OK the whole story..
This past weekend we were anchored in Jewell Island cove, a very traditional cove, narrow and long, as carved out by the glaciers. When in comes this brand new 34 foot Sea Ray. It was blowing about 18 knots or so which I don't consider rough anchoring conditions. The owner pulls in finds his spot and procedes to drop his anchor via windlass while moving forward and beam to the way all the other boats are lying. Once he decides his anchor is down he promptly shuts down both engines readies his dinghy and rushes off to shore to do some island exploring. I have an idea of what is about to happen so I hop in my dinghy and as his boat starts dragging down on four other boats I come along side, take a wrap on his stern cleat with my iflatables bow line and procede to hold his boat off everyone elses with my small 4hp wide open against 18 knots of wind. At this point other people start honking their horns and the guy pokes his head out of the woods, sees me, and starts slowly sauntering back towards his dinghy. He makes it back to his boat starts her up and I advise him to let out more scope and back down on the anchor to set it. Well after six more tries he still can't even get his boat to back straight and he's still dropping perhaps 2:1 maybe 3:1 on a good day of scope. One time he dropped the anchor moving forward then proceded to spin the boat 180 and when he dragged this time and brought up the Delta fast set the chain was so tangled around the fluke he had to actually go on deck to untangle it. It was at this point I'd seen enough. I motored over in my dinghy and boarded his boat while he was still trying to "get her straight in this fierce wind". I asked him if this was a new boat to him and he mumbled "kind of". I then offerd my assistance and he declined. The next ten seconds changed his mind. He hit the throttle so hard he came inches from a Hinckley Pilot 35. At this point aI asked again if he would like me to set his anchor and I made a move for the helm. Now I'm no stranger to twin screw power boats I have run an 85 foot Hatteras, a 65 Viking and many other sportfish vessels so a 34 Sea Ray was like cake. I took over the helm and showed him how to balance his boat with the screws against the wind and showed him where an appropriate drop spot would be vs where he would actually be floating. This is a tough one for many boaters to understand. I then asked him to look at the depth sounder and tell me what it said "ten feet" okay whats ten times 7 "seventy". Okay how much anchor rode do we need to properly set your anchor? Seventy? Wow he's a brain surgeon! Seeing as he had no markings on his rode, to tell how much he laid out, I explained that the flatter the anchor line in comparison to the horizontal surface of the water the better for setting the hook. He looked puzzled on this one but seemed to buy my story for the time being. I proceded to actually back his boat while working the windlass at the same time and keep it in a straight line something he thought was impossible in these "conditions". His anchor set hard and fast and jerked the boat forward just as I told him it would if it was set correctly. After the anchor was set I shortened the scope to what looked like about a 4:1 and the boat held for the rest of the day. He thanked me and then asked me "is there an old gun tower on this island?" yes it's about an hourand a half hike with kids.... He jumped into his dinghy with blind faith and went off for a hike with the family.... This after he dragged no less than seven times and waited no more than three minutes to see if his boat truly was secure. On his way off in the dinghy he yelled to me "you know how to start it" implying if it were to happen again I should fix it for him. I sure do and the liquor cabinet and beer cooler to boot!!
