Mondays 07/12/2010 Question and boating safety tip.ANSWERED

[CaptainScott]

Safety Tip:
Anchoring. Always set a proper anchor. I've been known to go into a nicely protected anchorage and set 45lb anchor, 100' of chain, and even some line. Had a power boater once ask if he coud anchor off my bow! That was a first! LOL! He however was clearly agitaded when I told him the gear I had out and even asked if I was expecting a storm! LOL!!!
You just never know. I know this is a bit of a rehash of the 4th of July story but read it for what its worth. We'd entered Utsalady bay in dead calm. We'd never been there before. Charts guided us into the bay. We motored to where we wanted to anchor and circled a couple of times using the depth finder to look for any possible rocks or such. Down went the anchor in 15' of water at low tide. As usual, out went all the chain plus some anchor line. Yeah, way over kill. Weather man said it would be cloudy but calm and no rain the next two - three days.
We slept aboard the first night without issue. The teenagers slept in the cockpit. Diane and I below. ON the 4th, all was grand! Up went all our flags and off to shore we went! Several trips back and forth in the dinghy to get things in calm weather! That evening however things changed. Again, no warnings from the weatherman or NOAA so we did not concern ourselves. By dark or around 10:00 PM the wind was howling! By midnight it was time to decide go to the boat or stay ashore. Diane and I walked down to the dinghy only to find it swamped even at the high tide mark. We drained and moved it up onto the logs.
We decided to stay on land for several reasons. First of all Destiny was safe. Instead of dropping what was adequate for the time, I dropped way more holding power than necessary. This habit made making the decision easy. I was 100% confident Destiny was fine. It was after midnight, heavy waves, way to rough to safely beach launch from a lee shore our 10 RIB, we'd had some spirits, the water is very cold here. Had I not known how secure Destiny was I might have been tempted to "Take a Risk". As things were, there was no reason to risk a trip to Destiny at all! Simply pull the dink to a safer spot and go back to the house. Lesson learned. Always properly anchor your boat. Never leave "just enough" line out. It's your boat and your investment. Protect it!!




Question:
Please match the anchor type and the description.

1: Danforth (fluke)
2: CQR
3: Bruce (claw)
4: Mushroom
5: Grapnel


A:a non-burying variety, with one or more tines digging in and the remainder above the seabed. In coral it is often able to set quickly by hooking into the structure, but may be more difficult to retrieve

B:The design is a burying variety, and once well set can develop an amazing amount of resistance. Its light weight and compact flat design make it easy to retrieve and relatively easy to store

C:set quickly in most seabeds and although not an articulated design, they have the reputation of not breaking out with tide or wind changes, instead slowly turning in the bottom to align with the force

D:design has a hinged shank, allowing the anchor to turn with direction changes rather than breaking out, and also arranged to force the point of the plough into the bottom if the anchor lands on its side

E: will normally sink in the silt to the point where it has displaced its own weight in bottom material, thus greatly increasing its holding power

[kokezaru]

I think there is more to your safety tip then just the anchor types. Maybe a little info on the aspects of anchoring would be helpful. So, using your 4th example, give some more details.

Was the 45lb anchor you set a CQR? You said you dropped anchor in 15' at low tide, what is the depth at high tide?

Assuming that you have about 3ft tide, a 5-to-1 scope would mean that all you needed was 90ft of chain, at a max depth of 18'. Had you had less chain, then you would have needed a 7-to-1 scope, which would have been closer to 126ft of rode. (plus a couple of feet for freeboard)
A note about overkill, if you have the swinging radius, then letting out more then enough rode is fine. However, if you are in an achorage that may get crowded, overkill might be a bad thing, and could cause collisions as boats swing with different sized circles.
Do you use a snubber when you don't let out more than all of your chain?

Also, did you back down on your anchor to make sure it was set?

Story:
One time when I was in the BVI, we were instructed by our charter company to go to Cane Garden Bay because a tropical depression was heading right for us. We were lucky enough to pick up a mooring, but I watched a 40' sailboat come in after us and drop their anchor upwind of our position. That would not have been a big deal, but as I watched, they only let a small amount of chain out, and did not back down on it.
At 2:00am, with the storm raging around us, I went topside to check our mooring lines. That is when that 40' boat started to drag. Fortunately for us, the wind had shifted just enough that it past by about 10ft away. I shouted over as they past by, hoping to wake the crew (Four adults and two children), but it was in vain, as the storm was so loud with the wind, rain and thunder they could not hear me. So I watched helplessly as they dragged toward the reef. Now, they got really lucky. About 20' from the reef, their anchor caught, and held for the duration of the storm.
They next morning they were a little confused as to their position. I don't think they had a clue what happened that night (Or what could have happened)


I was just going to answer your anchor type questions, sorry I got a little long winded. Anyway, here are my quiz answers:
A-5
1-B
C-3
4-E
2-D

[CaptainScott]

Ah yes!!
All very good to excellent points! However this particular question/safety tip is only meant to impress on folks that being over prepared is much better than under prepared when anchoring. Thus the lack of details in how I anchored.


For what it is worth, Yes, I back down on my anchors every time. Probably more than necessary I use a 45lb Bruce on Destiny as her main anchor and 35 lb Danforth as a backup or stern anchor when necessary. Yes a Bruce is known for pulling out ( thus the over size ) however it resets itself very nicely. A very important fact in our diurnal tidal waters of 11-15 feet dailly The main anchor has 100' of oversized chain plus 200' of oversized line on it. The reason for oversized chain is not strength but for weight. No it does not fit the wildcat very well but with care works great. Yes I have an anchor snubber for when only chain is out however that is extremely rare in my case. We anchor a lot in deep water so the line becomes a natural snubber. Swinging room is generally not an issue for us since I will rarely anchor next to or near other boats. See picture below. Also the over sized chain readly sinks to the bottom in effect giving us a natural braking affect from swinging. Speaking of swinging, we also have 300' of polypropolyne line as a stern tie. There are many areas here where getting 7-1 scope is not possible because of underwater shelves and steep drop offs. I can drop anchor on a shelf and back down towards shore and use a stern tie to avoid swinging and thus dragging anchor off the shelf. The bay we were in on the 4th is an all mud bay. Since we were at mean low tide we could readily see the bottom and there was no eel grass to foul our Bruce.

However . . . . I do not recommend anyone here taking my ground tackle as gosple. There are many ways to anchor, many conditions to anchor in, and many different anchors and ground tackle that can be used. What works great for me will not likely work for you unless you sail the same waters I sail in. Classic example would be my Bruce anchor in any kind of decent swell could be downright dangerous without proper precautions. There is no one "Perfect" anchor thus the many varieties for conditions and thus the implied basic question. Do you know what your anchor is and what it is good or best at holding in.


Also, questions about anchoring properly, over other peoples anchors, and examples have been covered in previous safety tips!

Hope this helps!!
Scott

PS
Notice in this photo there are plenty of other boats in the same bay all tucked up nice and pretty together in the deeper water in the center left of the photo. People are sheep. People believe strongly there is safety in numbers. I prefer to anchor away from these types. I LOVE swinging room and LOTS of rode! Destiny would be the lone sailboat in the center.

[LeatherneckPA]

I have to confess that I opened catalog pages to find pictures. It really blows the minds of the kids at school when I give open-book tests. They wonder why I'm making it so easy. I have never told them that if they are taking the time to look up the right answer I believe it's more likely to stick with them. So based upon pictures, and no practical experience, here are my answers:

A - 5 - the grapnel (knew this one)
B - 1 - the Danforth (actually own one. hmm, maybe two?)
C - 3 - the Bruce (probably too unwieldy for the C-22?)
D - 2 - the CQR (again, stowage on a C-22 might be a problem)
E - 4 - the mushroom (own one of these too)[/code]

[lecker68]

as far as I know I think i am on target.
A-5
B-1
C-3
D-2
E-4

[CaptainScott]

ANSWER:

1: Danforth (fluke) B:
The design is a burying variety, and once well set can develop an amazing amount of resistance. Its light weight and compact flat design make it easy to retrieve and relatively easy to store

2: CQR D:
design has a hinged shank, allowing the anchor to turn with direction changes rather than breaking out, and also arranged to force the point of the plough into the bottom if the anchor lands on its side

3: Bruce (claw) C:
set quickly in most seabeds and although not an articulated design, they have the reputation of not breaking out with tide or wind changes, instead slowly turning in the bottom to align with the force

4: Mushroom E:
will normally sink in the silt to the point where it has displaced its own weight in bottom material, thus greatly increasing its holding power

5: Grapnel A:
a non-burying variety, with one or more tines digging in and the remainder above the seabed. In coral it is often able to set quickly by hooking into the structure, but may be more difficult to retrieve