Emergency Anchor Setup

[Fran49829]

I sail a small boat, 21'', and came up with a way to get an anchor out off the bow without going forward. I ran a line (actually a double line loop) from the bow cleat through the bow chock and back along the starboard side and tied it to a stanchion base. All I have to do is bring up the anchor, untie the line from the stanchion, tie the anchor line on, and put it over the side.

[paulk]

From your description, it sounds like you''ve only got 21 feet of scope if it is cleated at the bow at the outset. Do you go forward once the anchor is over to release more?

[Fran49829]

I have line tied to the anchor at whatever length I want (usually 60 feet for shallow water) and then tie this line to the line running back from the bow which would give me about 75 feet or so of line total. The idea is to have part of the anchor line already run to the cockpkit so I don''t have to go forward. I think this approach would also work with a sea anchor. I only used this line once last year.

[EscapeArtist]

This is the exactly the setup that the sea anchor manufacturer describes. I suppose if you need to lie to a sea anchor, you sure don''t need to be going forward.