Anchor Rode Wrap Around Wing Keel

Jun 3, 2004
16
Catalina 30 Port Charlotte, FL
Enough chain to reach the bottom in waters where you typically anchor. That will also help in setting your anchor.
 
Feb 26, 2004
22,760
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
I've always wondered, wouldn't a kellet increase the risk of the rope wrapping around a rock and cutting? The kellet keeps the nylon right on the bottom as the boat slides around with the tide.
And captas' points are well taken, too.

The answer, for any individual skipper, lies in where they sail, and what the bottom is where they intend to anchor.

My fin keel worked with a kellet as I described in the link at China Camp. It is a proven technique for those of us who anchored there. China Camp has always been promoted (even by Latitude 38) as "the" place to start out learning how to anchor become self sufficient when being a "beginner cruiser."

My friend wrote this a number of years ago, and the last sentence makes a lot of sense to avoid the work associated with a snubber:

Steve’s Anchoring 101

The Rocna. All 20kg of it with 100ft of chain. The rest of the world can debate all they like. When I pull into a place like Bodega Bay at midnight and the fog is so thick I can't see the jetty 50 feet away to make an entrance, I drop my hook in the rolling ocean swells with the surf crashing (Foster says it's like staying in a cheap Best Western beside the highway), and I sleep. And in the morning I have a windlass to pull the beast up and I wouldn't trade it for anything. (I also wouldn't add more chain - this works perfectly in 25 to 30 feet of water - you let all the chain out and you tie off nylon at the preferred scope and don't bother with snubbers and chain hooks and all that stuff...)

OTOH, I sailed for 35 years in San Francisco with all mud bottoms, so had no issues with a chain and rope rode on all three of our boats.

Now that I have moved to Vancouver Island, I have a completely different set of conditions (depths & bottoms) that I will encounter and which will lead me to make vastly different choices.

Your boat, your choice. :)
 
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Jul 27, 2011
4,989
Bavaria 38E Alamitos Bay
Wing-Keel Boat Sailors, I have had a couple of incidents when anchoring my Hunter 37.5 in tidal waters. This was when the tide changed but, due to the combination of wind and current, the boat's heading didn't, and the anchor rode wrapped around the wing keel. In each case, I had a scope of about 7:1 and the bar-tight rode turned immediately aft from the bowsprit and disappeared from view into the water amidships on the starboard side. Once hauled, I saw that the line had led to the trailing edge of the keel, bending around it towards the anchor off to the port side of the boat, and causing damage to the trailing edge of the keel. The last time, the damage was significant, (see attached photos) as it occurred during an astronomically extreme tidal current and the anchor was well dug in, with the boat broadside to the 4.2 knot current and the anchor plowing its way out the channel before I cut the rode. Other times this happened, the anchor held and there was less damage to the keel.

Each time this happened I was perplexed as to how it happened and what I could do to correct it. I couldn't tell at the time if the line was wrapped around the rudder or the keel, so I didn't feel it was safe to run the engine for fear the line would entangle with the prop. And with such a load on the line I couldn't loosen it from the cleat safely.

Do any of you have this problem? Have you found a way to prevent or recover from it?
In a strongly reversing tidal current, try using a Bahamian moor.

 
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Dec 3, 2010
3
Oday 34 Fairhaven, MA.
I use a 16lb mushroom that has other uses in the dingy. I shackle it to my 5/8 nylon rode and put it on a 15ft 1/4 in line and cleat it to the deck. It works when light wind takes a sudden shift by keeping the line vertical during the shift and is effective as a scope enhancement during a hard blow. I have been trapped by a shift in conditions and had the rode trapped around the blade keel on my O'Day 34. I tied the mushroom to the rode, prepared an additional 25ft of rode and released it all together which promptly sank to the bottom and payed out gradually as the boat came about, releasing the rode from the keel.
 

Joe

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Jun 1, 2004
7,999
Catalina 27 Mission Bay, San Diego
[QUOTE="capta, post: 1341114, member: 88901"
Otherwise, you could always use a Bahamian Mooring.
[/QUOTE] That was my first reaction. Though I've never had the occasion
where it is needed, I am familiar with the Bahamian method as described in most boating/sailing manuals.

Opposing anchors set from bow. when vessel swings, new rode takes load, old one drops out of way..... even if the slacking old rode snags on the keel, there is no strain to aggravate the contact and cause damage .
 
Mar 23, 2013
132
Hunter 44DS Lake Macquarie
I have an all chain rode and this has still happened to me once causing damage to the top of my keel. Will a kellet work if I hang it down below the keel depth? I suppose it depends on how tight the train pulls
 
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luby

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Nov 4, 2010
10
Oday 272 LE alum creek marina
Yep, the Bahamian anchoring approach is the textbook solution. Sometimes though even this approach has it's weaknesses ie when a strong wind opposes or is perpendicular to the current. If the 2 rodes on the Bahamian approach are snug, the wind should not be an issue - theoretically. Also keep a spare anchor on board with sufficient rode that you can deploy and tighten that line to relieve the pressure on the primary anchor rode until the primary is free. I have done exactly this in a similar situation.
 
Mar 3, 2003
710
Hunter 356 Grand Rivers
It's happened twice to me in light winds anchored in coves on Kentucky Lake out of 354 times at anchor. Just let all your anchor line out and untie from the anchor well and walk around the boat until it is unwound. Don't let it get tight; keep it loose and the looser the better. If you have a dinghy do the same using the dinghy to go around the boat. Key thing is to let it fall loosely and not wind up on the keel. My situations have been in no current, light wind situations where the boat just wanders about. The use of a kellet is a good solution, but I have never used one.

Another technique with a dinghy is to let out a lot of slack, grab the anchor line while in the dinghy and then untie from the anchor well and pull it gently to the dinghy. You'll need some way to keep the boat from moving if windy and on a Lee shore.
 
Feb 26, 2004
22,760
Catalina 34 224 Maple Bay, BC, Canada
Will a kellet work if I hang it down below the keel depth? I suppose it depends on how tight the train pulls
Train! Good one!

The concept is to drop the kellet to the depth of the water at high tide. You might want to read the link I provided earlier, it goes into in, uhm, depth. :)
 

RoyS

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Jun 3, 2012
1,739
Hunter 33 Steamboat Wharf, Hull, MA
Two additional points to consider if you are still reading this thread. First, the kellet only needs to be a little lower than your keel. It does not need to hold the rode on the bottom. Second, regarding wing keels: Some, if not most of these designs leave the rudder below the keel. I confess to having run aground a few times with only my fin keel striking the bottom and without damage to the boat. Suppose the rudder strikes the bottom first, you will likely incur significant boat damage. Wing keels are not very forgiving.
 
Mar 26, 2011
3,401
Corsair F-24 MK I Deale, MD
Several times I've found myself with the bridle down the middle, the boat takin
Two additional points to consider if you are still reading this thread. First, the kellet only needs to be a little lower than your keel. It does not need to hold the rode on the bottom. Second, regarding wing keels: Some, if not most of these designs leave the rudder below the keel. I confess to having run aground a few times with only my fin keel striking the bottom and without damage to the boat. Suppose the rudder strikes the bottom first, you will likely incur significant boat damage. Wing keels are not very forgiving.
Also good for anchoring the boat to mud (heeling won't get you off). Lots of suction.
 
Nov 26, 2012
2,315
Catalina 250 Bodega Bay CA
Wrapped my rode around wing keel as well this summer. Never had a wing keel until 2013 so I was not happy! Dropped a stern anchor to hold boat in place in calm water, Got into dinghy, went forward and untied rode at locker rode eye, attached a small fender on the line and pulled fender around the keel. Reattached anchor line in locker, got on board and took slack out of rode. Needless to say, I was singlehanding. Chief
PS: Killet info was appreciated!
 

KennyG

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Jun 4, 2014
9
Hunter 420 Hampton
I've a Hunter 420, wing keel, with 200 feet of chain. Ive had the boat back over the chain. Never had a problem. I think because the chain stays on the bottom.
 
Jan 22, 2008
127
Hunter 27_75-84 Wilmington, NC
Here's a link to a story I wrote for Sail Magazine that was published in 2012. Since then, I have added a 15 pound river anchor (similar to a mushroom) as a kellet to my anchoring plan, and have not had the problem again. One point is that the circumstance can be encountered even with a relatively short fin keel (only about 3 feet on my h27). http://www.sailmagazine.com/cruising/opinion/voice-of-experience-a-carolina-drag/