If you don't know how to anchor.. DON'T !!!!!

[Rick I]

The problem is that

the boats that don't know how to anchor think that they're doing a fine job at it so telling them not to anchor won't help.

 

[Rob Hessenius]

Anchoring

Mainesail~
I do agree with you that boat owners should not be "learning on the hook" in a busy cove on the weekend of the 4th. I see so many people that have the checkbook to own boats way above their abilities and skills, but that is a whole different topic. What I notice is that many boaters do not think ahead of the possibilities that Mother Nature could throw at them.

I learned this all to well one night in Fayette, Michigan at 12:30 AM. Fayette is a really neat little harbor on Green Bay where many boats cruise to in our area. I was in a group of five boats that sailed up there for a couple of relaxing days to take in the scenery. We all tossed over our anchors and put out the proper amount of scope and even dived to view the sea bottom and the anchors hold. I just have an Ericson 25 so I knew to stay away from the bigger boats. In the harbor there was a 48 Direktor and a 55 Schock that everybody gave plenty of clearance and respect. I listened to NOAA weather to check out what was in store for us and the report called for winds to build up to 10 out of the west. That was perfect for us, we were all completely protected since the tight harbors entrance is northerly. This is where my mistake and learning all began. I bunked in at 10 pm and immediately was out and having the best dreams of my life when my girlfriend rudely wakes me up telling that we are moving. My first thought was no way. The anchor drag alarm didnt go off. I told here she was nuts. Then she told me in a colorful way to get my butt up asap and that we are not moving, but that the Direktor and Schock are. I popped up to see a the Direcktor broad side of my bow about ten feet and the Schock broad side ten feet to the port. I tried to yell, but what came out was almost hardly audible to my own ears. Finally I got it out loud enough to be heard to waken the Direcktors Skipper. He was amazing, cool as a cucumber, he got his boat clear of mine without so much as a scratch on our boats. There was no movement on the Schock, so I grabbed the air horn and blasted it at the direction of the boat and up they popped. He got the engine going real fast and started to get out, but hooked my anchor rode. I was getting towed like my twenty five footer was his dink. I went up to the bow to try to free the rode from his boat, but made the decision to just cut the line. I went back and fired up the motor to get out into the bay and collect my thoughts and change my underwear. The cabin and cockpit were a mess, all of our things were strewn all over the place. The grill was in the cockpit in pieces and laundry clipped to lifelines and snorkling gear everywhere. I just started tossing things down below because I knew I had a long night ahead of me to sail to a safe harbor 30 plus miles away.

The weather had switched to 25 out of the north, completly different then NOAA had stated earlier that evening. This wind shift made me down wind of these beasts, exactly what I was trying to avoid. We were getting pounded by five foot choppers as we departed Fayette. I spent the next five hours going over exactly what happened and what I did wrong and what I did right. I was happy that no one got hurt first of all and secondly that there was no damage.

My conclusions of what I did wrong was I listened to a weather report from 60 miles away versus a closer one. I did not have my boat ready to sail at a moments notice.

What I foremost learned was to be always on the lookout for potential problems and to be prepared for anything. Because if its going to happen, it will out there!

I do not wish for people to learn in the manner that I did, but would hope that people are prepared for anything. Spend time and discuss things like this with your crew and other skippers. I believe in educating those who need it rather than shaming them publicly. Even if you think they may be insulted, you have still planted a seed of thought into them. Although there are just some plain stupid people out there.

 

[JohnS]

Unskilled and Unaware of it

Peter Suah wrote,

"He who knows not, and knows not that he knows not,...."


That reminds me of a study I came across a few years ago by a couple of Cornell University researchers entitled "Unskilled and Unaware of It: How Difficulties in Recognizing One's Own Incompetence Lead to Inflated Self-Assessments". It was actually an amusing read.

One of their studies involved determining people's self assessments of their ability to judge what is or is not funny. Here's their description of the study:

"Materials: We created a 30-item questionnaire made up of jokes we
felt were of varying comedic value. Jokes were taken from Woody Allen
(1975), Al Frankin (1992), and a book of "really silly" pet jokes by Jeff
Rovin (1996). To assess joke quality, we contacted several professional
comedians via electronic mail and asked them to rate each joke on a scale
ranging from 1 (not at all funny) to 11 (very funny). Eight comedians
responded to our request (Bob Crawford, Costaki Economopoulos, Paul
Frisbie, Kathleen Madigan, Ann Rose, Allan Sitterson, David Spark, and
Dan St. Paul).
...
Expert ratings revealed that jokes ranged from the not so funny (e.g.,
"Question: What is big as a man, but weighs nothing? Answer: His
shadow." Mean expert rating = 1.3) to the very funny (e.g., "If a kid asks
where rain comes from, I think a cute thing to tell him is 'God is crying.'
And if he asks why God is crying, another cute thing to tell him is
'probably because of something you did.'" Mean expert rating = 9.6)."

A PDF of the paper can be found here:

 

[Bob F]

Could be a math issue

Perhaps this new generation of boaters who rely on all the wonderful new equipment we now have (GPS,radar,chartplotter,autopilots,ect) dont know how to calculate how much rode to deploy? Think about it. God forbid we have to figure out depth + tide change + freeboard, then calculate a ratio of anchor rode to deploy out. Alot of coastal cruisers would be "SOL" if their GPS quit on them and they had to actually navigate. What many need is a new electronic gaget on board that syncs all the other Electronic Data (depth, tide, wind speed), and all the "skipper" needs to do is push the "DEPLOY ANCHOR" button. Software handles the rest.

What do you think?

Bob

 

[Stu Jackson]

Bob F, maybe you've hit on something, although

figuring out a 10:1 scope in 10 feet of water just may be too hard for most "youngsters" these days!

 

[Nice N Easy]

Never ever

One previous post lead to me posting this up, and while I don't want to trash anyone, it does bear mentioning. Do not rely on a weather forecast when anchoring. No matter if it is from 10 feet away. Always anchor with plenty of scope and plenty of swing room. Do not think that all boats in an anchorage will swing the same. In the summer, no matter what the forecast, thunder storms can pop up anywhere at any time. It is not unusual for us to get them on a perfectly calm afternoon, and in ten minutes the wind can be howling at 40 knots. Last week on popped up at 3AM. My basic scope for anchoring anywhere is 10-1. And I don't have a bunch of markers on the rode. I have one at 100', one at 150 and one at 200. You basically can't have too much scope, as long as you have room to swing, but you can certainly not have out enough.

 

[Rick I]

You're right

I usually anchor in less than ten feet if I can and I always put out about 100 ft of chain. Some folks say it's too much but in the Bahamas (where I anchor most) you never know what'll happen next. A front come through, whatever. Better safe than sorry. And I like to sleep at night.

 

[ITMaster]

Maine Sail, I know how to

set anchor and keep my boat where I put it and there are some here that know that for a fact. I have anchored in conditions when some will not and not budged from where I put her. I guess this fool hasn't a clue about how to set and use anchor drift alarms either. I use two of them always and rarely sleep more than 30 to 45 minutes at a time. I'm up all night long checking.

I would likely be in jail now if that had happened to me. First off, I think he was lucky it was you, for I would have pulled something I carry with me and filled his hull full of holes to help it sink before it hit my boat.


I have always thought that proper etiquette would dictate that if you were there first, then I need to anchor behind you, not in front; and that I do so in a way that would not swing into your boat if the tide, wind or current shifted. When someone comes to an anchorage that I am in and they drop the hook in front of me, I go over to their boat and let them know that they need to find somewhere else that I was there first. If they don't move, then I let them know that if they are a threat to harming my boat or the people on it, that I will sink them before I allow them to crash into me. I have been in areas where I have contacted Marine Police or Harbour Police and called them over to have them tell the nit-wits to move on more than one occasion.

There are so many jerks out there, this is but another reason why I am one that endorses proof of completion of a safe boating class before being allow CG Documentation or State Registration or oroof of some sort of boating competency license. Some people say that this is why we have insurance, but I don't agree with that.

I have seen your boat and can tell you have put a lot of hard work into it and take more than excellent care of it and have a lot of pride in it and there is no reason to consider insurance as a form of restitution from damage by a jerk.

That jerk should have been sank then and there; again he was lucky it was you for I have far less tolerance for stupidity than you!

Tom

 

[newly anonymous]

my personal prejudice:

when someone comes into a cove where I'm anchored, the first thing I check out is his rode. If I spot an all-chain rode, I think, "Oh good, he's one of us," and I figure I don't really have to worry. If I spot nylon, I find myself hoping he's not planning to spend the night.

I know I know I know that there are capable individuals out there who anchor on nylon, especially if they race the boat and are trying to keep it light, but upwards of 90% of the folk who anchor out weeks and weeks every year are anchoring on all-chain rodes.

something to think about.