motoring) only to find out they are in fact motoring. Sometimes it’s obvious. Sails flapping like crazy but yacht still making way. Other times it isn’t. I have taken avoiding action assuming the yacht is sailing in a channel etc when in fact they’re just motoring and the action I take would be different. In my opinion, motoring cones are more useful than anchoring balls. However I am prepared to be shot down for this. I haven’t posted often. Every time I do, someone shouts at me. I stand prepared to be called an idiot.
 
melvynpatrick said:
I use an anchor ball. I also use a motoring cone when the sails are up and using the engine. I don’t do it because of insurance. I do it because it’s the regs and I’ve always done it. If that’s good reason or bad, I don’t really care. To my mind, if it’s good/rules/ insurance//safety/etc good practice to use an anchor ball. Then it is the same for a cone. One cannot argue (in my opinion)that anchor balls are essential but motoring cones aren’t. To me, that makes no logical sense. I find it far more unsafe when I see a yacht that I assume to be sailing (and therefore take action if I am motoring) only to find out they are in fact motoring. Sometimes it’s obvious. Sails flapping like crazy but yacht still making way. Other times it isn’t. I have taken avoiding action assuming the yacht is sailing in a channel etc when in fact they’re just motoring and the action I take would be different. In my opinion, motoring cones are more useful than anchoring balls. However I am prepared to be shot down for this. I haven’t posted often. Every time I do, someone shouts at me. I stand prepared to be called an idiot.
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Anyone referring to you as an idiot should have a good look in the mirror.
 
If anyone wants another reason for complying with rules, several years ago, Disgusted of Tunbridge Wells wrote to the Chichester Harbour Conservancy complaining about Jetskis and the like not complying with speed limits and other rules. The Conservancy wrote back agreeing it was a problem, and saying they would make a serious effort in enforcement.

Guess who was the first person to get a fine, for not displaying a motor-sailing cone...
 
Lucky Duck said:
Absent any aggravating factors, prosecuting somebody in the magistrates’ court the first time the are observed without a motoring cone sounds excessive IMHO
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Yeah, Stemar's been taken for a ride. - Prosecutions by the conservancy are vanishingly rare and they give them maximum publicity. The last I recall was a pair of jetskis that had been an ongoing menace for weeks with extreme speed and they were pretty aggressive individuals, too.

I've never heard of any leisure vessel being in court purely over day shapes ever in the UK, and certainly not in Chi Harbour.
 
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Mark-1 said:
I've never heard of any leisure vessel being in court purely over day shapes ever in the UK, and certainly not in Chi Harbour.
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In Belgium it does happen. A friend of mine was fined for not having his motoring cone up in Blankenberge harbour entrance. His reaction he had barely finished hoisting his mainsail did not make any difference.
A police launch is very often moored in Nieuwpoort harbour channel on busy weekends and everybody displays the cone as per the regulations.
 
melvynpatrick said:
In my opinion, motoring cones are more useful than anchoring balls.
Click to expand...
I agree, although I’ve not devised a mechanism to deploy one (or retract it) from the cockpit which means that it can be more risky than an anchor ball where you are already in the right place and usually relatively calm.
 
ylop said:
I agree, although I’ve not devised a mechanism to deploy one (or retract it) from the cockpit which means that it can be more risky than an anchor ball where you are already in the right place and usually relatively calm.
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Yes it can be a faff I agree. I have no easy method it must be said.but I also have lifepo4 batteries so the boat may very well burn to the waterline before I get chance to hoist it in any case😀
 
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