New anchoring system thoughts

Crowded anchorages create loads of problems. They are crowded because there are generally not many alternatives in the area. The water can be pretty deep as well and this means that tripping line buoys are well ahead of the boat. Different types of boats will be laying to either the tide or the wind and this in itself creates a lot of stress without all these extra buoys being added to the mix.
I remember articles that suggested methods of retrieving a stuck anchor that had no tripping line in place. You would take a large ring spanner (a box wrench in the US) or something similar, and attach a bridle to each end around the chain and run it down to your anchor cable using your dinghy or another vessel. The idea was that it would pass over the shank and would be caught at the flukes or claw. If you didn't have another boat to help, you could pay out all your chain and buoy the tail allowing you to go and pick up the tripping line and try and get it free. Of course it was better having a boat at each end.

 

The places in the world in which your anchor is in danger of wedging into a rock , coral ledge or underwater trash are known. When anchoring in these areas you deploy the standard breakout lashing on your anchor and you will have a 99 percent success rate at retrieving your anchor without behaving like a Practical Sailor Charter captain. . Breakout lashings have been used for centuries.

No need to float garbage in the anchorage as a defense against fouling.

 

A loop of chain or a metal ring as used by river fishermen to retreive the anchor using the boats power will get past the shank up to the flukes for retrieval. One could use a trip line equal in length to the rode and attach it to the crown, this would eliminate the float but probably tangle. The rode can be attached to the crown and zip tied or lashed to the shank as well.
As I said, a time and a place.
Thing is, communicate before vandalizing others equipment. It could be someone had to slip their anchor and the bouy is marking expensive ground tackle they can't replace.

 

Here it is, Becue your anchor.

http://www.wavetrain.net/techniques-a-tactics/192-becue-your-anchor-unsticking-a-stuck-hook

The problem is that you will never get stuck when you are prepared.

 

Yes indeed. I was taught differently, but the principle is the same.

 

michael, care to share your methods of becueing your anchors?

 

Like I said ,--anchoring is an art and can not be tought. Its clear to see here amongst the thoughts that some can and some cant.

I would not be therfore offended if someone said I could not but i have done plenty of it.

All anchors have trip eyes, but yes in small tight anchorages marker bouys are a pain and you often have to swing over others anchors. This is where choice of anchorage is first consideration.

 

My anchors are too big, I dont remove the shackle from the stock eye.

I take the chain and double it back to the anchors head eye and lash. then double the chain back to the stock eye and lash.

The strength of the lashings shall be 50 percent of the breaking strength of the chain.


When the anchor fouls you maneuver ontop of the anchor, dog off the chain , then use the mass of the boat to break the stock lashing. Then retrieve the anchor by its head.

Adding a third... light weight.... lashing on the middle of the stock as Mr Street does is worthwhile because it keeps the chain from fouling the anchor stock. A cable tie works well

 

Thanks!

 

Sometimes it is better to anchor a little farther away, and keep out of the center of the action. Some may call you anti-social but it avoids problems.

 

given that he SWL of chain is 25% the breaking strength, this means if you ever need to employ the system you should replace the entire leingth of chain out at the time.


Personally I carry a scuba tank and set of dive gear to clear problems, and don't worry about becuing an anchor.

 

Michael may have meant half of the SWL. The bit I find hard to work out is how you determine the strength of your lashings, given that there will probably be knots involved. If you expected to do this often, depending on local conditions, then you would need to upgrade your chain and anchor.

I've only fouled the anchor twice. Once I hooked on to a seabed chain in quite a strong wind. I drove forward and set my other anchor and in the morning at low tide when the wind had died away I was able to lift the chain near the surface and get a rope under it so that I could free the anchor. The other time I pulled out a cable from a secret underwater listening device that was guarding a nucleur submarine base from Russian spies during the Cold War. If it had been today, I would probably have been sent to Quantamo Bay.

 

Who cares how strong the lashings are...it really makes no difference. I use Dacron cord three times around and dead ended with bowlines. 12mm chain 50kg bruce. Strong enough and weak enough.

you use breakout lashings after you have tickled the bottom with your anchor, determined rocks..... you know that the bottom is foul.. and you know that your anchor may not get a good bite . You stand watch, if the lashing breaks who cares.

One of the reasons an anchor winch should be over spec is that cables and fishing gear are heavy and difficult to break free of.

Normally you must winch the obstruction to the surface, get a "J" hook under the trash...lower your anchor and let the J hook hold the obstruction until you can free the anchor.

Pictured is a typical J hook. Black control line, blue trip line to up end the J. The J is simply a small Bruce anchor with its flukes cut off.