Anchor sentinal

[Brian Sheehan, Fortress Anchors]

Anchor sentinel

Rob, the idea of a sentinel (also called a kellet) is to add a "concentrated" weight to an anchor rode in order to help reduce the vertical pull on your anchor in surging seas. I believe that the longer the scope you have, then the more effective the sentinel will be. With a very long scope, the sentinel will slide down close to the bottom, and then will help to keep the shank parallel to the bottom where it needs to be.A guy from New Zealand was at the Miami Boat Show a couple of years back selling 20 and 30 lb. "Anchor Buddy" sentinels. Here is his web site: https://www.iserve.co.nz/users/pepper/anchorbuddy.co.nz/htdocs/index.htmlYou might consider using a sentinel well in advance of a storm as an added precaution.

 

[Rob]

Would you recomend using an Anchor sentinal? If so when would you use it?. Is there a formula for boat displacement, rode length, depth of water, ect.. related to weight of the sentinal?Thanks Rob

 

[Arni]

anchor sentinels

In England they are called an 'Angel'. They have some effect, but if you suspend the angel halfway down the catenary of the chain, some of its weight is being supported by the bow roller, wasting a proportion of its effect. Since the purpose is to lower the angle of attack, you would be better off attaching an equivalent weight to the shank of the anchor or the very end of the chain next to the anchor! Or better still, use a heavier anchor.

 

[Ken]

Here's what I do....

I use a nylon rode connected to 25' of chain. I use a shackle to connect a downrigger ball (used for fishing) to the rope. It slides down the rope but stops at the chain and, at least in theory, keeps it lying flat on the bottom. Seems to work well and downrigger balls are cheap. I use a 10lb. but they're available in different weights. If you can't find one heavy enough use two.

 

[patrick]

antifouling device

I use one to keep my rode out of my keel, prop, and rudder. Here we have strong tides (8-10'), when the wind opposes the current you can bet you'll wake up to a mess, espically if you use extra scope. I've got a really simple setup that hasn't failed me yet: I use a 25lb rubber coated mushroom anchor (easy to handle and doubles as a safe inflatable anchor) for the weight, there are 2 shackles attached to it. One goes on the rode, the other has about 40' of line attached. I just hook it on the rode after my anchor is set then allow it to slide down the rode for 20-30' depending on the depth, but I keep it off the bottom. This keeps the rode going straight down under light and variable loads to keep it clear plus it dampens jerking in high load situations which smoothes the ride and increases holding power. Works great and cheap! The boat is a 1979 C38.

 

[Roger Mummah]

We Use a Sentinel/Kellet

We always use an anchor sentinel, unless we will only be anchored for a very short time or there is no current or tidal swing. We use a 22 lb and/or 35 lb Delta with 60' of chain and 200 feet of anchor line on each. When we are at anchor and the tide swings 180 degrees we swing with the tide. During the slack tide there is no pull on the anchor line and we float over it. When the tide flow actually swings, several times we have wrapped (1/2 wrap) around the keel as the anchor line took a strain. When this happens we ride at an anghle to the tidal flow. The ripples on the hull wake me up because this seems to only happen during the wee hours of the morning. Using a sentinel solved this problem. We use two mushroom anchors, a huge SS hook and a control line for a sentinel.