I was out yesterday on a friends 22" sailboat when we grounded on rocks. We were healed at about 5-10 degrees dong about 4 knots when we came to an abrupt and noisy stop. We were seriously grounded on a rocky ledge about 15' from deeper water. By rocking the boat and having crew in the water pushing we were able to swing the boat around to point at the deeper water. We then tried kedging but ran into the following problem. (We also tried using our sails and swinging out on the boom to no effect.) We swam out with an anchor and 6' of chain as far as possible from the beam of the boat (not an easy feat in the wind and waves). It was easy to get the anchor set in the rocks. We then attached the anchor rode to the main halyard and proceeded to winch the line in. The problem was that that by the time we hauled in the slack of the anchor rode - the main sheet shackle was at the top of the mast preventing us from healing the boat over further. We tried taking more slack out of the anchor rode but couldn't fix the problem. We then moved the anchor closer but this put too much strain on the boats small winches and we lost our mechanical advantage or having the anchor out further. Needless to say our efforts to free our selves were futile as were our attempts to hail other boats. We eventually called 911 and were rescued by the water rescue unit of the local fire dept (a real fine group of guys). The boat and iron keel appear to be fine although it will be hauled out asap for a visual inspection. My question is does anyone have ideas on what we could have done to put the anchor out further and use the limited ability of the main halyard to get the necessary leverage to heal the boat over sufficently to free us. All in all it was a positive learning experience from many aspects. Gary
Problem with Kedging
- Thread starter GKuffner
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Vector Pull possibility
Good question. Here's one possibility I learned a technique called a "vector pull" from some river safety training years ago. It is very powerful... About 40' down the anchor rode from the halyard shackle, attach another line and lead that to another winch. Winch in the anchor rode as far are you can using the halyard- hopefully coming close to pulling the rode straight from the masthead to the anchor. Then winch in the other line to pull as much at 90 degrees as possible. It will give you the equivalent of another 10-15 feet of halyard pulling depending on the height of your mast.
Good question. Here's one possibility I learned a technique called a "vector pull" from some river safety training years ago. It is very powerful... About 40' down the anchor rode from the halyard shackle, attach another line and lead that to another winch. Winch in the anchor rode as far are you can using the halyard- hopefully coming close to pulling the rode straight from the masthead to the anchor. Then winch in the other line to pull as much at 90 degrees as possible. It will give you the equivalent of another 10-15 feet of halyard pulling depending on the height of your mast.
Another approach...
...is to tie the main halyard to the anchor rode, about halfway between the boat and the anchor - do this before you take the anchor out and set it. You then run the anchor rode straight to a cockpit winch and tighten it up. When the anchor is well set, alternate winching in the main halyard and the anchor rode. The former will heal the boat, while the latter will pull the boat in the direction you want to go. The advantage to doing it that way is that tension on the halyard serves only to keep the boat heeled over, while the anchor road drags it sideways. It sounds from your description like most of your leverage was lost healing the boat rather than moving it sideways.
...is to tie the main halyard to the anchor rode, about halfway between the boat and the anchor - do this before you take the anchor out and set it. You then run the anchor rode straight to a cockpit winch and tighten it up. When the anchor is well set, alternate winching in the main halyard and the anchor rode. The former will heal the boat, while the latter will pull the boat in the direction you want to go. The advantage to doing it that way is that tension on the halyard serves only to keep the boat heeled over, while the anchor road drags it sideways. It sounds from your description like most of your leverage was lost healing the boat rather than moving it sideways.
Some ways to do it
Another way is to attach a block to the halyard and run the anchor rode through it. Then you can vary the height of the block and not have to worry about running the rode through the masthead. You also need a turning block somewhere on the toerail to bring the line into the winch. Another another way is to get the biggest person out on the end of the boom and then push it out over the water. Ware a PFD please. I have also used the "everybody on deck, run to the port, run to the starboard" drill to rock the boat. The prefered method is of course to not get into the situation in the first place. Care to tell us how that happened so we can learn from your mistakes. My humble pie story is the wife and I had sailed all day getting to a club meeting and where finaly geting there about 3 hours after sunset. We had to navigate through a river mouth shoal then up the river about a mile. There where daymarks and the captain and lookout where doing fine until the lookout decided to cell phone for directions. We hit the sand bar as I was asking "well honey, is this going to help me know which way I should turn right now?" We where about 10' from the river bank. After trying to swing the boat with motor and rudder the rudder cables came off the quarderent. The chief mechanic had failed to run the stop nuts up against the adjusting nuts when he last adjusted the cables. The wife called for help from the club as I put the cables back on and the tide went out. About a half hour later a dinggy showed up and we used a long line tied to the halyard and hoisted aloft to heel the boat and then used the engine to back her off the sand bar. It was so dark that night the dinggy owner got lost (the sand bar was where 3 creeks came together) heading back to his house. And a good time was had by all.
Another way is to attach a block to the halyard and run the anchor rode through it. Then you can vary the height of the block and not have to worry about running the rode through the masthead. You also need a turning block somewhere on the toerail to bring the line into the winch. Another another way is to get the biggest person out on the end of the boom and then push it out over the water. Ware a PFD please. I have also used the "everybody on deck, run to the port, run to the starboard" drill to rock the boat. The prefered method is of course to not get into the situation in the first place. Care to tell us how that happened so we can learn from your mistakes. My humble pie story is the wife and I had sailed all day getting to a club meeting and where finaly geting there about 3 hours after sunset. We had to navigate through a river mouth shoal then up the river about a mile. There where daymarks and the captain and lookout where doing fine until the lookout decided to cell phone for directions. We hit the sand bar as I was asking "well honey, is this going to help me know which way I should turn right now?" We where about 10' from the river bank. After trying to swing the boat with motor and rudder the rudder cables came off the quarderent. The chief mechanic had failed to run the stop nuts up against the adjusting nuts when he last adjusted the cables. The wife called for help from the club as I put the cables back on and the tide went out. About a half hour later a dinggy showed up and we used a long line tied to the halyard and hoisted aloft to heel the boat and then used the engine to back her off the sand bar. It was so dark that night the dinggy owner got lost (the sand bar was where 3 creeks came together) heading back to his house. And a good time was had by all.
Thanks for the ideas
I just want to say thanks for the ideas; I can see how there are several solutions to the problems that we encountered. I think that it would be good to have a several turning blocks onboard for just such an event. On this small boat the main halyard is pulled by hand and there isn't a good way of leading it to the winches on the cabin top so a turning block would have helped. Prevention is definitely the best solution. Thankfully I wasn't steering my friends boat when we grounded. Our plan had been to tac when the water depth got down to 12' but we found that the dept went from 14' to less than 4 faster than we could react. The other thing that we did wrong was to not carefully read the chart. We failed to see the rocky ledge on a generally sandy shoreline (we had lots of time to study the chart while we were stranded waiting rescue.) In terms of lessons learned I would say that 1. You need knowledge of the area that your sailing and a quick look at the chart doesn't cut it. 2. Experience is a definite plus and we should have know that water levels in the lake drop in August making what was a safe passage earlier in the year a potential grounding situation later in the season we should have factored this into our safety margin as read on the dept sounder. Again thanks to those who offered their ideas. Gary
I just want to say thanks for the ideas; I can see how there are several solutions to the problems that we encountered. I think that it would be good to have a several turning blocks onboard for just such an event. On this small boat the main halyard is pulled by hand and there isn't a good way of leading it to the winches on the cabin top so a turning block would have helped. Prevention is definitely the best solution. Thankfully I wasn't steering my friends boat when we grounded. Our plan had been to tac when the water depth got down to 12' but we found that the dept went from 14' to less than 4 faster than we could react. The other thing that we did wrong was to not carefully read the chart. We failed to see the rocky ledge on a generally sandy shoreline (we had lots of time to study the chart while we were stranded waiting rescue.) In terms of lessons learned I would say that 1. You need knowledge of the area that your sailing and a quick look at the chart doesn't cut it. 2. Experience is a definite plus and we should have know that water levels in the lake drop in August making what was a safe passage earlier in the year a potential grounding situation later in the season we should have factored this into our safety margin as read on the dept sounder. Again thanks to those who offered their ideas. Gary
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