The worst and funniest ways on how not to anchor!

[actionoptics]

Flotilla in the Saronic Gulf this year. One of the boats started to perform a stern-to mooring when the crew on the foredeck shouted and held up the end of the anchor chain with just half of the swivel connector attached. It had broken and sent the anchor to the bottom. The funny thing was the flotilla hostess saying, in all seriousness, "It's a shame anchors don't float." and then her red face as she realised what she had said.

 

[JumbleDuck]

When about to anchor, don't leave the 'spanner' in the Lewmar gypsy adjuster and then accidentally step on the 'up' button, thus jamming the spanner in its hole and against the deck.

Ever started a lathe with the key in the four jaw chuck? I have, in my student days. The workshop manager's comments, as I retrieved the key from the far end of the room, were ... firm.

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Ever started a lather with the key in the four jaw chuck? I have, in my student days. The workshop manager's comments, as I retrieved the key from the far end of the room, were ... firm.

The first year of my engineering apprenticeship I witnessed a chunk of mild steel, fly from a lathe and travel at great speed the length of an

aeroplane hanger. It crashed through the window of a 1st floor office. The cheers from the 60 strong apprentice school shop floor, was like that at

a packed football ground.

S.

 

[Resolution]

As Gocek and Fethiye seem to be popular entries for this subject, can I add another experienced whilst berthing stern-to in Fethiye? It demonstrated the importance of correct articulation and lip control. A fellow Sunsail charterer was reversing in on a 35 footer (no electric anchor windlass) with wife on foredeck ready to drop the anchor. She turned and asked him "Shall I let the anchor go?" He was concentrating on getting the boat to track back accurately, so it was a moment or two before he answered "No." Whereupon she chucked the anchor overboard and started feeding out the chain. Inevitably they came to the end of the chain (which was attached to the boat!) an agonising five metres short of the quayside. No amount of engine would get them into range, so sadly they departed to hoist it all up (by hand) and try again.
In the post mortem which followed, and this was not a quiet little friendly discussion, it transpired that she had thought he had said "Go!", not "No."
Still, on the positive side their children learned a few new words (not no or go), and a week later the parents had recovered enough to laugh at themselves.

 

[doris]

Ever started a lather with the key in the four jaw chuck? I have, in my student days. The workshop manager's comments, as I retrieved the key from the far end of the room, were ... firm.

Snap. I was about 14, working in my step-fathers engineering works. The banging and clattering was something else......only did it once!

 

[LadyInBed]

I watched a yacht in Newtown Creek start to slowly slide past me as the tide rose. Called but no answer, so went over in the dingy, crew all ashore. Went up to bow and saw that they had rigged a tripping line and tied it off at the bow. I released it and tied it in a loose loop down the chain.
The moral of the tale: the tripping line catenary doesn't follow the same path as the anchor chain.

 

[LadyInBed]

On tripping lines, I anchored in a river and put out my 15m tripping line, as I wasn't sure what had been dumped in the river, terminated in an aquired pot buoy.
I got woken twice in the night as the tide turned and the hard buoy bounced against the side of the hull.
In the morning I replaced the hard buoy with a small fender.

 

[dje67]

When about to anchor, don't leave the 'spanner' in the Lewmar gypsy adjuster and then accidentally step on the 'up' button, thus jamming the spanner in its hole and against the deck.

A devil to get the spanner unjammed from the deck and gypsy (luckily in the anchor locker) an no scratches on deck proper

I've now done it a couple of times and luckily I removed the spanner the last time in the dark, after a very long time tapping firmly against the spanner.

S.

Alternatively, don't accidentally press the down button with the spanner in the Quick windlass. It will hit the deck, stop then as the gypsy continues to turn, the clutch will completely undo itself. This then dumps all the chain overboard.... quite exciting at 5 knots approaching the anchorage At least it proved the end of the rode was securely tied to the boat.

 

[Phoenix of Hamble]

You guys need to invest in the foot switches with covers!

 

[Robby]

Ever started a lathe with the key in the four jaw chuck? I have, in my student days. The workshop manager's comments, as I retrieved the key from the far end of the room, were ... firm.

In the training school where I started my apprenticeship, if a chuck key was spotted left in the chuck we were given a huge key on a leather strap to wear round our necks! Not only did it make you look more of an idiot, it's sheer weight was enough to remind us to be very cautious around rotating machinery!
A key in a chuck MUST also have a hand attached...

I can still remember being shown a horizontal milling machine. As a demonstration, it had been set up with a 6 inch wide slab-mill cutter set about 1/8 inch (3mm) above the table. They set it running and slid an old wooden hand-brush along the table under the cutter. It chipped it into tiny little pieces and spat it out the other side! The instructor explained that the machine could do exactly the same to an arm! A very memorable lesson.

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

You guys need to invest in the foot switches with covers!

Got one that's the sad thing about us ..... either don't take the spanner out when we should or step back on the switch when we shouldn't.

S.

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

In the training school where I started my apprenticeship, if a chuck key was spotted left in the chuck we were given a huge key on a leather strap to wear round our necks! Not only did it make you look more of an idiot, it's sheer weight was enough to remind us to be very cautious around rotating machinery!
A key in a chuck MUST also have a hand attached...

I can still remember being shown a horizontal milling machine. As a demonstration, it had been set up with a 6 inch wide slab-mill cutter set about 1/8 inch (3mm) above the table. They set it running and slid an old wooden hand-brush along the table under the cutter. It chipped it into tiny little pieces and spat it out the other side! The instructor explained that the machine could do exactly the same to an arm! A very memorable lesson.

In the school workshop I used to stand the new intake of 13 yr olds round the 10" circular saw and start it up, bang a broomstick

down on the bench alongside really hard, run the broomstick end through the saw and ask if they think their fingers are as

tough as the broomstick.

S.

 

[bbg]

I wish I'd had a camera.

Scuba diving in the med, a lot of the smaller dive boats don't have windlasses. On the boat I was diving on, the procedure - to make recovery easier - was to dive down the anchor chain, attach a small lift bag to the crown of the anchor and put a bit of air in. Typically at the end of the dive.

On one dive we saw that the neighboring dive boat had put some air into the lift bag at the beginning of the dive. And put too much in. The result was an anchor hanging in the water about 5 m below the surface, with a loop of chain just hang down to the rocks below. In any wind they would not have found a boat to come back to.

 

[BlueSkyNick]

Not sailing but related, I worked in Grand Cayman in the eighties with some responsibility for the submarine cable to Jamaica which kept the Cayman banking industry connected to the rest of the world.

I had a 15foot Boston Whaler which SWMBO and I used for pottering about, snorkelling and picnics. On one occasion, I dropped the anchor and jumped in to check that it was settled before tucking into a cold greenie. I couldn't believe that my Danforth had the cable between its flukes. My whole career flashed before my eyes and tomorrow's headlines of 'telecoms engineer causes cable chaos', and SWMBO was rather surprised to be told not to open that beer yet, we moving!

 

[oldbilbo]

Mate with an Antigua catamaran, prepping it for a charter out of Mayflower Marina, anchored in the nearby Barn Pool at the southern end - which is described in Reed's almanac, in Fishwick's 'Cruising Guide' I'd lent him, and shown on the chart, as 'Foul'. So he anchors there..... and gets his hook stuck.

I asked him what he did. "I was late for a meeting, so I let it go," he answered. "All of it - including the chain."

"Did you think about phoning the diving school at Membury? They'd have recovered it for a crate of beer....?"

"Didn't occur to me..."

"Did you tie a fender/marker on the end....?"

"No. Didn't thiink to...."

"What about anchor bearings, so you could try finding it again?"

"Nope."

"So you just jettisoned about £500 worth of anchor and chain....?

Stony silence.

 

[duncan99210]

Well, there we were, anchored in a fairly crowded Lakka bay, Paxos a few years back. We watched in varying degrees of amusement and horror as the afternoon developed and boats arrived to find space to anchor. Nearby was an immaculate German yacht, whose skipper was taking a really detailed interest in any boat venturing nearby. In comes a largish charter boat, packed with middle Europeans, clearly out on their own for the first time. They identify an vacant patch adjacent to us and the German, position themselves such that they are in the vacant patch, not up wind of it, and drop their hook.
They are puzzled when they do not remain in the right place but drift down wind, endangering both ourselves and the German. I managed to restrain myself to looking pained. The German did not: he delivered a sulphurous lesson in anchoring at high volume, which simply reduced the hapless charter crew into inactivity and confusion. They recovered their anchor and tried again, with much the same result.
To give the their due, they did continue to try and get it right time and again over the next half hour or so, with our friendly German getting more and more apoplectic. Eventually, he could stand it no more. He leapt into his dinghy, rowed across the to charter boat and took command. He reorganised them, gave clear orders that could be heard throughout the anchorage and saw them safely anchored in their intended position. He then returned to his own boat full of self satisfied smugness.
We thought that this had ended the entertainment, but not quite. Ashore later in a waterfront bar, we realised we were seated at the next table to the German and his wife. Then a dinghy arrived, bearing the charter crew. The German stood, strode over to them and proceeded to question them as to the lessons learnt that afternoon.......
Really, it was more sitcom than anything else!

 

[davidej]

i my early days of cruising I took the family up to the Walton Backwaters for the weekend.

As my s-i -l was even less experienced, I left him at the helm while I set the anchor myself. As the chain and then rode rattled out of the fairlead it became obvious that we has far too much forward way on.

Too dangerous to try to make it off, so I ran back to the helm and gave it a burst of reverse. Then I went back forward to find we had neatly cut our own rode and there was only a frayed end.


As a PS, next weekend I towed up a dinghy and outboard and after an hour with a grappling hook, I recovered the whole lot. A neat splice and normal service restored!

 

[Porthandbuoy]

Anchored our 9m Catalac off the hot cliffs of Pantelleria so the kids could swim in the lovely hot water. Came to raise the anchor and it stuck fast (it was a Bruce). We tried motoring in all directions with varying amount of scope; it never budged. I could see the damn thing, wavering in the jets of superheated water spewing up from the seabed. I tried diving down to retrieve it as it wasn't all that deep; about 5m if I remember correctly. Somewhat blistered I gave that up as a bad job.
In the end I got the entire family, and everything heavy that was moveable, up on the foredeck. I then cranked the windless hard until the chain was straight up and down and like an iron bar. The bows suddenly lifted. "Success!" we all cried and hauled in the chain. The anchor is still down there if anyone's got an asbestos wetsuit.

 

[pathfinderstu]

+1, I once did that too

Just finished everything, snubbers bearings ball and all, aaahhh, open a beer in the cockpit, point the eyes upwards and there was the quietly flapping mainsail

done that twice this year in the med with light winds...getting quite good at making out that I had done it on purpose.!

 

[Nostrodamus]

There have been some fantastic replies on this thread and it looks like I am not the only one to make cock ups along the way when anchoring.
I did manage to write a blog about anchoring but it did not turn out as I expected.
http://www.cygnus3.com/anchoring-techniques/