When at anchor and on board, do you leave instruments on or off

[sailaboutvic]

I'm not sure what point you’re making. Your first statement is certainly true, but the instruments being on won’t make any difference to the latter.
I must lack imagination as we are just like you. Once the anchor is in and set we will happily go off for the day and leave the boat on the hook. A good anchor with plenty of chain and choose your anchorage well makes for carefree anchoring.

PS. Those who apply full power astern to check the set must have small engines and propellers. You couldn’t do that in most power boats and that’s not necessarily a reflection of the size of their anchor...

I wouldn't call a 50hp and a three blade prop small unless you compare it to 60hp with a four blade prop
I always set mine at 2000RPM. Even doing that for years and will continue doing that no matter what any one says here ,
Doing this we know we done everything we can for a good night sleep , and if for some reason we did drag , it won't be for not setting out anchor .
We anchored 2430 days give or take a day in last 9 years at anchor in every thing from F1 to F 8 dragged three times ,
once we found a shopping trolley at the end of our hook and the other two time were related to usually weather conditions.

We also go off and leave our boat at times , but any signs of bad weather we stay with it no matter how well we think our anchor set , there is no way knowing how well the boat in front of us is set .

Anchoring is what we do , we don't go running for a marina at the first sight of wind , we couldn't if we wanted to in many cases .

Going back to the OP , we never leave any instrument on , even before all the new Tex stuff but we do set an anchor alarm on my iPad , which is more of a pain , at times it's gone off , waken us both up just to find its lost its signal and I am one of these people that once up I can't get back to sleep .
In the very early days we use to set a depth gauge . But that came with its problems , if anchored in a river with HW and LW being so close to a bank .

 

[sailaboutvic]

But you don't drag anchor on a pontoon or on a mooring. At anchor seems to me to be a more vulnerable situation with regard to the boat moving of it's own accord.

I sit on my anchor any day then be on a mooring not knowing what's below the water .
As for pontoon , over the years I seen much damage with boat banging into each other .

 

[dom]

PS. Those who apply full power astern to check the set must have small engines and propellers. You couldn’t do that in most power boats and that’s not necessarily a reflection of the size of their anchor...

The second statement is certainly correct (!), but a sailboat with a suitably sized anchor surely wouldn’t budge a well-set new gen anchor by pulling in reverse?

 

[capnsensible]

I dont have any kind of 'rule'. I just look at each anchoring situation on its own merit. depends on what boat Im on, who the crew are, how long Im gonna stay, what the holding is like, what the weather forecast is, what the tide, if any, is doing, how much chain Ive put out relative to other boats, blah, blah. Then I decide whether Im gonna conserve batteries or dont need to.

:encouragement:

 

[Graham376]

How on earth did we manage thirty years ago?

Don't know, I was into gliding and flying then, didn't have to worry about dragging

 

[Graham376]

The second statement is certainly correct (!), but a sailboat with a suitably sized anchor surely wouldn’t budge a well-set new gen anchor by pulling in reverse?

My 43hp in astern certainly won't shift the 20kg Manson Supreme when it's properly set.

 

[PHN]

How on earth did we manage thirty years ago?

Explain to school children how the world looked like 30 years ago without iPhone, Facebook, etc.

In modern times an increasing number of people has the misguided perception that you don't need to know/do anything "because we have electronics". It does indeed make life more easy to a certain extent, but still you need to think for yourself. The electronics don't tell you that it is not a smart idea to anchor on a bunch of anchor chain from all kinds of ships that come and go every so many minutes and then leave your ship unattended.

Just like in the old days you still need some kind of common sense ... and indeed take some kind of risk as there are no guarantees. But don't expect that everything is fine for the sole reason of "having electronics".

 

[James_Calvert]

How on earth did we manage thirty years ago?

I think the standard advice involved a housebrick tied to a length of string and a frying pan on the other end. The idea being that you dropped the brick over the side and when the tide turned, or the wind shifted, or you dragged, the string would dislodge the frying pan and wake you up with its clatter.

 

[john_morris_uk]

I wouldn't call a 50hp and a three blade prop small unless you compare it to 60hp with a four blade prop
I always set mine at 2000RPM. Even doing that for years and will continue doing that no matter what any one says here ,
.

It wasn't you who said that set their anchor using full power astern so no criticism of you implied.

It's throw away lines like "I set using full power astern" that I find irritating. Newcomers and beginners start to think that's the way to do it, whereas in reality your suggestion of using 2000 rpm has been found (by you) to be perfect for your boat and situations. We have 40 hp and a big three bladed feathering propellor and it gives plenty of grunt if required. I'm not sure that half power vs full power etc proves anything much and its a poor 'rule of thumb' anyway IMHO.

We anchor far more than we use a marina and I trust out tackle in most circumstances.

Surely the real proof of seamanship is assessing the situation and planning and reacting accordingly. Its what makes sailing and cruising so fascinating.

 

[[3889]]

I think the standard advice involved a housebrick tied to a length of string and a frying pan on the other end. The idea being that you dropped the brick over the side and when the tide turned, or the wind shifted, or you dragged, the string would dislodge the frying pan and wake you up with its clatter.

How long is the string? Or does that calculation require initiative based on the circumstances?

 

[john_morris_uk]

How long is the string? Or does that calculation require initiative based on the circumstances?

You check the tides on your plotter and do some calculations on your smartphone.

 

[sailaboutvic]

It wasn't you who said that set their anchor using full power astern so no criticism of you implied.

It's throw away lines like "I set using full power astern" that I find irritating. Newcomers and beginners start to think that's the way to do it, whereas in reality your suggestion of using 2000 rpm has been found (by you) to be perfect for your boat and situations. We have 40 hp and a big three bladed feathering propellor and it gives plenty of grunt if required. I'm not sure that half power vs full power etc proves anything much and its a poor 'rule of thumb' anyway IMHO.

We anchor far more than we use a marina and I trust out tackle in most circumstances.

Surely the real proof of seamanship is assessing the situation and planning and reacting accordingly. Its what makes sailing and cruising so fascinating.

John , wasn't criticizing your post and I didn't read your posting to say you was criticizing me .
I was just stating a fact , that this is what we do , there a lot more to setting a anchor then putting into astern as I sure an experience sailor as your self very well know ,

So much is writing here on these forum and on others forum at time as I read some of the posting I wonder how some getaway without waking up and finding them self aground ,
I can only imagine some are very luck or anchor in very light winds .

People can have the best anchor in the world , but if you don't set it don't expect it to hold you .

We see it time and time again people not making any effort to anchor properly, and it's others that suffer,

 

[sailaboutvic]

I think the standard advice involved a housebrick tied to a length of string and a frying pan on the other end. The idea being that you dropped the brick over the side and when the tide turned, or the wind shifted, or you dragged, the string would dislodge the frying pan and wake you up with its clatter.

James we use this technique many many years ago, we only used it once , I can still remember it was in Walton black waters on e east coast ,
we place an old flying pan on the coach roof just above our head and use a small spider anchor , I remember just dropping off to sleep when a fishing boat roared pass and knocking the pan off the coach roof on to the deck , it frighten the sh@t out of us , never used it again .
unless you want a heart attack I wouldn't suggest use it .

 

[James_Calvert]

James we use this technique many many years ago, we only used it once , I can still remember it was in Walton black waters on e east coast ,
we place an old flying pan on the coach roof just above our head and use a small spider anchor , I remember just dropping off to sleep when a fishing boat roared pass and knocking the pan off the coach roof on to the deck , it frighten the sh@t out of us , never used it again .
unless you want a heart attack I wouldn't suggest use it .

I never did try it. But thanks for the first hand advice!

 

[thinwater]

Oh, how did I ever learn how to sail....

Most days I don't turn them on sailing. I don't take GPS hiking, I don't use WAYS every time I drive somewhere, and I don't take a ladder rock climbing. I know how they work, but frankly, I find them to be an intrusion into the experience.

 

[RupertW]

Oh, how did I ever learn how to sail....

Most days I don't turn them on sailing. I don't take GPS hiking, I don't use WAYS every time I drive somewhere, and I don't take a ladder rock climbing. I know how they work, but frankly, I find them to be an intrusion into the experience.

I'm with you there which is why I only sort of have a chartplotter (ipad with Navionics mostly on chart table), but I've always liked to have a depth sounder as the must have bit of electronics, apart from one season on my Dad's boat where he didn't bother getting it fixed so we used a boat hook on the basis that if I couldn't get it to touch the bottom we were fine.

 

[LadyInBed]

so we used a boat hook on the basis that if I couldn't get it to touch the bottom we were fine.

I carry a shot line - Fishing weight on a cord with half meter marks

 

[BelleSerene]

I'd never thought of driving the bowsprit into a berg to check the wind direction. That's genius!

 

[michael_w]

When a mooring parts, things happen very quickly. An anchor dragging is much slower.

 

[RupertW]

I carry a shot line - Fishing weight on a cord with half meter marks

I made up a leadline too but this was a shallow old triple keeler with 2 ' 6" draft so in practice it was either totally fine or the boathook gave us the answer.