Anchor trip Line, how to?
- Thread starter emergpa1
- Start date
You tie it off to the fluke-end of your anchor, many anchors have a hole for just that purpose. When you drop your anchor you toss the float and freed line with the anchor. Then if you need to unstick your anchor you can motor or dinghy to the trip line and use it to pull your anchor in-axis with the flukes, easing retrieval. It also serves to mark your anchor location in those crowded anchorages, or in cases of clodish skippers who might want to lay their anchor rode across yours. Frankly that looks like a pretty lightweight trip line. I use an old halyard.
The downside to using a tripline with float to mark your anchor location is you take up a TON of room in an anchorage as it means that no one can swing over your anchor location. In crowded anchorage this will make you very unpopular.
I never quit understood this attitude. My ground tackle is very valuable to me. In many areas there are very real possibilities that it could be lost if not for a trip line. So because you don't value your boat or it's equipment enough to employ good practices, I am the bad guy? You also get the same attitude if you put out more than 4:1 scope in those crowded anchorages.
I think prudent sailors should question those that anchor in a manner that requires them to be over my anchor. What if I decide to leave before you? What if you drag, you just increased the chances of fowling my anchor? What if we have different scopes out and now I swing into you? The possibilities could go on. IMO, anchoring in a manner that requires you to be over someone's anchor or within their swing radius is bad seamanship. The use of trip lines is a prudent measure and it helps inform others where your anchor is so they don't pick a poor spot to anchor.
I don't use a trip line and never have. But I did observe one boat that probably wished he had when his anchor line chafed through at Block Island. If he had a trip line he could have recovered it and gone on with his day. Instead he ended up on the Coast Guard mooring (And probably had a good thorough inspection).
JK,
I'm not advocating never using a marker. We have one and I've used it. I should have said that use it when needed. Most of our anchorages are all-sand and no one has ever lost an anchor there. In the snaggy areas yes I would think about it, and not have an issue if someone else did.
But the bigger point is that all boats swing, and mostly together. If I we anchor in 20 feet of water and go 7:1, my anchor is almost 150 in front of the boat. This is no reason another boat has to (drop) anchor 300 feet away from my bow just so his transom never passes over my anchor. A float causes that. I'm just advocating having a good reason.
If you ask a bunch real cruisers, I'm pretty sure that most will say that the best 'good practice' is to very very rarely use it.
I am sympathetic to your point entirly, it's your math that puzzles me. The scope would be the radius of your swing arc. So wouldn't you only need to anchor 150 feet from the other boat's anchor. Your circles would never overlap because the radii are less or equal to the scope.
Hey Joe, yes, I think that is what I said, but a bit differently... dropping my anchor 150 feet in front of his anchor creates a 300 space between his bow and my anchor. I edited my post to clarify a bit. That space is needed because the arcs cannot overlap.
Normally when anchored swing arcs overlap; ie your boat can pass over my anchor. The float prevents that.
In a crowded anchorage thats at least 50% more room than you need.
Rarely do you see use of trip lines in anchorages. I've only used one once in a cove known to have stumps on the bottom.
Risks include:
Other swinging boats snagging and tripping your trip line
Boats entering anchorage at night and not seeing marker and snagging it.
Boats thinking it is a mooring ball and pulling it. Yes that happens.
Current and wind shift sending your boat over the trip bouy and snagging it with your own prop.
Not worth the hassle
Risks include:
Other swinging boats snagging and tripping your trip line
Boats entering anchorage at night and not seeing marker and snagging it.
Boats thinking it is a mooring ball and pulling it. Yes that happens.
Current and wind shift sending your boat over the trip bouy and snagging it with your own prop.
Not worth the hassle
Instead of relying on a trip line, we always move slowly up to the anchor until directly above, cleat off the chain and put in reverse until the anchor breaks free. Sometimes takes a bit more throttle than others but always works. I very seldem use a marker buoy / trip line unless in a very busy area.
I've had to dive on the rudder to free the marker buoy line after we had swung around 360 deg. over the course of the weekend.... most likely the last time I'll do that.
I've had to dive on the rudder to free the marker buoy line after we had swung around 360 deg. over the course of the weekend.... most likely the last time I'll do that.
Yep last Nov at 0500 I could hear the line pulling taunt, then snap. We looked for the float before hauling anchor and couldn't find it. Anchor aboard I made a slow turn in the narrow channel and needed reverse to keep off the bank. Somehow we didn't snag it because we saw it float by when we went forward again. Close call.
All U Get
The brief description of this particular device indicates that after the line is attached to the fluke of the anchor, the rest of the line is wound around the float, and deployed along with the anchor.
The idea is that the anchor will run to the bottom while the foamy buoy unspools its line as it heads to the surface. When it appears, you retrieve it, cleat the line off in the slot on the end of the buoy (paying out line for any expected rise in tide, I assume), and viola. Now just pay out your anchor rode and set as usual.
The tricky part seems to be retrieving it and cleating it off before you begin falling away from your deployment spot.
The idea is that the anchor will run to the bottom while the foamy buoy unspools its line as it heads to the surface. When it appears, you retrieve it, cleat the line off in the slot on the end of the buoy (paying out line for any expected rise in tide, I assume), and viola. Now just pay out your anchor rode and set as usual.
The tricky part seems to be retrieving it and cleating it off before you begin falling away from your deployment spot.
I'm trying to figure out how one decides before hand whether you use, or decide not to before deployment. I would feel kind of foolish having a trip line, and looking into my boat bottom crystal ball to make the decision of using it or not.
I guess if a sailor took a plow anchor, and started dragging it back and forth in a grid pattern over the entire anchorage, thereby determining if there are any snags, (shouldn't take ALL night), THEN with some confidence that yes, this is a good anchorage that doesn't need a trip line.
So you are basically gambling.
If I thought I needed it in a foul, I would use it.
Now I know there are some big-time morons running loose, but someone picking up a an anchor ball riding two hundred feet sitting directly in front of a boat? Oh Lerd..
Or you being first there and deploying a ball?
Short of the possibility of swinging over your own, these other excuses strike me as more of an argument than good advice.
I guess if a sailor took a plow anchor, and started dragging it back and forth in a grid pattern over the entire anchorage, thereby determining if there are any snags, (shouldn't take ALL night), THEN with some confidence that yes, this is a good anchorage that doesn't need a trip line.
So you are basically gambling.
If I thought I needed it in a foul, I would use it.
Now I know there are some big-time morons running loose, but someone picking up a an anchor ball riding two hundred feet sitting directly in front of a boat? Oh Lerd..
Or you being first there and deploying a ball?
Short of the possibility of swinging over your own, these other excuses strike me as more of an argument than good advice.
Local Knowledge
There is a cove I like to lunch in at Smith Mountain Lake. Very narrow with steep mountains rising on each side. Makes nice shade in the summer (except at noon). The water is very deep so I have to set two anchors to keep from swinging into shore (bow and stern). I've almost lost an anchor there once. I heaved the road as tight as I could and no budge. I got my entire family on the bow to dip the bow some and cleated to the sampson cleat. Then we all went back to the cockpit and bounced in rhythm. It took some time but finally the anchor broke loose and when I retrieved it, there was a large pine branch wedged in the flukes. I now use an anchor buoy in that cove. If you are anchoring in a salt marsh with a lot of Cyprus near shore... might be a good idea. If you are anchoring on a sand bottom... probably not.
On a related note.... I read someplace (might have been here) about a guy using a plastic orange juice jug as his anchor buoy and placing a glow stick in it before bed. The jug was lit and made a nice lit anchor marker. Cool idea. I might try it sometime.
For example....
There is a cove I like to lunch in at Smith Mountain Lake. Very narrow with steep mountains rising on each side. Makes nice shade in the summer (except at noon). The water is very deep so I have to set two anchors to keep from swinging into shore (bow and stern). I've almost lost an anchor there once. I heaved the road as tight as I could and no budge. I got my entire family on the bow to dip the bow some and cleated to the sampson cleat. Then we all went back to the cockpit and bounced in rhythm. It took some time but finally the anchor broke loose and when I retrieved it, there was a large pine branch wedged in the flukes. I now use an anchor buoy in that cove. If you are anchoring in a salt marsh with a lot of Cyprus near shore... might be a good idea. If you are anchoring on a sand bottom... probably not.
On a related note.... I read someplace (might have been here) about a guy using a plastic orange juice jug as his anchor buoy and placing a glow stick in it before bed. The jug was lit and made a nice lit anchor marker. Cool idea. I might try it sometime.
If you use a trip line, do NOT use a fender for the float. Or at least use a long enough line to reach the bottom. Just saying. No personal knowledge that the fender will float your anchor off the bottom leaving you with just chain dragging. 
as much of a pain as they are, in my opinion there is no good reason to use a trip line unless you are on an unknown bottom and there is a high chance of fouling...
when you are anchoring in an area where many other boats have anchored for years without problems, you can be pretty sure that its about as safe as it gets to set the anchor without a trip line attached.. although there are those unlucky souls who can anchor on a sand flat in crystal clear water and lose their anchor even when they have a trip line attached, and even as I have seen it done before, it is not a normal occurrence...
and a trip line does not guarantee the retrieval of a fouled anchor, but only gives a second option which is usually enough, but not always.
when you are anchoring in an area where many other boats have anchored for years without problems, you can be pretty sure that its about as safe as it gets to set the anchor without a trip line attached.. although there are those unlucky souls who can anchor on a sand flat in crystal clear water and lose their anchor even when they have a trip line attached, and even as I have seen it done before, it is not a normal occurrence...
and a trip line does not guarantee the retrieval of a fouled anchor, but only gives a second option which is usually enough, but not always.
You don't have to leave your trip line floating over your anchor location, that is why I use an old end-eye fender - one end tied off to the anchor, the other brought back to the boat. Reel it in if you want to clear it for another boater, let it out when someone shows up with a puny CQR or danforth and attempts to anchor upwind. I never anchor in more than 25ft of water, so the float is tied off at 25ft.
Why would you use a trip line? That is how you retrieve your anchor when someone lays their rode across yours and goes off for a 4 day holiday!
Why would you use a trip line? That is how you retrieve your anchor when someone lays their rode across yours and goes off for a 4 day holiday!
Some time ago a visiting sailor yelled at me because I had allowed the boat to swing over his anchor. I yelled back in the same tone that we were there for lunch and would be soon gone. He went grumbling back inside his cabin. My thoughts about that were; where is this guy coming from that he needs to set a scope in excess of 5:1 in calm weather in a known tight anchorage? My answer was that I was dealing with a "Road King". As we left I rounded his boat to see if he would come out so that I could give him a proper Florida welcome but he never did. As we sailed away I could not keep from thinking the fine time this individual was going to have if he stayed at that basin during the coming weekend. The guys out there in the weekend hustling for a spot are not as calm as I was for lunch in the middle of the week. I have seen fights in anchorages and it is usually because someone does not understand the meaning of consideration for other's needs. There are different customs in different parts of the countery.