Anchoring on a river can indeed be really tricky. Unless there is a wide, relatively shallow area, I've either found it easiest to beach the boat and tied it off else anchor bow out, then tie the stern to something on shore so I can control its angle relative to the shore. I've done a fair amount of boating in the SE reservoirs where the sides can be very steep and go very deep and I almost always end up beaching and tying off in those situations . I never leave the boat until I'm sure the anchor has a good hold (and even then you can't always be sure). As Ken and Bill said, a chain helps a lot in deeper water in several ways, but especially with regard to keeping the aspect ratio down, but you also need to ensure you have enough line to act as a shock absorber since the chain is pretty inflexible . I had a chain on my sailboat, but I've not found one to be necessary on my Reveler. While I generally agree with the "drop it and back up" instead of throwing it theory (and always did that on my much larger sailboat), I find I can throw the anchor off the Reveler then snag the line just as it hits the water such that there's little risk of the line getting wrapped around the anchor wrong. Everyone probably has their own techniques that probably work in most situations; the real challenges come when you encounter a situation you're not used to, higher than usual wind or currents, storms, etc. For me wakes are an annoyance, but the real danger comes from sudden storms...and I can tell you from experience these boats aren't the best in 6' rollers, but with careful driving they will get you home.
----- Original Message -----
From: "Justin DeSantis" <duc1098desmo@...>
To: "Evinrude & Johnson Boats of the 1960's and 70's" <omc-boats@...mate.com>
Sent: Friday, September 4, 2009 12:06:14 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
Subject: Re: [OMC-Boats] Lets talk about anchoring...
Very good info, thanks. But I have a question. Ok, so I drop anchor in
a river, so the current is known. Lets say I want to anchor near
shore, but far enough out that the water is plenty deep. Drop my
anchor and back away to set it. Once I feel it dig in, ad tie off, the
current can't move me. But I have quite a bit of extra line out. So if
the wind picks up and it's blowing towards shore, The anchor might
have enough slack to allow me to blow into shore, no? I guess what I
need to do is go out and try it and get better by doing it. Sitting in
my chair thinking about it isn't helping me.
On Fri, Sep 4, 2009 at 11:28 AM, Kenneth Gullicksen<kag@...> wrote:
> I have a number of boats, the largest currently being 32', and often go
> places we anchor overnight, or longer. I never go 10:1 or even 7:1. I
> judge scope by the angle of the line, usually looking for roughly 30 degrees
> (or a bit more if there is swing room) between water and line. One thing I
> always do, is check the recommended size anchor for a particular boat, then
> get at least one size bigger. Also important is chain. Estimate what your
> usual anchor depth will be, divide by three, then get that amount of chain
> (up to around 20 feet). What size depends on your anchor/boat size.
> I almost always use a Danforth. One place it will not work is where there
> is a lot of grass (seaweed). If you anchor in a lot of grass get a plow
> type, rocky areas try a navy anchor.
> When you anchor, lower it (don't throw) and back away while feeding out
> line. An anchor will not hold if the chain or line winds up wrapped around
> the anchor. Backing away also helps set the anchor, but be sure you back in
> the direction you will drift (i.e. down wind or down current, which ever
> will control).
> ________________________________
> From: omc-boats-bounces@...
> [mailto:omc-boats-bounces@...] On Behalf Of ANDY PERAKES
> Sent: Thursday, September 03, 2009 11:20 PM
> To: Evinrude & Johnson Boats of the 1960's and 70's
> Subject: Re: [OMC-Boats] Lets talk about anchoring...
>
> I've not heard the 10:1 rule. I've heard more about having the right anchor
> for the bottom type and getting the right angle of pull for the anchor
> type -- and you have to be especially careful on steep shorelines because
> the aspect ratio pulling up hill will be dramatically different than pulling
> down hill. I go by different rules depending on the circumstance. If I'm
> with the boat and don't mind a little drift, I just feed out until it seems
> to hold about right. If I'm running up for lunch or leaving the boat for
> short (1-2 hours) periods, I'm more careful. I've only left the boat out
> overnight once and I'll probably not do it again because I didn't sleep well
> worrying about it! (It meant I had to leave the windows open on a hot night
> so I could listen for any wind picking up...instead of sleeping in air
> conditioned comfort.) I should also add that I anchor almost exclusively in
> loose sand where it is nearly impossible to get a guaranteed anchor bite.
> If everything works out perfect, the anchor will "borrow" deep into the
> sand, but it is very difficult and almost never works out perfect, thus my
> reluctance to leave the boat unattended for long (we're lake front so
> its pretty easy for me to keep an eye on it from the house). Boat US has
> done a several articles on anchoring recently. I did a search for
> "anchoring tips" on their website (http://www.boatus.com/) and got a mess of
> good hits. Most of their articles are geared more towards ocean usage and
> surviving a huricane, but there is a lot of good general knowledge to learn
> there too.
>
>
>
> Andy
>
>
>
> PS Congrats on getting her running. Sounds like things are going great!
>
>
>
> ----- Original Message -----
> From: "Justin DeSantis" <duc1098desmo@...>
> To: "Evinrude & Johnson Boats of the 1960's and 70's"
> <omc-boats@...>
> Sent: Thursday, September 3, 2009 9:41:38 PM GMT -05:00 US/Canada Eastern
> Subject: [OMC-Boats] Lets talk about anchoring...
>
> Ok, this isn't Johnson specific, but it is boat related, so I hope
> it's ok to discuss. When I was younger, I didn't pay attention to how
> things were supposed to be done. I just took my boat to the river and
> played. If I wanted to anchor, I'd drop my anchor and when it hit the
> bottom, I'd tie off. Now, I've read the "proper" way to anchor, and I
> have to say, it doesn't seem practical. If I understand it correctly,
> I drop anchor, then allow 10 times more slack than the depth of the
> water? So if I drop anchor in say 20 feet of water, I need to have 200
> feet of anchor line? That seems like a lot of excess for me to drift
> on. I get the idea behind it, to keep the anchor line as horizontal as
> possible, but it seems like it would allow me to drift quite a bit on
> anchor. Not to mention how much line I have to keep on the boat. If I
> want to anchor in 50 feet, I need 500 feet of line on board? And if I
> want to use 2 anchors in 50 feet, I need 1000 feet of line? I'd need
> to tow a row boat behind me just to keep my anchor line in. So what's
> the deal with anchoring?
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Received on Friday, 4 September 2009
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