anchor tip

jillR · June 10, 2008

Imagine you're out, and have anchored at a fairly great depth, say 60' - 100'. Now, your windlass has gone south, or you simply don't have one, and you're faced with heaving all that rode, chain and anchor on board by hand.

Take a large fender or buoy, the biggest you have, and attach a round metal ring of some sort to it. The ring must be large enough to let shackles, knots and what have you pass easily through it, but not so large that you anchor will pass through it, too

Pass the anchor rode through the buoy, and throw the buoy over board. Take in the slack, break loose the anchor and heave in enough rode so that the anchor is freely suspended over the bottom. Secure the rode aft, and start driving straight ahead. Now, the buoy will provide quite a lot of resistance in the water, so the anchor rode will pass through the ring, lifting the anchor until the anchor itself hits the ring. Back off the power and haul in rode, anchor and buoy. Now you have retrieved the anchor with very little manual labor involved

Or...when dropping the hook on a questionable bottom, have an extra shackle and ring at the juncture of the anchor and chain rode...reave a light line through it, doubled......when the hook sticks inkelp or whatever....attach the float to one end of the pennant, and pull it down to the hook with the other end....usually the anchor floats free, or is vertical enough to release with very little effort....

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jill

Poppy · June 10, 2008

Imagine you're out, and have anchored at a fairly great depth, say 60' - 100'.

jill

Which Broad would that be, Jill?

:-D :-D :-D :-D

Antares_9 · June 10, 2008

A very good a back saving method Jill, we used to use it as a mater of course when recovering anchor after fishing from small boats with no windlass, it has an added advantage not mentioned in the American article in that you can both set and recover the hook from the cockpit of a small boat in safety without exposing yourself to the dangers of going forward. also useful for recovering pots if you have no hauler, it's called an Alderney rig in many parts of the UK.

Antares_9 · June 10, 2008

Which Broad would that be, Jill?
:-D :-D :-D :-D

I imagine that's why it was posted under the heading of Norfolk & Suffolk coast Poppy, mind you it's a struggle to find more than 60' even there :-D :naughty: