Anchoring

[Crossy]

Hi All,

 

Just a quick question regarding anchoring.

I was over by the needles yesterday and for the first time ever had real problems getting the anchor to hold bottom.

I have a Merry Fisher 705 with a cheap bruce copy as my fishing anchor with about 30' of 8mm chain and 600' of rope.

 

I arrived at the needles and deployed the anchor with what I thought would be an ample length of rope for the depth (90') and tide (Spring). After it failed to hold I let out what must have been about 400-500' of rope and it still didn't hold.

Try again, up with the anchor (made a complete horlicks of it , first time I have got that badly wrong) and go further along and closer in to try and lose some tide, anchor still slipping. The GPS showed the accasional 0.5knt speed and we moved off the mark I made very very gradually.

 

I have fished that area before on big springs without issue with the same boat and the same anchor....

 

Has anyone else had this issue before and if so how did you overcome it?

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[Neal]

Hi Andrew,

 

This was a problem I kept having with my Arvor 250 ( although others don't!) But it does depend on the type of ground you drop the anchor on to.

 

To stop this happening to me, I increased the size of the anchor ( a Bruce copy) to 15kg and have now got at least 200m of anchor warp.

 

I doesn't wander very far any more but it is a bit of a beast to haul in - especially by hand!

 

Neal

[ChrisE]

How heavy is your Bruce?

 

Hilda Maud is about the same size as your craft and we use a 7.5kg jobbie plus 10m of 10mm chain and we occassionally have problems slipping around that area. We usually use 100m of rode.

 

I've taken to motoring against the tide as the anchor bites to give the anchor a chance to hold, as the boat can be moving at over 2 knots down tide and this sometimes gets the anchor sledging across the bottom or tripping the cable ties.

 

This seems to work most days

[Paul J]

Yes,

 

it can be a problem at times and frustrating

 

One of our members invented the " drifting on anchor technique" he actually caught a cod while slipping anchor at the needles

 

PJ

Edited December 3, 2012 by Paul J

[ChrisE]

Oh that would explain the number of boats drifting slowly passed us ....

[fisherman1055]

I was also out on Sunday fishing off the Needles on Serenity

 

I use a bruce copy of 7.5 kilos with 10m of 8mm chain

 

I carry 160 metres of 14mm multiplait and had most of that out

 

The anchor held all day in both directions.

 

You need to be cautious when you launch the anchor not to let the rope jerk when it starts to hold the boat.

 

If you can hold the rope and then slow it down when it reaches the amount you want out, or catch the weight of the boat on the engine , this will prevent the anchor pulling out straight away.

 

Tony

[lady jane]

we use a delta anchor now and find it very good

andy

[Jim]

we saw you re anchoring a few times, but didn't know it was you.

There were loads of boats out there ( Tony counted 50 )and hardly any radio chatter so we didn't know who was who.

I suppose nobody wanted to say how well they were doing in fear of being swamped by other boats coming to nick their fish.

 

 

Jim

 

 

[niggle]

I've gone up to 10kg as my 7.5kg use to drag occasionally and I didn't want that to happen with so many boats in close vacinty during the cod season

[Coddy]

Use to happen to me on a smaller boat with a 5kg bruce-a-like

 

Found that if I sharpened the blade of the anchor a bit it dug in a lot better. The edge does get rounded after time so a quick wizz with the angle grinder works wonders.

 

Dave

[Crossy]

we saw you re anchoring a few times, but didn't know it was you.

There were loads of boats out there ( Tony counted 50 )and hardly any radio chatter so we didn't know who was who.

I suppose nobody wanted to say how well they were doing in fear of being swamped by other boats coming to nick their fish.

 

 

Jim

Yes, had a few goes at getting it to stick and made one horrible mess of retrieving the anchor, learnt alot from that one.......We were concentrating so heavily on getting the anchor up safely I didn't keep an eye out where I was drifting and went straight over someone else's anchor rope. Luckily the chap was very good about it and after lots of profuse apologising we both got our anchors back.

 

I was also out on Sunday fishing off the Needles on Serenity

 

I use a bruce copy of 7.5 kilos with 10m of 8mm chain

 

I carry 160 metres of 14mm multiplait and had most of that out

 

The anchor held all day in both directions.

 

You need to be cautious when you launch the anchor not to let the rope jerk when it starts to hold the boat.

 

If you can hold the rope and then slow it down when it reaches the amount you want out, or catch the weight of the boat on the engine , this will prevent the anchor pulling out straight away.

 

Tony

Thanks for the advice Tony, I have an identical setup and just tend to tie off once I have got about the right length out. I think I saw you at one stage whilst I was getting in a real pickle with my anchor retrieval, very embarassing........ . Sods law the one time it would happen we were surrounded by boats, got it up perfectly at the end opf the day with not a boat in sight...

 

Hi Andrew,

 

To stop this happening to me, I increased the size of the anchor ( a Bruce copy) to 15kg and have now got at least 200m of anchor warp.

 

Neal

 

Crickey Neal, 15KG, you must eat your spinach

 

I've gone up to 10kg as my 7.5kg use to drag occasionally and I didn't want that to happen with so many boats in close vacinty during the cod season

Sounds like an uplift to 10kg might be worth considering. I heard you on the radio a couple of times, sounds like you had a better day than we did, one dogfish and a strap conger.

 

Thanks all for the advice,

Andrew

[Paul D]

One of our members invented the " drifting on anchor technique" he actually caught a cod while slipping anchor at the needles

 

PJ

Actually, we had three cod whilst dragging anchor

 

Seriously though, I have never usually had any trouble holding anchor apart from that one day when the anchor refused to set on two attempts. Third time down it stuck in but we had three cod before then whilst dragging slowly.

 

 

[fisherman1055]

Andrew

 

Don't feel too bad about it

 

We all have to learn one day, and it is probably the most dangerous part of boating

 

Take the opportunity to go out with a couple of other members or offer them a ride to get the benefit of other people's experiences

 

At least you have not got the rope round the prop yet!!?

 

Always keep a sharp knife available in case you do

 

Tony

 

 

[great white]

We have all had this problem at some time. It is always a pain when it happens.

 

On some days the damn things do not want to go in, even my 15kg one on occasions.

 

Made worse if the tide is running hard as you attempt to anchor, or usually re anchor after a pull out.

Using the engine to slow the boat as you pay out the warp is good advice, it prevents the snatch.

 

Before you upsize the anchor try adding an extra length of heavy chain between the existing chain and warp.

This can be rigged/derigged easily on two shackles and only used in deep water and strong tides, so you are not heaving the extra weight when you do not need it.

Always ensure that you have enogh rope out, that seems to be where some people get it wrong it should be 3 to 5 times the depth of water, depending on tide and weather.

 

Charlie

[Maverick Martin]

Also bear in mind if you up size your anchor or length of chain you may need a larger buoy to cope with the additional weight

 

Martin

[Rob]

Also bear in mind if you up size your anchor or length of chain you may need a larger buoy to cope with the additional weight

 

Martin

 

Assuming people are using an Alderney ring technique.

 

Can be partially demo'd at a club meet if needed!

 

Rob

[Crossy]

Also bear in mind if you up size your anchor or length of chain you may need a larger buoy to cope with the additional weight

 

Martin

 

Assuming people are using an Alderney ring technique.

 

Can be partially demo'd at a club meet if needed!

 

Rob

Hi Rob,

 

Yes, been using the Alderney method some a few years now, just managed to get it completely wrong on this occasion.

[Crossy]

Also bear in mind if you up size your anchor or length of chain you may need a larger buoy to cope with the additional weight

 

Martin

Hi Martin,

 

Yes, this had crossed my mind. To be honest the size I have now (an A4 from memory) struggles a little with the 7.5kg that's on there at the moment so may be worth doing anyway.

 

What size buoy's do others use on which size anchors?

 

Cheers,

Andrew

[Rob]

 

Remember chain can vary in weight massively!

 

6mm 0.8kg per meter

8mm 1.35kg per meter

10mm 2.1kg per meter

 

I use 8mm which with my 5kg Bruce and 16ft boat is perfect, so I would assume the bigger boats are using 10mm at least.

 

You also need more weight in chain than the anchor, or it coild fall out of the Alderney ring. So stepping up anchors, bets to step up weight of chain!

 

This is just general info Andrew for others and you no doubt know this.

 

Rob