Boat Anchoring 101: Setting and Raising Your Anchor | Ep. 38 

@@lubberwalker interesting … RU-vid is often a mystery! Thanks for both subscriptions!! 😜

Thanks DP!

Aloha wnhuynhhi! Glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks erents1, glad it was helpful!

Thank you very much! We now use a soft shackle instead of a rolling hitch for our snubber. It is working great ... we've been using it for a couple weeks so far.

Thank you so much! We have had years of 'learning' experiences - some good, some a bit frightening so we really enjoy sharing what we've learned along the way.

You're very welcome Paul, glad to have you on board.

Thank you so much - glad you liked it.

You are welcome!

Thank you very much for the feedback, glad you liked it!

You're welcome Bruce, glad you liked it!

You are very welcome Rick!

Thanks so much! We've given anchoring a lot of thought over the years and we know it is one thing that is a hurdle for people new to boating so we wanted to cover a bunch of the issues and questions people have as they attempt anchoring in various conditions.

Thanks Matt! Yes indeed it does take a considerable amount of time, but it is also enjoyable and we learn a lot through the process. Appreciate the feedback. Fair winds!

Glad you like them!

Good suggestion Scott. I think playing around the dimensions of the bridle would be key. Our bow cleats are positioned in such a way on the toe rail that you'd want the bridle to have a decent length to it, to avoid chafing against the toe rail. But I can see how it would be worth comparing to possible chafe on a bow roller.

Glad you got something out of it Michael. I spent several years saying in the SF Bay... great location!

You are welcome!

Glad it was helpful!

Great, glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks, appreciate it Lew!

You are very welcome, glad you liked it!

Thanks so much - glad you liked it!

Thanks Dan!

You are welcome!

Glad you enjoyed it!

Thank you!

You're very welcome, glad you enjoyed it!

Thanks Captain Carpman!

A trick: watch series on Flixzone. Me and my gf have been using them for watching lots of of movies recently.

@Elliott Mack definitely, I have been using Flixzone} for months myself :D

Glad it was helpful!

Thanks Geoff. I didn't cover it in the video at the time, but we use the short snubber as an everyday, mild weather snubber, just to take the load off the windlass. Recently, when we anticipate high winds or waves, we use a 10m long snubber, which as you have pointed out, provides a lot of stretch. We run it off the bow, as we don't have a clean lead to the cockpit without introducing the possibility of chafing, but I like your idea. Happy cruising!

You’re welcome!

You're welcome!

Hi Rich. Yes you can use an anchor buoy to mark the anchor’s position. We have a new video coming out soon on anchor buoy usage, and also more details on snubbers. A buoy can help, but they can also be snagged by other boaters particularly in a busy anchorage so you just have to be mindful of the best times to use them.

Good point, RB, especially in areas with high tidal range.

Thanks

You're welcome Antonio!

Hi Mike, an important reminder, thanks for bringing it up!

Thank you - we hope they are helpful to others! I think that yellow line was something my husband was using to test the length he needed a part for our code zero furling mechanism to be attached out on the bow sprit (I'll double check w/ him!). It doesn't have anything to do with anchoring, though, so we probably should have removed it for the video! Good catch.

Good question. You can still tie the snubber to the line, using a rolling hitch. But we generally just cleat off the line itself, as it will give enough stretch alone, acting like a snubber. I would put a snubber on it if for some reason chafe was a concern. The snubber is a lot easier to replace than the anchor line. Good luck!

Hi Michael. Yes, you can pull up as much chain/line as you can, until you are right over the anchor, and then carefully drive the boat forward, and that might release the anchor from the bottom. From there, you can pull up the remaining chain and anchor. Granted, it is hard work. Windlasses are cheaper and more reliable now adays; you might think about investing in one as it will make life a lot easier down the road.

Only if you don't have enough room to swing with the new wind direction. Preferably you should be picking a spot where you can safely swing in all directions so you need to worry about any wind shifts in the first place. Also, most anchors do fine resetting with a wind shift, but if you find yours dragging, it's time to look for a better anchor. CQR anchors are notorious for this issue.

@@LifeFourPointZero thanks!

Hi Ralph. I believe you are referring to one of our whisker pole videos, not this anchor video. We don't use a tack line as the headsails we use with the whisker pole are tacked to the bow. For the guy, I included that in several sections, as a foreguy, to hold the pole down and slightly forward. On the direction of the jaws at the end of the pole, people rig this both ways. We tend to like the jaws facing upward as that releases the sheet/foreguy at little easier. Good luck!

Thanks Dale. Yes ideally this would be the best approach. For us, sometimes when you find the right spot to anchor, you still have forward momentum when you start lowering the anchor and chain so it's hard to avoid some amount of pile up. Good luck!

Usually Mrs. LifeFourPointZero is the more accurate of the two of us...keep the musings coming!

I, for one, often forget to add the keel let alone topside.

Thanks for your comment. We have additional videos covering all aspects of anchoring, including how much chain to put out. There are several videos called anchoring 101 in our how-to video playlist. Watch those and let us know if this answers your question.

Just checked and the playlist is called Boat Anchoring 101.

Yes - quite normal. Boats swing around with both wind and currents and if your anchor is under someone’s boat, their anchor is likely way in front of them, depending on how deep the water is (and, therefore how much rode was put out)

Thanks John! Yes we've seen some boats do multiple colors on their chain and I think that's a good idea. Glad to hear you've had more success with the Rocna. We are always extra cautious when someone anchors nearby us with a CQR!

Hi Daren. I depends on the anchor. Some pull out and reset right away. Other designs take longer to reset, and may never set fully. The CQR anchor comes to mind in this later category. It's best to observe your boat during the tide shift and see how it performs. If it holds consistently, you are in luck. But regardless of how good your anchor is, I wouldn't rely on it, by for instance, leaving the boat during the tide shift. At a minimum, you'd want to back down hard with the engine to make sure it is set well in the new direction.

When we recorded this, we were in the mediterranean in areas with minimal tides so we barely had to think about them. However, we have sailed extensively in the waters off the coast of Maine where the tides can be 12 feet. Still potentially small for you, depending on where in the UK you sail! Most anchors reset when anything (ie the tide and/or current, wind direction changes) causes your boat to face a new direction and the force on the anchor and chain is sufficient enough to straighten it all of the way out in the new direction. When picking an anchor, one of the key factors is its ability to reset itself should conditions require that. Ideally, you wouldn't want to anchor such that you would need to manually reset the anchor on change of conditions but instead you would want to anticipate all potential condition changes and pick a spot and scope that accommodates that. Sometimes this is easier said than done.

Thanks for the suggestion Marc. In fact, we have started to do that on occasion, especially when we feel like the anchor is going to hold and we want to move on to enjoying the anchorage quicker! Fair winds.

Hi Ian: All good questions! First, if you are single handing a lot, you might look into a remote windlass control at the helm. This will allow you to raise and lower the anchor while at the helm, or at least get the process started while you are still maneuvering the boat. For an example of these, see the 1:58 time spot on our video “Boat Anchoring 101: Preparing Your Anchor Rode”. You are correct that we use a combination of chain and line. This is quite common with long distance cruisers, providing a longer rode without the excess weight of 100% chain. But it is a compromise. Most windlasses, even if they have a rope drum, are really setup for chain, with the hawse pipe (where it drops through to the anchor locker) located right below the chain gypsy. Once you’ve let out all of your chain, you have to be quick and agile to move the line over to the drum while the weight of the chain is trying to rip it out of your hand. Easy to lose a finger in the process! The reverse is a challenge too. As you get all of the line in, and the chain comes to the windlass, you have to keep pressure on while you careful lay the chain links into the gypsy, again being mindful that you’ve only been given 10 fingers from which to live out your life! With this in mind, we purchase enough chain so that 90% of our anchoring can be done with chain only, never reaching the line. We have 70 meters of chain, and we typically don’t anchor in water deeper than 10 meters, so that gives us a comfortable 7:1 scope. If a real bad storm hits, we’ve got another 65 meters of line to fall back on. The splice between the chain and the line is shown at the 12:47 time spot in the same ‘Anchor Rode’ video. There may be other parts of that video that may be of interest too. I hope that helps!

@@LifeFourPointZero Thanks for your response and so quickly too. Lots to think about here. Firstly, my reality is that my HR38 is equipped a she is and I can't easily re-engineer everything just for single-handed sailing. I must see how far I can go with what I have firsts. For example, even running all my lines back to the cockpit will require a new mast at least, plus engineering changes to the cockpit. I don't mind that, I accept things as they are, and I love her to bits. But it also means I have a windlass that uses a winch handle to slip the clutch to lower the anchor; big expense to totally change things. I also have 50M of good chain so I think I either have to stay shallower than 11M of water or look at hybrid rode. I also agree that the hawse feed tube is devilishly close to the gypsy which makes "catching" the start of the 3-strand too dangerous to consider. I don't want to scap 50m of chain and buy 80-90m to replace it, but that might be the only safe way to anchor in water deeper than 10m. Just thanks for you reply, you really confirmed what I was already thinking.

Yes, it is an unwanted side effect that we try to avoid. We do take great care when dropping our anchor to pick a spot where the impact will be as low as possible. Anchors don't set well in weeds either so picking a non-weedy spot has that benefit.

@@LifeFourPointZero I was talking to my friend who's an eelgrass researcher and she's hoping that eventually eel grass will be mapped out enough to bring in as a layer on navionics or similar, for endangered areas they're producing the data anyway to keep track of the destruction.

@@forrestallison1879 Oh - that would be amazing, hah? I know we always grab moorings at places that are trying to protect the sea grasses. Thanks for your concern ... this is a very important issue when sailing in the Mediterranean or Caribbean and other high-traffic anchoring areas.

Yes we go gradually up to between 1500-2000 rpms, to make sure it's going to hold in heavy weather. You want to be careful though, depending on the size of your engine, to not go too fast into high reverse, or too high rpms, as you can easily pull the anchor out of an otherwise fine set.

Good catch, Genevieve. There are likely other details that could have been mentioned and certainly appreciate your augmentation.

Sothis sailing thanks for the comment! We used to put the snubber on before the hard reverse and we will give it some more thought. The main reason we don’t is because you can not feel the light skips along the sea floor with the snubber on - there is too much stretch in the line. We realize there is significant pull but we ease into it so hopefully very little jerking. Also, you are correct about backing down slowly as anchor is paid out. We often let the anchor hit the seabed while we have very little way on so we can guide the hopeful dig-in spot free of grasses.

LifeFourPointZero Hey LFPZ, its absolutely something to try. You could put your 🦶 on the snubber while backing to get a feel for what is happening below, and you can observe the stretch in the snubber to confirm that the anchor is set. Fair 💨.

@@Barbaria_Sailing Thanks we'll give it a try!

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Thanks, yes 2000rpm is about 2/3power. I think our engine tops out at 3500.

Hi Edward. Not too long after making this video we switched to setting the anchor with the snubber on, and yes it works better. We had not done it before because of the possibility of having to reset the anchor if it dragged, and the time taken to remove the snubber and re-attach it each time. Fortunately it is pretty rare that our anchor drags while setting. Fair winds!

Thanks for the comment - you are absolutely correct and we have added this step to our process. We put a snubber on after we put out our desired length of rode then we power up slowly in reverse to set the anchor and test the set.

Thanks again!

Glad you liked it Philip!