Hairy moment yesterday in the Solent

[ollyit]

went fishing in the Solent (between the two forts) yesterday with my mate in his 17" Shetland,55 Mariner -
It was very calm on the way out, so we anchored up and fished for a couple of hours, the wind picked up to about a force 4 we reckon
and got quite choppy, so we thought before it gets any worse we'll go with the tide back into Langstone harbour -
I went to the front of the boat to pull the anchor in, MY god what a mission it took me about 15minutes, of battling with serious pulling and cleating, the bow of the boat was slamming down and I was getting soaked as well,
but so badly didn’t want to drop the dam thing after the battle so far, after 5 minutes of hard wrestling, we were both at it, one pulling when the rope was slack and the other cleating the rope
as quick as possible before the sea kept stealing it back again! - after 10mins I said start the engine up and drive over the anchor to free up some slack - it did actually work and allowed me to pull the remainder in quickly followed by the chain then the long awaited anchor-
Never had this much trouble before - I know if I hadn’t had me legs either side of the railings id have been in the sea for sure, got a few colourful bruises on the top of my hand too where the rope got pulled back in, -

anyone else had experience of this? or could attempt as guess as to what happened, would be good to learn from this

Thanks for listening, sorry if its boring, just thought I share it with you -

[Pete7]

Err, you mean you anchored in the main shipping channel ?

Anyway, use a 10 foot painter from the front on the boat to the cabin area and tie the anchor line on to this (once the anchor has settled) keeping the free end of the anchor line in the cabin area. When you want to pull the anchor in, start with anchor line free end and then unclip the painter as it comes aboard. If the anchor is stuck do as you did and motor upstream 50 yards and give it a tug. If that doesn't work and you have a strong cleats you could try using the engine to tow out the anchor, but I have seen the stern of a rib go under trying this so be prepared with a big knife. Do not end up stern on to waves with the anchor line attached to a cleat or you risk loosing the boat as she will be swamped. By using a painter you shouldn't have to go up on the front deck.

The seabed around the forts used to be a good dive for as its littered with crap, rubble, barbed wire, concrete blocks and 300 years of naval junk.

Pete

[Nemo]

I must say it was getting very lumpy round the forts yesterday afternoon!

Especially when i had an unhappy motor.

[ollyit]

Yeah was pretty choppy

is your searider- orange hull and grey tubes I saw one go hooning it past us, - with about 3 or 4 people screaming with laughter on?!

about 3 or 4pm?

[Mark Halliday]

Nasty situation to be in. I have seen a yacht winch its bow down so far the prop was out of the water.

You can use the wave motion to help. Take a turn round the cleat and as the bow goes down take in the slack, as the bow rises hold on tight. Eventually you will end up over the anchor and it may break out. It is hard work, gloves are essential, and keep your hands well clear of the cleat.

A preventitive measure I have read about, but not used, is to attach the chain to the tripping point at the heal of the anchor and cable tie it to the normal attachment point. The ties will hold in moderate conditions but if the anchor fouls the ties will part as you put more strain on the warp, which makes the anchor line a tripping line. This should not be used if you plan to leave the boat unattended, as a big wave or increasing wind/current could snap the ties.

Also you can carry a large fender with your address/phone number written on it. If you can not recover the anchor, tie the fender to the anchor line and ditch the lot over the side. Then find a friendly diver who will go down and recover it for you later.

[ollyit]

thanks for all your replies - yeah gloves would have been a godsend - I'll be sure as hell taking them next time! - I'll get him to try the "painter" method first - thank again

[Nemo]

My Searider is an Orange hull and tube model it did have three people on it and went pop, pop, splutter, splutter yesturday about 4pm

regards

Graham

[ollyit]

it must have been you then mate ! - this one didnt have a an "A" frame also

it looked very rapid !! until u started having problems - hope you get them sorted mate,
probably a fueline line issue as the others reckon, was the air valve thing open on the fuel tank? best of luck anyway

[tim griffin]

best way to recover your anchor , is as you eventually did is to motor up to it , taking in the slack as you go. if its stuck fast then cut the line after you have put a fender or buoy to mark the spot, then at least you can come back and recover it when things calm down, if you then send a weighted line down the old anchor line and cleat it off , motor ahead and that should unstick it, as you have the buoyancy of the fender and the momentum of the boat working against the anchor, check out the boats that lay the inflateable
racing marks , they do it all the time and they have some heavy buggers as they can not be allowed to drift during the Race events.
regards tim
www.griffmarineservices.co.uk

[roohairy]

Was the anchor stuck or was the problem that you couldn't pull the boat to windward? I'd suggest that you will likely always need to motor up to an anchor in blowy conditions, especially on a bigger boat, pulling a even a small boat into a decent chop is hard work as you've just found out!