"Emergency" anchor

[Brian N.]

Purchased a small 2.5 pound Lewmar claw anchor to keep in the "gas locker" as an emergency measure. Forgot who suggested it, but thanks to everyone on the forum; it was a great suggestion. Where I sail is mainly a sand bottom so I just wanted an anchor to temporally hold the boat for a couple of minutes and easily assessable. Three feet of chain and 50 feet of rode complete the setup. The water where I would most likely need to throw the anchor out is 3 - 8 feet deep. I do have a much bigger (8 pound Danforth style) for more permanent anchoring, but it is too big to keep on deck or even on the bow pulpit, and not so easily deployed.

[Brian S]

I used to use a small Lewmar Claw, galvanized version. I found that many times, I would have to try at least twice to get it to set in mud and probable somewhat weedy bottom. I did have about 15' of chain and then rope warp. What I probably should have done was to take an angle grinder to the flukes and sharpen the edge up some. Wouldn't be a problem in fresh water.

Instead, I bought an 8 pound Manson Supreme. I'm not sure I ever used it, because it was bigger and heavier than I thought, taking up a fair amount of space in the lazarette. If I were on tidal, coastal waters, and over night, I would carry it and use it.

But for my needs on the lake as a lunch hook, I've been really happy with a stainless steel Mantus Dinghy Anchor on 20' of 3/16" SS chain with a laid nylon line spliced to the chain. Typically when I'm anchored in the evening, there's a light breeze. I've had up to 10 boats rafted up on that little anchor, but not a lot of wind. It sets well, and because the fluke breaks down from the shank, it stores pretty well on top of the warp coiled in a rubber feed bucket. But to be honest, it's not very heavy, so if the boat is moving as I drop the anchor in, it will sail behind the boat as it tries to sink. But I didn't want heavier, bulkier chain on it for such a casual, light use anchor. In fact, Mantus sells as a kit for the dinghy anchor with just rope on the anchor, no chain. Given our bottoms are typically mud and not rock, I probably don't need the chain, but, you know, it's said you should use at least 1 boat length of chain with the rope warp.

[tjspiel]

I like the idea of having a lightweight emergency anchor in the cockpit.

I also learned that big, heavy chain will keep a small boat from moving all on its own if there's enough sitting of it sitting on the bottom, - not that I'd want to keep that much chain on my boat.

Had an unexpected sailing adventure this weekend. Went down to the lake early on Saturday morning to put a bigger trolling motor on my boat, - which was kind of ironic given the rest of the story.

When I got down there, the invasive species inspector asked if I was going sailing and I told her I wasn't planning on it. She looked disappointed and said she was hoping to find somebody who could check on a boat that had broke loose from the mooring field and had drifted over by the bridge.

Most of the time a boat breaking loose on that lake isn't tragic. It's a small lake and they'll typically get stuck somewhere on the soft bottom and are easily retrieved. But when the wind is blowing towards the bridge, that can mean a boat getting bashed so I said I'd take a look.

Was just planning to motor to the bridge but there was a good stiff breeze and since the loose boat had drifted downwind (of course), pulling out the jib got me there pretty fast (yay for furler !).

When I got to the boat it had stopped well away from shore and the bridge. It looked like it was anchored and the buoy was with it. Turns out that all or most of the chain that had attached the mooring ball to its mooring anchor was still there and that's why the boat had stopped drifting.

Towing it back to the dock turned out to be more of a challenge than I had really wanted. Since the dock was  upwind, I was hoping I could just motor. But my little 40 lb trolling motor could not get the mooring ball/boat combo to budge against the wind so I had to pull the whole messy thing (ball + chain) on board and just tow the boat itself.

Even with that I was not making much headway and my boat doesn't sail well upwind with just the jib in high wind (can't tack), so I had to hoist the main. Where it had taken me only about 10 minutes to get to the loose boat from the dock, it took about 20 to 30 to get back because I could not go straight there.

By the time I had arrived at the dock, the park board people were dropping their utility boat in the water to go get the boat I had just brought back.

All that work for nothing! It would have taken them all of 15 minutes.

The boat I was towing was just a light day sailor or I probably would have just left it there since it seemed to be OK. But I learned that chain is a pretty effective part of anchoring equipment and that upgrading to a bigger trolling motor was probably wise.

[Brian N.]

Tom - you get "good deed" points for helping out. Surprised that she would ask for your help, especially if she was acting in her "official" capacity. Guess she was just trying to help out too, and did not want the situation to deteriorate into a damaged boat.

[tjspiel]

Tom - you get "good deed" points for helping out. Surprised that she would ask for your help, especially if she was acting in her "official" capacity. Guess she was just trying to help out too, and did not want the situation to deteriorate into a damaged boat.

She was hoping to get the number off the buoy so they could contact the owner. The inspectors work for the state DNR and the city park board maintains the buoy fields but there must be some sort of relationship between the two, otherwise I don't know how she'd be able to reach the owner. Anyway, not really her responsibility either. Most of the inspectors recognize me because I'm down there a lot and they check my kayak before I paddle out to my boat. Otherwise she probably wouldn't have asked.  But they know we look out for each other's boats.

A good number of people that sail there participate in a Facebook group. Usually posting in the group is the quickest way to get in touch with the owner but nobody on Facebook seemed to know whose boat it was.

[Shesaidno]

Excellent work Tom, I think the boat owners owe you a dinner!  Maybe two!