anchoring bow and stern

[mugsy]

My wife and I will be bareboating in the Whitsundays Islands this coming March. We have rented a Oceanis 393 for the 2 of us. Last May we bareboated in the Sea of Cortez and anchored with just the bow anchor without any problems. Mainly mud and sand and very little tidal action. I've been told that in the Whitsundays (Queensland, Great Barrier Reef) we may need to add a stern anchor to the equation. I would appreciate any tips and techniques for adding this stern anchor. Specifics and details are all welcome.
Thanks,
Mugsy

[Idiens]

Books are written about anchoring. The Rocnar school will be around soon.

I carry a kedge with 12 m of chain and 100 m of rope. The Bower has 50 m of chain and 50 m of rope (when needed).

My general plan, having chosen the spot, is to motor slowly up wind/current, dropping the buoyed kedge and paying out line under tension from the stern until I reach the point to drop the buoyed Bower. Then put the motor out of gear, haul in on the kedge rode and let out the Bower until in the centre. The buoys give an indication of where the centre is and warn late comers that I have two anchors out. I usually go for 4:1 scope unless the situation makes more look desirable.

[trantor12020]

Pls advise benefit of using bow & stern anchor. What if you're taught with strong wind coming from abeam? Would it "flip" the boat?? Would tandem anchor be better if swing room is not an issue? I'm just curious as I've never tried bow+stern anchoring.

[Idiens]

I have only ever used it in a narrow shallow waterway with a tidal current. Swinging on a single anchor with useful scope meant that one might swing onto the bank/go aground/into the main channel with a falling tide.

There are a few places where the mooring buoys are On-A-Trot, and one is required to moor fore and aft between pairs of them.

[sailingdog]

A couple of the advantages of anchoring bow and stern are:

It reduces the swinging room required by the boat. This allows more boats to anchor in a given area.

It allows you to use anchors like the Danforth in areas with reversing currents, which would otherwise cause the anchors to pull out. Fluke-type anchors don't reset well and don't handle direction changes very well.

It can keep the boat in a specific position more readily than other forms of anchoring... for instance, if you're planning on letting the boat dry out at low tide, and want to keep it over a mud or sand bank while the tide goes out.

[Boasun]

This is known as a "Stream Mooring" and is used often enough to have a specific name. Have used it with ships and boats.
Plant your bower first and back carefully letting out twice the rode you would normally use.
Then plant your stern anchor and heave around on the bow rode as you ease forward with your engine. Paying out the stern anchor rode carefully so that it won't get caught in your running gear.
This is a good anchoring system where you have reversing currents. Have the stern down stream because the flood current is normally less then the ebb current.
And after is all said and done. Set the anchor watch and relax as you go about your daily in port routine.

[trantor12020]

Ok, so reference is to the tide and not so much the wind. I've a sugar scoop stern so just wondering when the stern faces the incoming tide, would the tide get wash into the cockpit ? My swim platform is just couple of inches from water, then the cockpit sole is another 8-10 inches up. Just wondering.

[sailingdog]

trantor-

Unless you're on such short scope or taut anchor lines, the boat can't rise with the incoming tide, that shouldn't be much of an issue. You might get a bit of splashing into the cockpit, but shouldn't get much more than that.