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Catalina/Capri 25/250 Sailor's Forums

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Always carry an extra anchor! (long)

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raulpou
Navigator

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144 Posts

Initially Posted - 07/06/2006 : 21:45:15

Well, after not listening to my father's advice about an extra anchor...you can guess I needed one.

My bow anchor is perfect and has ample chain to it. My stern anchor was from a smaller boat I owned and realized last weekend that it will not do! As we were enjoying a great afternoon in St. Petersburg, FL. an afternoon Typhoon decended upon us with the blink of an eye! Before I knew it we had to get out of the water, and attend to a wind shift so strong that it un-set my rear anchor. We were broadsided with 25-30 knot winds and things got hairy very quickly. In the blink of an eye I was on course to either hit other boats (many were anchored near by) or lift their anchors. After trying to point into the wind with the bow anchor set we also realized that the outgoing tide (at an angle of course!) was making us sway from side to side (like a pendulum) too much for my comfort. A third anchor would have made a huge difference. We headed back to the marina to fight another day. We saw on the news that several sailboats were a ground from the same storm, even one from our club SUNK!

I immediately bought a larger anchor and chain for my stern anchor and will have the smaller as a spare from now on. This just goes to show you how quickly weather can go from perfect to a potentially dangerous situation. I honestly believe that what helped us in that situation was the fact that my wife new what she needed to do very quickly. If I had to explain to her everything...it could have been bad.

Moral of the story, listen to your father!

Edited by - on

lcharlot
Master Marine Consultant

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Antigua and Barbuda
1301 Posts

Response Posted - 07/06/2006 : 23:09:45

In July 1999, I was anchored in Ganges Harbor, Saltspring Island (in the Gulf Islands of British Columbia) for the night, and was awakened at 02:00 by a thunderstorm right overhead, pounding the boats in the anchorage with torrential rain and wind gusts at least 30mph. My 13# danforth got yanked out (may not have had enough scope out for the conditions, my fault), and before I could get out of bed, into a PFD and on deck, we hit another boat. The other boat was a huge fishing trawler, so all the damage was a dented rub rail on Quiet Time, fortunately. That episode taught me some lessons about anchoring:
1. A 13# Danforth is only good for light to moderate conditions for a Catalina 25. I now carry two 18# Danforths just in case I ever need to anchor in high winds.
2. The rule of thumb for anchor scope (7:1 for light conditions, 10:1 for rough conditions) is serious. A Danforth with less than 7:1 scope is likely to lose hold in a strong enough gust.
3. If you have a GPS, learn how to set an anchor alarm, and never go to bed without activating it! I actually had the anchor alarm set, but it didn't wake me up soon enough to respond to the dragging anchor.
4. Anchor as far away from other boats as possible, especially if you are using bow and stern anchors, and other boats are using only single anchors. They might swing around in a circle wide enough to hit you if the wind changes direction.

Edited by - lcharlot on 07/06/2006 23:11:02

Alan Clark
Captain

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406 Posts

Response Posted - 07/07/2006 : 07:43:59

Larry, This may sound stupid but..

How do I determine how much my anchor weighs, aside from putting it on a scale

. The anchor came with the boat and am not sure what size it is. Much Thanks..

Edited by - on

Dave Bristle
Master Marine Consultant

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Djibouti
10005 Posts

Response Posted - 07/07/2006 : 09:07:10

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Alan Clark
 Larry, This may sound stupid but..

How do I determine how much my anchor weighs, aside from putting it on a scale

. The anchor came with the boat and am not sure what size it is. Much Thanks..
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Assuming you're talking about a Danforth-type anchor, it varies by make and material... See if there's any identification on the anchor, measure the stock (cross-bar) and fluke lengths, and then look up similar anchors in the West catalog. ...or, put it on a bathroom scale (holding the chain up).

Edited by - Dave Bristle on 07/07/2006 09:08:02

Lightnup
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1016 Posts

Response Posted - 07/07/2006 : 09:51:02

<blockquote id="quote">quote:<hr height="1" noshade id="quote">Originally posted by Dave Bristle
 ...or, put it on a bathroom scale (holding the chain up).
<hr height="1" noshade id="quote"></blockquote id="quote">
Which, of course, is not what the Captain means when he instructs the First Mate to "Weigh anchor."

Steve

Edited by - on

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 07/07/2006 : 10:19:51

I carry 2, 13 lb danforths on 50 feet of 5/16 chain (very heavy) plus 200 feet of 1/2 inch 3 strand nylon. I have been in conditions with both out off the bow and they held very well, but that is a lot of chain for a C25. My stern anchor is an 8 lb danforth - very cheap - on 5 feet of 1 inch chain + about 200 feet of 3/8 line. Its a light setup but not intended to hold the boat. However last year it did in rough conditions during a big afternoon wind shift.

We have either sand or silt/sand around here - very good danforth conditions.

Also we are very, very unlikely to see thunderstorms and really big winds.

Edited by - on

indiejoe
Deckhand

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USA
23 Posts

Response Posted - 07/07/2006 : 13:07:23

We got caught in a sudden thunderstorm while anchored on the 4th. I have (I think) an 18# danforth with 8 feet of 1" chain. The winds were hitting about 25-30 and the swells were about 3-4' and the danforth didn't budge an inch. We are on a river/lake, though, and the bottom where we anchored is some fairly firm clay/mud. Lotta fun riding those swells for about 30 minutes!

Edited by - indiejoe on 07/07/2006 13:08:18

Champipple
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
6855 Posts

Response Posted - 07/07/2006 : 15:01:18

Having a slip all the time, and heading toward more destination with docks than not why would someone want to set a fore and aft anchor? It would seem to me that you want the boat to swing, especially in an anchorage where other boats are anchored. That way your bow is always into the wind and your not catching waves over the stern or broadside.

I carry two and sometimes three anchors, but if I ever set more than one I usually set a Bahamian anchor to reduce my swing area – but I still want to be bow into the wind.

What type of conditions would you want to set a stern anchor? – I plan on doing a bit of cruising near the end of the summer and would like to know.

Edited by - on

Tom Potter
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1913 Posts

Response Posted - 07/07/2006 : 15:35:54

You never know what your gonna run into in some anchorages. Sometimes you run into a place that's very tight where everyone around you has both a bow and stern anchor set to prevent them from bumping into each other at night. In that case its best to set a stern anchor with them. On the BEER cruise this year we had 60 boats, most of them backed up to the beach and set a stern anchor to hold their stern to the beach so the bow was into the waves.
I prefer to use the Bahamian anchor technique as well.

I have a 13# Danford and a 16.5# claw both with 15' chain and 150' 1/2 nylon.

Edited by - Tom Potter on 07/07/2006 16:08:25

Stu Jackson C34
Admiral

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844 Posts

Response Posted - 07/07/2006 : 16:00:01

Duane

If you are on a relatively narrow river or want to anchor near a bank, a bow and stern arrangement works well. We have a few rivers here, like the Petaluma and Napa Rivers. They have tidal flow, so go both ways, and have night time traffic (barges). I anchored Capricorn Two near a bank, after carefully checking the tidal depths, with a bow anchor into the current at the time, and dropped back to the stern anchor and then settled in between by adjusting the rodes. The reason the Bahamian moor doesn't work in that condition is that the boat could just as well swing into the bank as it could into the stream. Actually, it's almost the same move, except that instead of both anchors tied to the bow, one goes to the stern, except the Bahamian moor gets your bow into the wind and the rodes are at an angle to the bow instead of straight fore and aft.

Edited by - Stu Jackson C34 on 07/07/2006 16:00:59

JimB517
Past Commodore

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USA
3285 Posts

Response Posted - 07/07/2006 : 19:16:16

Santa Cruz Island has some very small but beautiful coves. Setting a bow and stern anchor allows you to get in close. It's like being on a mooring, you never move. Although if the wind shifts your stern anchor can become your main anchor in a hurry. Also, if the wind comes on the beam the loads on the anchors can be tremendous. Don't do it if you have the room to swing.

Nice picture of Indiscipline with bow and stern anchors out.

How to do it?

In that photo I dropped off the stern anchor on the way in, slacked all the rode, and just forgot about it, then after getting bow anchored I took up the slack and set it by hand. That worked good. Usually I took the stern anchor out in my kayak which is why I had only 5 feet of chain.

Edited by - on

Leon Sisson
Master Marine Consultant

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USA
1893 Posts

Response Posted - 07/08/2006 : 13:16:17

Good explanations of situations where a stern anchor is useful. I keep a lunch hook sized Danforth set up with about 10' of light chain and maybe 100' 3/8" nylon double braid in the stern locker (not buried too deep

). If I anticipate being in a situation where a sudden unexpected loss of steering (keel touches bottom, motor quits, prop fouls, etc.) would put the boat headed towards big trouble in a short distance, I have the stern hook in the cockpit, rode in a bucket, end cleated, shank holstered in a large 'rod holder' of PVC pipe clamped to stern rail stanchion, ready to deploy. You'd think the mainsheet would get cought on that anchor storage setup every tack, but I sailed that way for hundreds of miles without anything getting snagged on the anchor. {shrug}

On the bow, I carry, ready to go, a 20# or so Danforth High Tensile, and a 22# Claw (Bruce clone). Each has about a boatlength of chain and 250' to 300' of doublebraided nylon, bitter ends tied off in the anchor locker. Overkill? Maybe, but in a hard chance overprepared beats underprepared!

-- Leon Sisson

Edited by - on

lcharlot
Master Marine Consultant

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Antigua and Barbuda
1301 Posts

Response Posted - 07/09/2006 : 22:32:39

My usual overnight anchorage on Folsom Lake is the south side cove of the marina basin, since I can anchor there for free (overnighting in New York Cove costs $10.00). This cove is pretty small and there isn't room to swing around freely, especially if there are other boats sharing the cove. So I use a 13# off the bow and an 8# off the stern to keep the boat in place. Typically I drop the bow anchor in the deeper water since it has more rode, then back up towards shore until the sounder indicates 4 to 6 feet, and drop the stern anchor there, then pull in slack on the bow until both anchors are set and have enough scope to hold in case the wind comes up during the night. This procedure can be done without a dinghy, but you need a bow anchor with a lot of rode to do the back-and-forth operation. If you have a dinghy, you can recover the stern anchor with both anchors set tight, by just "walking" out along the stern anchor rode until the anchor pops loose.

Edited by - on

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