Sybarite
Well-Known Member
And what a waste of money to pay insurance when you never use it.
Why do I have a kedge anchor?
- Thread starter MoodySabre
- Start date
And what a waste of money to pay insurance when you never use it.
MoodySabre
Well-Known Member
That was a pointless comment. My marina insists I am insured and damage to my boat is just as likely to arise from the actions of other people. As I do not regularly anchor and wouldn't do in bad weather then I just wanted some sensible answers to persuade me to keep it.
Ludd
Well-Known Member
Not a pointless comment at all--- very much to the point !
Would you Not insure if the marina didn't insist?
It's a judgement call, something only you can decide . Personally I carry insurance AND extra anchoring capability, but hey, whatever sinks your boat!
Would you Not insure if the marina didn't insist?
It's a judgement call, something only you can decide . Personally I carry insurance AND extra anchoring capability, but hey, whatever sinks your boat!
OceanSprint
Well-Known Member
I am in the same boat, so to speak.
Before buying my first big boat (24 foot), I studied all the cruising guides and manuals. I set the boat up as a "well found seaworthy boat" and equipped her to cope with any emergency. I enjoyed doing it, and used to pore over Force 4 and Gael Force brochures constantly. I spent (and spend) many happy hours on here getting extra tips for more bits to get.
Apart from a trip away for 1 week, I have only ever done marina-based day trips. I suppose the boat is heavier than it need be, but as I singlehand, I am sure the extra gear is no more than two hefty crew.
So, the kedge and 100m polypropolene will stay stored below - "just in case". And I am ready to set off at a moments notice to who knows where.
Before buying my first big boat (24 foot), I studied all the cruising guides and manuals. I set the boat up as a "well found seaworthy boat" and equipped her to cope with any emergency. I enjoyed doing it, and used to pore over Force 4 and Gael Force brochures constantly. I spent (and spend) many happy hours on here getting extra tips for more bits to get.
Apart from a trip away for 1 week, I have only ever done marina-based day trips. I suppose the boat is heavier than it need be, but as I singlehand, I am sure the extra gear is no more than two hefty crew.
So, the kedge and 100m polypropolene will stay stored below - "just in case". And I am ready to set off at a moments notice to who knows where.
Dockhead
Well-Known Member
You will decide for yourself, of course.
But for many of us -- a kedge is basic equipment, rarely needed, but needed really badly on those rare occasions. Like insurance (that comment was actually apt).
Kedging off if you go aground, or holding your grounded boat from drifting further ashore on the swells.
Throwing out to stop you, if you are out of control for some reason or another. Tangled rigging and jammed halyard, for example, or dragging the best bower, or dead engine in a calm, etc., etc., etc.
Spare to the best bower.
Stern anchor going bows-to something.
I wouldn't go out without a kedge, myself. I don't use it often, but when I need it, I need it. Over 8 years on my present boat, I've used mine for three of the four purposes stated above, and in total maybe a couple dozen times.
Fortress is the ideal kedge, and it is light and easy to handle and store. Sets instantly in almost all kinds of ground, not requiring working into the seabed, unlike the best bower. This is important in emergency situations when you don't have power for some reason.
NUTMEG
Well-Known Member
The only time I use mine is when I get back to Maldon a bit early. I chuck it out the back and make
Off on a stern cleat. As the tide flows in we sit facing the right way
Easy to haul in too
Off on a stern cleat. As the tide flows in we sit facing the right way
Easy to haul in too
MoodySabre
Well-Known Member
Thank you all. It will stay.
Resolution
Well-Known Member
+1 Mine also refused to bite.
Saguday
Well-Known Member
Cruising boats are full of expensive stuff you buy and hope you never have to use - liferaft, EPIRB, life jackets, fire extinguishers, softwood plugs - so why not keep the kedge?
grumpy_o_g
Well-Known Member
Used to use them many years ago with a man in a dinghy to row out and lay the kedge so we could pull the boat in against the tide. Hard work and we only ever got a short distance but I was too young and stupid to ever question why we did it. These days I think they're handy for laying out from the stern to hold a boat head on to a swell or something. As the kedge is usually a Fortress or similar they can hold better than the main anchor if the main doesn't like soft mud for example. I've never seen them as a second main anchor though as they're usually a lot smaller.
OceanSprint
Well-Known Member
What i may well get as my next purchase is a big grapnell anchor as a "lunch anchor" to avoid hauling up by hand my 10kg delta for just a quick stop on a day sail in good weather.
KellysEye
Well-Known Member
>Good to learn there are only two uses for a kedge.
What else do you yours for? We carried three anchors a 40lb CQR, a Fortress FX23 as a kedge and FX 23 as a storm anchor for long distance sailing
What else do you yours for? We carried three anchors a 40lb CQR, a Fortress FX23 as a kedge and FX 23 as a storm anchor for long distance sailing
Neeves
Well-Known Member
We carry (at least) 3 anchors, all are of a size to be the primary - but they are all alloy, weight 8kg - so each could be rowed out with a dinghy.
Simply ponder - how do all those anchor suppliers stay in business, one reason is - people lose anchors, so you need a spare.
2 anchors deployed in a 'V' reduce veering and veering is attributed as a cause for an anchor dragging (so if you deploy 2 anchors you 'might' reduce dragging and if you are veering - why not deploy your second anchor).
No anchor is perfect despite protestations to the contrary - so what do you use in weed, anchorages with stones and pebbles or thin mud. If you think your anchor that works in weed, also works in thin mud - let us know.
You need more than one anchor - call it a kedge if you like - to us its just another primary.
Jonathan
Simply ponder - how do all those anchor suppliers stay in business, one reason is - people lose anchors, so you need a spare.
2 anchors deployed in a 'V' reduce veering and veering is attributed as a cause for an anchor dragging (so if you deploy 2 anchors you 'might' reduce dragging and if you are veering - why not deploy your second anchor).
No anchor is perfect despite protestations to the contrary - so what do you use in weed, anchorages with stones and pebbles or thin mud. If you think your anchor that works in weed, also works in thin mud - let us know.
You need more than one anchor - call it a kedge if you like - to us its just another primary.
Jonathan
macd
Well-Known Member
If you'd actually read the thread, instead of just dropping in with your usual eyewash, you'd know the answer to that.
Kelpie
Well-Known Member
Pah. I will see your three anchors and raise you five.
15kg Rocna bower.
10 kg Bruce kedge (was the bower when we bought her)
?kg Danforth, lives in a specially made locker that only it would fit. Used once or twice. I'm going to remove the locker ( steals forecabin headroom) and get rid of the anchor, though.
15kg folding fisherman anchor (storm anchor). Used a couple of times only, but would be good to have if I was drifting onto a rocky shore.
4kg Manson Supreme- light kedge. Stolen from my Wayfarer. This gets far more use than you would expect. Very easy to row out, much better holding than you would think, I have had the yacht hanging off this in a F6 before. Used to angle us into swell, or as a stern anchor, or as half of a vee, basically about 80% of the times that I bother using a second anchor.
TiggerToo
Well-Known Member
Yes, we have
Yes, we have used it.
No, it is not wasted space/weight.
We have used it when anchoring in narrow tidal rivers where the change in tide could have cause a large swing and possible grounding on the adjacent mudflats.
Also, as others have said, it is a sort of insurance policy for the day when we might lose one anchor to fouling.
jimbaerselman
Well-Known Member
So, to summarise what one uses a kedge for:
1. Kedging. Pulling boat in a new direction compared with plan A - whatever that might have been!
Vyv Cox's article http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/sailing-skills/8-uses-for-a-kedge-anchor-32123 gives the detail.
1. Kedging. Pulling boat in a new direction compared with plan A - whatever that might have been!
Vyv Cox's article http://www.yachtingmonthly.com/sailing-skills/8-uses-for-a-kedge-anchor-32123 gives the detail.
Neeves
Well-Known Member
I dislike the word 'Kedge' because it means what JimB quotes. Owners use the word 'kedge' as Vyv describes in the referenced article - and that usage is much more than a kedge (add to which many of us using our second anchor as a spare primary - which has nothing to do with the meaning Jim provides).
If a kedge is simply an anchor to alter the pulling direction then personally we would not and do not have one. We have anchors that can also be primaries.
If you want to row an anchor out, or are weight conscious, then alloy is the way to go and you can have a primary sized but kedge (roawable) application. Why you would use a small, say Danforth (or the anchor you replaced with your new totally reliable (?) new anchor - I don't understand. The Danforth is probably a copy and might not work and why keep the anchor you replaced??
But if the word kedge were used for its 'agreed' (?) meaning - maybe we would get different answers.
I see some yachts with Fortress as primaries, they (the Fortress) are sitting on bow rollers. What do they use as their second (or kedge) anchor?
Jonathan
If a kedge is simply an anchor to alter the pulling direction then personally we would not and do not have one. We have anchors that can also be primaries.
If you want to row an anchor out, or are weight conscious, then alloy is the way to go and you can have a primary sized but kedge (roawable) application. Why you would use a small, say Danforth (or the anchor you replaced with your new totally reliable (?) new anchor - I don't understand. The Danforth is probably a copy and might not work and why keep the anchor you replaced??
But if the word kedge were used for its 'agreed' (?) meaning - maybe we would get different answers.
I see some yachts with Fortress as primaries, they (the Fortress) are sitting on bow rollers. What do they use as their second (or kedge) anchor?
Jonathan
LittleSister
Well-Known Member
Surely a 'second anchor as a spare primary' is better described as a secondary anchor?
A secondary anchor is, these days, generally known as a kedge, even though they're now rarely actually used for kedging. I don't have a problem with that. The language has evolved, and without apparent loss of any facility for precision, elegance, etc. that sometimes causes us to regret such evolution.
(We're happy enough to use port and starboard, even though we don't always berth port side to because the starboard side is constrained by the steerboard.)
Meanwhile, what I'd like to know is how many of us use any of our anchors for drudging?
Neeves
Well-Known Member
No, not a spare primary.
We would not use a Spade or Excel in thin mud or soft sand, so the Fortress (which excels in these seabeds) is our primary of choice. Similarly we would not think of using our Fortress is seabeds with a profusion of stones and pebbles. Other anchors have different strengths and weaknesses - but no need to go there. If we deploy 2 anchors in a fork or 'V' with rodes of equal length (to reduce veering) - which one is the primary?
If we lose an anchor, which must be surprisingly common given the number of anchor makers, then the anchor we use as a replacement is surely a primary - and better to have anchors that can all be primaries then some fiddly little thing that would never engender a decent nights sleep.
But each to their own, as we well know anchors are a very personal choice - this obviously extends to the words we use. It would be a dull place if we all thought the same.
Jonathan
We would not use a Spade or Excel in thin mud or soft sand, so the Fortress (which excels in these seabeds) is our primary of choice. Similarly we would not think of using our Fortress is seabeds with a profusion of stones and pebbles. Other anchors have different strengths and weaknesses - but no need to go there. If we deploy 2 anchors in a fork or 'V' with rodes of equal length (to reduce veering) - which one is the primary?
If we lose an anchor, which must be surprisingly common given the number of anchor makers, then the anchor we use as a replacement is surely a primary - and better to have anchors that can all be primaries then some fiddly little thing that would never engender a decent nights sleep.
But each to their own, as we well know anchors are a very personal choice - this obviously extends to the words we use. It would be a dull place if we all thought the same.
Jonathan