Hi to the group, i would like to show my home made sail to stabilize my hunter 41 at anchor, for the high freeboard this boat move side to side all the time an never stops.
SAILING AT ANCHOR
- Thread starter Valerio
- Start date
Is made from the same material that are made the publicity advertisement on the street, and some tarps, i think is called vinil, you can glue them with heat it cost almost nothing to do. is a 3 pieces join together at the boom hyliard, and to the dinghy davits at the rear, if you are in a zone with light winds you must go a little bigger.
Just curious:
How well does it work?
How long does it take to erect?
How rigid is the davit from which it hangs?
Is that material UV tolerant ( note where I live)?
How well does it work?
How long does it take to erect?
How rigid is the davit from which it hangs?
Is that material UV tolerant ( note where I live)?
I also have an anchor riding sail that I use often. Mine is a Sailrite kit and it works well. I connect the trailing edge to one side of the split backstay and tie the forward corner to my mid-ship cleat so that it is angled off center. I then turn the wheel about 1/2 turn away from the side that the sail is on. That way, it sails out to one side and when it reaches the limit and does the normal auto-tack, the sail and rudder sent it back without going all the way to the opposite side of the swing. It reduces the arch to about 1/3 or less of what it is without the riding sail.
The boat now is very "normal" will swing no more than 10 feet side to side. I have to climb my arch detach the hilyard and attach it to the sail (there is a loop), the other two ropes at the back are very easy to tie on the davits, at the boom near the end of the bimini at front y have a velcro laze, and another rope will pull the sai foward to the mast. Alone is like 5 min work. The davit is a very standard one no much stress there, i think each of the 3 parts is less than 7 square foot. The material if you let day in day out will survive like 3 years and is gone. For me it will last a lifetime. No need to tie the helm, as is a triangle the wind will push to one side until is neutralize by the other side, i do not know way, but without the front part, the sail it will not work. The 3 parts of this sail are glued (soldered)togheter. As you now no hunter has backstays, so any boat need a different design i think. Now i can swim at the back of the boat with no fear to been hit by the swimming deck of the boat, that was moving like 40 feet side to side before. I think this sailing at anchor is because there is more surface area at the front of the keel so the boat will swing, with this added surface at the back the boat will be more balanced with the center of the pressure of the wind behind the keel. Hyden i live much to the south of you and the trade winds are strong, only two months of less than 14 knots, all year round we are almost any day close to 20 often much more.
sometimes you can drag your anchor because of the big swings.
He could get a closer picture if the boat would swing closer to him. Oh wait...
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several thousand miles of cruising. never drug an anchor because of the Hunter swing.
I never drug an anchor either. I dragged once through very soft mud when I had an undersized Delta.
Several thousand miles is a nice start but it is not a career. I had cruised many times that distance before my first experience with dragging, and may times that far since. However, swing was not a factor, since my boat did not swing more than 10 degrees (long bridle).
Swinging as little as 30 degrees each side can reduce anchor holding capacity by 50% (force is increased by windage and snubbing, and the anchor can be wiggled). You didn't say how far you were swinging. Swinging makes other people in the anchorage nervous. It also makes the boat take up more room, which is often a problem, or at least impolite.
So while swing may may not be a problem in your eyes, in your experience, the OP has good reasons for what he is doing. There is no need to make fun of him.
MY SAFE ANCHOR WILL SOUND OFF WITH THE SWING !!!! SOMETHIMES MORE THAN 100 FEET SIDE TO SIDE. All the yucatan pensinsula gulf side is very shallow, we can anchor in open sea whit little waves but the wind is allways strong.
With any anchor alarm I always set it on the anchor with the safety ring set to 20-30' bigger than the length of rode. That way it doesn't alarm unless the anchor moves in any direction.
What counts is the number of hours, days, or weeks at anchor and the range of conditions and locations; not the numbers of miles traveled between anchorings. Also, the solution for dragging anchor is a bigger, or better, anchor and/or better anchoring technique; not a riding sail. Nevertheless, it's nice to see a report of one that's not expensive to make, and that works! I wonder who here can boast even having spent, for example, 1000 h or more at anchor (on the hook) per year, aboard.
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We are getting close to that number since leaving Tampa on March 15.
My H31 sails like a madwoman at anchor. It worries me sometimes, but not as much, or as often, as it did when we were new to the boat. I might try to build a sail out of tarp layers. Didn't have time to sew one before leaving.
My H31 sails like a madwoman at anchor. It worries me sometimes, but not as much, or as often, as it did when we were new to the boat. I might try to build a sail out of tarp layers. Didn't have time to sew one before leaving.
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Yes, I was making a little fun.
What's wrong with fun? Sensitive? No, not hardly.I think the OP made a good post. As for the figures I quoted, they were from quantitative testing for publication. 99% of the time, perhaps 99.8% of the time, we can anchor in substandard ways and nothing happens. The weather is not so bad, the bottom is good, and the anchor system has reserve capacity. Still it's good to understand the details, for the other 0.2% when we need to get everything right. But the main reasons to limit swing, in my purely personal opinion, are to save space and not to scare other sailors.