anchoring an empty dive boat

[Chuck Tribolet]

MY math? What do you get when you multiply 24 by 10?

Joe

Sorry. That's what I get when I post at 5 a.m. local. I meant
SubMariner. I fixed my post.

Maybe I need to salvage this anchor and use it on my whaler:
http://www.garlic.com/~triblet/swell/images/03cx14s.jpg

 

[Sideband]

lol. That makes more sense. I was wondering if the guy had a 2 1/2 foot boat. ;-)
That anchor may work for you. Remember, lift with your legs.

Joe

 

[Bill51]

Another great anchoring aid is attaching a weight to the anchor rode if the bottom is not allowing either a Danforth or Bruce anchor to get as deep a bite as you’d like. By attaching as little as a 5 pound weight 10’ or so from the anchor or at the end of the chain it’s amazing how much that helps keep the anchor set in a hard bottom with waves or wind jerking on the boat. Once the anchor is set it acts like a shock absorber just like additional chain would, but with less hassle and less weight to have to haul up. It’s also helpful in setting a plow anchor when the bottom might be a little better suited for a fluked anchor.

 

[Charlie99]

I have been on sail boats that use the plow but it's on a hinge( don't remember the correct term offhand) and a windlass to pull it out of the sand. They usually set so deep that you don't see the anchor when you go down to check the anchor.

CQR anchor, probably. Awkward to stow, but great holding power in muck and sand.

 

[Bill51]

CQR anchor, probably. Awkward to stow, but great holding power in muck and sand.

CQR anchors are great for a variety of bottoms, but they are expensive, difficult to store, and dangerous to let the uninitiated help you with when handling or stowing them – even on a pulpit. They can pinch fingers in a hurry if you’re not real careful with them. BTW: Many of the CQR like imitations are not worth their weight in scrap metal.

 

[DA Aquamaster]

Another great anchoring aid is attaching a weight to the anchor rode if the bottom is not allowing either a Danforth or Bruce anchor to get as deep a bite as you’d like. By attaching as little as a 5 pound weight 10’ or so from the anchor or at the end of the chain it’s amazing how much that helps keep the anchor set in a hard bottom with waves or wind jerking on the boat. Once the anchor is set it acts like a shock absorber just like additional chain would, but with less hassle and less weight to have to haul up. It’s also helpful in setting a plow anchor when the bottom might be a little better suited for a fluked anchor.

A 10 lb mushroom anchor works well for this purpose. In larger waves, if we are anchoring in an area with frequent boat wakes, or if anchoring in deep water in confined areas where you cannot let out the proper ratio of anchor rope, I will clip a 10 pound mushroom anchor to the end of the chain to improve the shock absorbing effect and holding power.

 

[jchaplain]

Another great anchoring aid is attaching a weight to the anchor rode if the bottom is not allowing either a Danforth or Bruce anchor to get as deep a bite as you’d like. By attaching as little as a 5 pound weight 10’ or so from the anchor or at the end of the chain it’s amazing how much that helps keep the anchor set in a hard bottom with waves or wind jerking on the boat. Once the anchor is set it acts like a shock absorber just like additional chain would, but with less hassle and less weight to have to haul up. It’s also helpful in setting a plow anchor when the bottom might be a little better suited for a fluked anchor.

EXCELLENT suggestion....thanks!

John C.

 

[SubMariner]

Wouldn't that be a 240 pound anchor? That seems mighty hefty.

Joe

Eek! Youre right! I meant 1 pound per foot! Ergo 24' =24#.

Must have been an especially blonde day.

Thanks for catching that.

 

[Chuck Tribolet]

Eek! Youre right! I meant 1 pound per foot! Ergo 24' =24#.

That's stilll way high, at least for some anchor types.

Going through the West Marine catalog, I get the following anchor weights for a 24'
boat:

8, 6, 9, 4, 6, 8.5, 5 pounds for Danforth type anchors (p 706-707)
18, 33, 10, 30, 16.5, 14, 25, 16.5 for plow type anchors (p 708-709)

West has an incentive to sell you a bigger anchor, not smaller (more profit),
so if anything, these numbers will be on the high side.

I'll stick with my 5 pound Danforth. I can usually anchor in sand where
it just burries itself. The harder it blows, the deeper it goes. And it
snags rocks pretty well too.

BTW, at least in the Danforths, there's a correlation between cost and weight: the
higher the cost the lighter the weight. I suspect that's because the limiting factor
isn't the size, but rather the material strength.

 

[matt_unique]

....

I'll stick with my 5 pound Danforth. I can usually anchor in sand where
it just burries itself. The harder it blows, the deeper it goes. And it
snags rocks pretty well too.....QUOTE]

That is an awfully light anchor for the ocean. It is of course the "grabbing" of the flukes but there certainly is a weight element to be considered.

--Matt