Learning to anchor

[retclt]

Thanks Sailingdog.
I'll go up a size on the shackel and up seizing wire. We'll sleep better.

. . . by the way, love the quote! Printed it for the wife. I'm lucky, she understands my relationship with the sailboat and never trys to hinder it.

Bob T
Dallas

[sailingdog]

glad to help bob... You did see the movie "Serenity"???

[sailingdog]

Originally Posted by labatt

You start wondering why you didn't put a trip line on it before you put it down...

Hindsight is always 20/20.

[mwrohde]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

You might be a redneck sailor if...you get your anchor caught in a tree stump.

Funny, that. One of the pitfalls of the lake I sail on is that you can get hung up badly one underwater things. I've always assumed tree roots. It's a man-made lake that flooded lots of woodland.

I once got stuck not 40 feet from my slip so badly that I couldn't get it loose with my sailboat. I ended up tying a coozie to the bitter end of anchor rode and putting my boat back in the slip. I then borrowed a pontoon boat, recaptured my rode, tied it off to a pontoon, and did ever increasingly powerful reverse circles around my anchor until it broke free. I think I spent about an hour and a half getting my anchor back.

[jackytdunaway]

Actually a few weeks ago it was fouled and a friend sailing with me went down and pulled it out of the stump. When you start getting over 15 feet or so it can start to mess with the ears so I was thinking I need to have something I can do especially if I am in deeper water. I thought of attaching a thinner line to the back (crown?) of the anchor so if it got fouled again I could pull it out that way but hate the idea of having to mess with the rode and another line every time I drop anchor. We are on a man made lake and there are a lot of stumps to be dealt with

[mwrohde]

Originally Posted by labatt

You start wondering why you didn't put a trip line on it before you put it down...

Describe this process to me, please? I've seen diagrams of the end result, but don't see how to accomplish this or what the result looks like while I'm at anchor.

[sailingdog]

Most anchors have a hole for attaching a line at the crown end of the anchor (farthest from where the shackle attaches). This line is meant for tying a trip line to the anchor. A trip line is a light, but fairly strong line, that can be used to release the anchor—tripping it—and make retreiving it simpler.

A good way to do this is to get a small buoy, and attach it to the trip line. This buoy will also act as an anchor marker/float. However, it does have to have enough line to reach the surface, and not interfere with the anchor's ability to set.

I've used Spyderline, which IIRC is a 3mm spectra core line, as an anchor trip line. Stuff is very strong, but very thin.

[retclt]

Have not seen "Serenity". I'll check it out.

I once hooked into a volkswagon beetle - 17 feet on the bottom under a cliff at Possum Kingdom. Snorkled down, snap shackled it and enjoyed lunch with a 0 scope.

Bob T
Dallas

[sailingdog]

A volkswagen beetle is probably heavy enough that 1:1 scope is just fine for most boats. This is not something we generally encounter sailing on Buzzards Bay though.

[mwrohde]

Originally Posted by sailingdog

A volkswagen beetle is probably heavy enough that 1:1 scope is just fine for most boats. This is not something we generally encounter sailing on Buzzards Bay though.

You should carry one with you. I'd have figured with the knowledge you seem to possess that would be obvious. Going to have to rethink all the advice you've given now.