Anchor lines

[Simon B]

Do forum members take their anchor lines direct to the D ring in the anchor locker or to a rope(s) with an eye or snap hook on that is spliced onto the D ring to allow more rapid un coupling if they are changing lines or rigging mulitiple anchors?

Float-wise do these just hang about in the boat(like ours do) or are they attached to certian lines and not moved. Been meaning to ask this for a while but got caught up reading the HMS thread!

Tell you what, anchoring ropes and organisation would make a cracking article for that Rib Int mag!

[Simon Hawkins]

As long as the end of the anchor line is attached to a strong point on the boat cant really see what difference if would make. If want to attach more line then all you would do would be to tie the other line to the anchor line by way of a reef knot. Of course you will know how much line to put out before dropping the anchor and therefore cant see the need to be adding more line once the anchor is down.

[Swifty]

Originally Posted by Simon B

if they are changing lines or rigging mulitiple anchors?

How many anchors do you carry?

For me I have eye spliced the warp with a ss shackle. It is attached onto the inner ring for convenience. I also have a thicker second painter tied to the outer ring. The reason being if I anchor in a rough sea or am being towed I don't want the towline attached to the inner ring because of chafe, but the problem is you cannot reach the outer ring! So I would attach the towline or anchor to my second painter . It has a clip half way up it so I can clip it to the grab line which stops it falling overboard. The whole thing works very well.
There is method in my madness

Tim'mers.

[Simon B]

Clearly we try to follow best practice! We have 2, a fold flat(ish!) Danforth and little grapnell folding anchor. The reason for the post was to find out how others deploy thier anchors, on our dive rib it can a bit confusing 2 anchor lines and another shotline making 3 different sets of gear, as you may imagine unless you turf the whole lot out you dont know what you have connected to.

I had toyed with the theory of splicing on to the anchor locker D ring 2 maybe three traces or leaders or whatever they might be called in a different colour so you know for sure if you connect to it its connected on to the boat.

Good point about the painter ours tends to get used as a maid of work including temporary anchoring or tieing up when perhaps it should be going to the anchor D ring.

Might just splice on a second heavy duty painter and form an attaching point on the other thin one.

Thanks swifty.

[jim68585]

Originally posted by Simon Hawkins
If want to attach more line then all you would do would be to tie the other line to the anchor line by way of a reef knot.

Might be better using a sheet bend or a double sheet bend, as a reef knot used in this way could well capsize and come undone. Incidentally, we find using one of these knots to attach the painter to the anchor warp (once sufficient is paid out) a good way of avoiding chafe without the hassle of attaching a second painter to the external U bolt (which would be a struggle on ours given its size)

[Simon Hawkins]

Jim.

I was going to go into detail about using the painter but thought this was outside of the question being asked.

[Simon B]

No it's all part of it to me, so please detail any ideas, the whole ropes tied onto the pointy bit needs some clarity for how we operate our boats, we've already had one lovely Danforth consigned to the deep.

[Simon Hawkins]

So this is how it would be done.

1. Check the depth of water where you want to anchor. Then measure out 5 times depth for rope and chain. This is how much you will require.
2. Tie the end of your line to a strong point on the boat (this is only a safety point), then make sure the line which will be sent out of the boat is free from obstruction on the boat and not tangled.
3. Then pay the line out to the amount already measured.
4. The next stage is then to attch the anchor line at the required point where you measured to, to the painter which presumably in attached to the D - Ring on the hull, by way of a sheet bend (ideal for attaching two ropes of different thicknesses). This painter will then take the stress, and therefore your anchor line will not rub on your sponsons.
5. When at anchor take a transit to establish if you are dragging.

Rememeber that say you put out 15 meters of lines then you will have a swing radius of the same.

This is just the basics, so make sure the sea bed is suitable for anchoring and that you have taken tides etc into considertion and also what direction of travel will your boat be going at the time of dropping the anchor.

[jim68585]

Simon,

Whereupon we get into the thorny issue of not stranding ourselves on the beach in the middle of a fast dropping tide (East Head at Chichester springs to mind! ) See also the thread re bungy lines also on this page http://rib.net/forum/showthread.php?t=8985

[Simon Hawkins]

You are correct and this is why I suggested taking the tides into considertion !.