Anchoring in extremis

  • 23 Jan 2012 18:32
    Reply # 805463 on 459179
    Ah yes, sorry about that.  Just read the one thread and not thoroughly.

    My personal feeling about anchoring by the stern is that it's fine until you start dragging.  Then you are in the unpleasant situation of needing to use your engine with anchor gear very close to the prop and/or trying to raise sail with the wind up your stern.  If the boat is yawing around excessively at anchor, two anchors set well apart will make a big difference - and offer a lot of extra security.

    There is also the less important fact that most boats have a ventilation system that assumes the wind is from ahead.  In extremis this is hardly relevant, but if I were in that situation I would like to be able to think I could set sail or start the engine at a few seconds' notice.
  • 23 Jan 2012 10:02
    Reply # 805130 on 459179
    Deleted user

    We used to anchor our last boat by the stern  ---  very effective in reducing yawing ---  but oh the confusion it caused in busy anchorages!! 

  • 22 Jan 2012 22:18
    Reply # 804908 on 459179
    Annie, Sorry but you got the wrong end of the stick here. We are talking about anchoring with ground tackle, not using a drogue or a sea anchor. Donald Jordon (inventer of the Jordon series drogue) thought that anchoring from the stern would be more stable and indeed many marine survey ships use the method. I intend to do some testing once LC is in the water.
  • 22 Jan 2012 22:03
    Reply # 804898 on 459179
    Assuming that the companionway is secure and the cockpit lockers are waterproof, I would much prefer to tow any sort of drogue from the stern.  I doubt that a Jordan drogue would actually anchor you and as far as I know it is designed to be deployed from the stern.  A parachute anchor of correct size will stop you dead in the water and I can state from first-hand experience that in a monohull it is incredibly uncomfortable when deployed from the bow.  I would be tempted to use one of those from the stern, too.
  • 22 Jan 2012 17:42
    Reply # 804763 on 459179
    Edward, no direct experience but the system makes a lot of sense to me. I plan to experiment this year when La Chica is back in the water. I will be reporting back on the results.
  • 21 Jan 2012 19:17
    Reply # 804270 on 459179
    Deleted user
    Reverting to an older thread which I cannot find.  Can I refer to the quote below from Donald Jordan, designer of the Jordan Series Drogue, and ask:-

    Has anyone experience of anchoring in extremis from the stern, as he suggests?  

    This seems even more pertinent for junk-rig boats whose forward mounted large section masts are well known to encourage/induce extra yaw when anchored in strong winds.  The extra yaw then brings extreme strain to the anchor and the rode, leading to either failure of the latter or break out of the former.


    "A monohull is directionally unstable when moving backward because the center of pressure of the underwater surface is behind the center of gravity. As any skipper knows, it is possible to run off before a storm - but it is not possible to run off backwards as the boat will yaw. There are two additional sources of instability. The center of pressure of the air forces on the topsides and rigging is ahead of the center of gravity. There is also a third and more complex dynamic instability. The last two instabilities result in the behavior observed when a monohull is anchored from the bow in protected water during a hurricane. "It is particularly unnerving to watch a yacht tacking back and forth on a mooring under bare poles and knocking flat at the end of each tack," reported one who watched a monohull during hurricane Bertha. If the boat had been anchored from the stern, it would ride with little yaw." D.J.2007
  • 02 Dec 2010 02:10
    Reply # 472969 on 462621
    Graham Cox wrote: I have a 60lb fisherman with reasonably large flukes - though not as good as the incomparable Luke - stowed in my forepeak and it has never left there in the 15 years Arion (24 feet, 5 tons) and I have been cruising the east coast of Australia.  I like looking at it though and who knows, I might anchor in some kelpy place some day.  Mostly I anchor in mud or sand.  For years I used a 35lb Manson CQR type with great success, then after I lost it to an unmarked wreck, I was given a 16kg Bruce by a friend which gave me excellent service too.  I have since switched my main anchor to a 15kg Rocnor, as I was so impressed with the reports on it an do find it harder to break out than any anchor I have ever had.  It just burrows. The Manson Supreme is a similar type of anchor.  Of course, nothing is going to burrow in rock or very hard sand over coral. I don't dive on my anchor to check it but accept that it's a good idea - unless there is a croc or shark around of course!  A few too many in North Queensland for my liking!  I also have a 25 lb genuine Simpson Lawrence CQR and it too is an excellent anchor.  Got a big Danforth as well, though I only use it as a kedge occasionally.  I have been accused of having an anchor fetish, especially since they all live at the foot of my double bunk!  Of course, rode is another matter, I use all chain on my primary anchor, chain and rope on the others, and like to anchor as far away from other boats as possible, in order to let out ridiculous amounts of scope.  Part of this caution comes from many years of sailing without an engine.  Now, digressing a little, I have a small diesel and love it dearly!  I have dragged about five times in the last 15 years, always in winds over 40 knots, when the boat began to pitch heavily in open roadsteads where the shelter was mediocre.  The first couple of times. pre-engine, were hair-raising, I had to get the reefed main up very quickly and sail off.  Luckily, I always kept the main reefed and the sailcovers off in unstable conditions.  These days I am more relaxed, I spend a lot of time keeping my diesel and fuel systems in top condition, so I know it will not let me down, and I run it when conditions get bad enough, so that I can just put it in gear and vamboose if needs be.  I have "steamed" on the anchor for half the night at times.  I still tuck a couple of reefs in the main too.  I'm really looking forward to my Odyysey 111 junk sail that is always ready to go! 

    Good thread. I will be looking at anchors and which ones I shall buy next year. I did a google and found this site. It has a few I have never seen before.
    http://www.acmarine.com.au/L1/anchors/
  • 14 Nov 2010 06:10
    Reply # 462621 on 459179
    I have a 60lb fisherman with reasonably large flukes - though not as good as the incomparable Luke - stowed in my forepeak and it has never left there in the 15 years Arion (24 feet, 5 tons) and I have been cruising the east coast of Australia.  I like looking at it though and who knows, I might anchor in some kelpy place some day.  Mostly I anchor in mud or sand.  For years I used a 35lb Manson CQR type with great success, then after I lost it to an unmarked wreck, I was given a 16kg Bruce by a friend which gave me excellent service too.  I have since switched my main anchor to a 15kg Rocnor, as I was so impressed with the reports on it an do find it harder to break out than any anchor I have ever had.  It just burrows. The Manson Supreme is a similar type of anchor.  Of course, nothing is going to burrow in rock or very hard sand over coral. I don't dive on my anchor to check it but accept that it's a good idea - unless there is a croc or shark around of course!  A few too many in North Queensland for my liking!  I also have a 25 lb genuine Simpson Lawrence CQR and it too is an excellent anchor.  Got a big Danforth as well, though I only use it as a kedge occasionally.  I have been accused of having an anchor fetish, especially since they all live at the foot of my double bunk!  Of course, rode is another matter, I use all chain on my primary anchor, chain and rope on the others, and like to anchor as far away from other boats as possible, in order to let out ridiculous amounts of scope.  Part of this caution comes from many years of sailing without an engine.  Now, digressing a little, I have a small diesel and love it dearly!  I have dragged about five times in the last 15 years, always in winds over 40 knots, when the boat began to pitch heavily in open roadsteads where the shelter was mediocre.  The first couple of times. pre-engine, were hair-raising, I had to get the reefed main up very quickly and sail off.  Luckily, I always kept the main reefed and the sailcovers off in unstable conditions.  These days I am more relaxed, I spend a lot of time keeping my diesel and fuel systems in top condition, so I know it will not let me down, and I run it when conditions get bad enough, so that I can just put it in gear and vamboose if needs be.  I have "steamed" on the anchor for half the night at times.  I still tuck a couple of reefs in the main too.  I'm really looking forward to my Odyysey 111 junk sail that is always ready to go! 
  • 10 Nov 2010 23:46
    Reply # 460591 on 459179
    Dan's comment was a very neat way of saying something that I have always thought.  The same applies to running aground, too.  Those who have never done that accidently haven't been around, either.

    I am rather impressed with the Manson anchor.  The 10 kilo version I have on Fantail at first glance seems as large as a 35lb CQR.  They seem pretty impressive.  I also like Bruce anchors - there is a copy called a claw here in NZ and am trying to find a second-hand one.

    Thanks so much for putting the address of Kingston anchors up on the site Bob.  I wonder what strange synapses in my brain associate Kingston with Victory.  I would give my eye-teeth to have a 25lb for my wee boat for sailing in the Marlborough Sounds, but I think I will have to wait awhile before I can afford that.

    One of the advantages of having no forestay- and certainly no bowsprit - is that the fisherman-style anchor becomes slightly less brutal to anchor

    David's point about having a variety of anchors is also very valid.  Occasionally anchor A refuses to hold for some reason while anchor B digs in straight away.  I was very impressed with the Delta before one occasion in Russell, New Zealand, when I came home to see Iron Bark dragging slowly but surely across the bay.  The locals said that, yeah, the holding was a bit patchy. 

    Sometimes, it's nice to be nailed to the dock!

    Annie
  • 09 Nov 2010 14:37
    Reply # 459469 on 459179
    Deleted user
    Kingston Anchors, http://www.kingstonanchors.com makes the Herreshoff reproduction anchors under the name Yachtsman Anchors. They also make a number of other reproduction anchors as well.

    Located at:

    Kingston Anchors Ltd.
    143 Hickson Ave. 
    Kingston, ON K7K 2N8 
    Canada 
    Phone 613 549 2718 
    fax 613 547 3879

    I have been using their Bruce reproduction anchors with great success. 

    Getting anchors out of the locker and into the water along with all chain is very important. We had a Herreshoff, and a couple of Bruce anchors along with a couple of hundred feet of chain still in the lockers when we came ashore. Might have stayed at anchor if they had been deployed. If anchor and chain are in the locker it is only ballast.

    We met two arctic circumnavigators this past summer. Northabout had a Bruce Anchor in the roller. Dagmar Aeen had five Spade type anchors on the bow. Both captains have a great deal of experience in all conditions. Both have travelled through the Northwest and Northeast passages along with other areas of the world. I prefer to stay with the older, proven anchor types but it doesn't matter what anchor is on the boat. If it works for you use it and always have a variety for varying conditions.

    All things considered my friend, Captain Dan Moreland, of the three masted barque Picton Castle summarized his opinion of groundings perfectly. "If you haven't been aground, you haven't been around." 
    Last modified: 09 Nov 2010 14:37 | Deleted user
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