Anchoring Singlehanded

[c130king]

Appreciate any thoughts/guidance on how some of you experienced mac sailors do this. All the literature seems to imply a minimum of two people.

And if you don't mind, add your $.02 on singlehanded mooring.

Couldn't find any previous threads on this topic.

Thanks,
Jim

[bastonjock]

hope you get this one figured out before we go out together ,according to the day skipper theory course,you put out on a chain and warp combination, a 6 to 1 ratio using the depth as the measure ment.

ive gone for overkill,i have 30m of heavy chain backed by rope and an over sized delta anchor.

from my own limited practical experience,i let the anchor drop whilst i was drifting backwards,let it bite and revved up the engine to ensure that she was well dug in.

The part that im nervous about is the swinging circle when there are other boats around you

[c130king]

I have no problems understanding the theory and putting it into effect when I have a partner. Admittedly I have only done it a few times.

But I am not sure how I would do it solo...which is how I do most of my sailing.

I have never used a mooring ball. But once I watched a guy sail into the mooring field on some 30ish foot sailboat...drop his sails, walk to the front of the boat, pick up his mooring pole, grab the mooring line, and tie off. I was impressed.

Jim

[temall00]

Jim, it really just takes a few practice attempts to get the hang of it.


Find a wide open spot in 2 to 10 feet of water, pull in farther than you want to be and go very slowly in reverse. Put it in neutral so you are drifting back. Calmly go forward, (tie up the rode and) toss the anchor over. Calmly return to the helm and put it in reverse to set the anchor.

Plan B is to keep the anchor in the cockpit and anchor backwards. Some folks here have had success anchoring backwards, less anchor surfing. Or anchor backwards until you’ve stopped and then reset it in the bow.

On a mooring ball, pull up along side it until it’s next to the cockpit, stop the boat, pickup the ball and tie up, give it a touch of reverse to slowly drift backwards, calmly go forward and tie off on the bow.

If everything is moving slow, it gives you plenty of time to reposition yourself so you don’t end up swimming…

[R Rae]

The technique I presently use is as follows:

The mooring ball has a twenty ft. 1/2" line attached with a pick-up buoy floating at the other end. On top of the pick-up I have secured a 10" circle of S/S wire.
On board there is a line (with a 'biner at the cockpit end) that runs forward through a block adjacent to the front cleat, and then back to the cockpit cleat.
On coming up to the pick-up I am able to either snatch the ring with my hand or, manage it using a boat hook. Next step is to snap the 'biner onto the 1/2" line (loop on the end) underneath the p.u. buoy.
The next and last step is to simply pull on the 'biner line bringing the p.u. buoy forward 'til it is right up close to the forward cleat, go forward, and tie off.

It suits my present set-up to always have this arrangement on the port side. But if in doubt, I would need to duplicate same on s'brd too.

[NiceAft]

Unless there is a lot of wind, anchoring by oneself is not difficult if you do it slowly.

When I have to anchor by myself, I slowly approach the point I choose (all sails down and away), place the motor into neutral, go forward, and then drop the anchor. As the boat is slowly moving forward, I leave out the amount of scope required for the depth, and tie off. When I am certain that the anchor is holding, I go back to the cockpit.

Mooring is easy if you have the equipment?

If you are first attaching to a mooring by yourself, you first have to catch the line on the buoy you are tying your boat to. I use a boat pole. You must go slowly. Once you have the line attached, you need to now stop the boat If you don't want to be pulled off your Mac, you had better go slowly. It can be tenuous, especially when you are doing it in a crowded area, but it is just a matter of control of your boat. Once you have the line to the buoy in hand, it's just a matter of not letting go.

If you are going to be attaching off and on at a particular ball, then I suggest getting a pick-up buoy. This is a buoy with a 4' stick on top of it.


I keep one on Nice Aft when I know that I will be mooring off and on at a particular ball. You attach this buoy to the mooring line that is in the water. The buoyl you just attached will float with a 4' (or longer) rod sticking in the air. All you do when mooring is grab the floating rod, and pull the pick-up buoy out of the water. The mooing line is attached to it. Much easier


Ray

[James V]

I anchor from the stern and it makes anchoring a lot easier and by putting a yoke between the 2 stern cleats it helps the sway a lot. I have no problem with waves so far and there is additional wind in the cockpit.

[c130king]

Can you describe this "yoke"?

[Russ]

Some good tips above.

I would add that it is wise to approach facing the wind or current, whichever is stroger so that you will drift back on the anchor in the same direction you are approaching from (either anchoring or mooring).
So basically, you pull forward slowly to where the hook needs to be. Don't toss the anchor, lower it slowly so it doesn't get tangled in the chain/rode. Then just drift backwards letting the rode out with a slight tension so it doesn't tangle. Once you've gotten a good angle, secure the rode to a cleat and reverse the engine to set it.

I've done this single handed most of the time. Wind and current will be your co-pilot.

I've found retrieving a deeply set anchor in a wind is harder. THAT helps to have a partner to "drive over" the anchor to release it while one person takes up the slack until you are directly over it without any angle and pulling in the opposite direction it was set with. Then stopping before the rode gets under the prop and the foredeck hand can get the anchor onboard.

Just find a quiet place and practice. You will find it's not a problem.

[c130king]

To retrieve an anchor single handed I presume you just pull/take in the rode to get the boat back to the anchor and then lift straight up.

Don't even need the engine???

Jim

[magnetic]

Hi - there are undoubtedly many ways of doing this, but I recommend the following approach -

1. Anchoring - at minimal revs, aim into the strongest element (tide or wind) until you reach your target depth (which in my case is typically 10ft to allow for any swells). The depth is being read from your transducer, which in my case is fairly close to the stern, but this is ok, as by the time you put the engine in neutral and walk forward the boat will be drifting back gently. Make sure the bitter end is made off - as long as it's secure, that's fine. In the UK we generally use 3-4x scope of chain or 5x scope of warp, so in 10 ft depth I'd typically pay out 35ft of chain and then make it off around a cleat (or in my case bollard) at the bow.

You can feel the anchor "set" (or not) by touching the chain - any vibration and you are dragging. Once you sense a decent hold, go back to the cockpit, check the depth and put the engine into reverse at tickover revs; you should feel the whole thing "lock" up as the slack in the chain/warp is taken up. I generally check again after 5 minutes, but if you're dragging, best start again. Whatever you do, resist the temptation to give the throttle a strong blast in reverse - a recipe for either snatching the anchor out or wrecking your cleat mounting - on which point it is also worth rigging a "snubber" if there is any kind of swell running.

2. Weighing anchor: unless you have a winch, trying to lift a 15kg anchor plus 10 ft of chain by hand is going to be a fairly "fun" experience, especially if there is any kind of swell of chop, or in the rain, or at night. The boat will already be facing into the strongest element (wind or tide) and so moving forward under engine at tickover revs will be a really slow, leisurely experience, just enough to allow you time to recover the first 25ft of chain and then to "break" the anchor out. (An alternative is to rig a trip line, which you reattach 15ft or so up the chain from the anchor, so that you can recover this before the chain goes taught and vertical). As the anchor breaks out you may start to drift backwards and my typically starts to nose off downwind , so you need to be quick. Get the chain and the anchor back on board, tie it off securely on deck, then get back quickly and check your depth and heading before moving off. You then have all the time in the world to go back up front to stow the anchor once you are safely under way; that having been said, make absolutely sure that there is no chain flopped over the side before you head off, or it will wreck your topsides.

3. Picking up / dropping a buoy - again, tickover revs nose into the strongest element (wind or tide) and overrun your mooring in order ti allow the buoy to come alongside the cockpit; personally, I have my engine controls to port, and so that's where I hold the boathook, although this means I have to work left-handed. As you get within a yard of the buoy, engine into neutral and either pick up the line or - as an alternative - forget the boathook altogether and just lasso the buoy with a docking line. As you are heading into the strongest element, the boat will begin to drift backwards, allowing you to walk the buoy/line forwards in order to make off at the bow. By the time you get back to the cockpit the boat will be tugging at the mooring from the bow roller/fairlead, due to the elements pushing you astern.

Dropping the buoy is essentially the same as weighing anchor, as you will need some foward revs, particularly as if there is any kind of tide running you may find the mooring line is under considerable tension and hard to release from the cleat/bollard. If using the lasso technique, walk the line back to the cockpit after dropping the buoy in order to avoid fouling the prop - don't be tempted to motor forward onto the buoy, or you could foul up. As soon as you get back, check depth and correct the heading before bothering about tidying up.

Personally, I find single-handing the into a mooring dead easy - and on almost every occasion I have either the 3kt current of the River Thames or an 8ft tide to contend with. Take your time, go slowly, relax and don't be embarrassed to give up, go around and try again. And if the weather brews up and the pin won't come unstuck, remember that the foredeck is not the place you want to be in any kind of bad conditions - your life is worth much more than the anchor, just cut the damned thing loose and tell all your friends that connditions were so bad that the rope snapped!

Sorry if this sounds a little patronising, but it took me a while to get confident single handed, and upon reflection anchoring/mooring is not the hardest part - personally, hanking on/off the jib and trying to reef the main whilst on tillerpilot are amongst my personal nightmares.

All the best

Andrew

[c130king]

Andrew,

Thanks. Sounds like good techniques to me. I look forward to getting back to my boat so that I can try them out. Unfortunately that won't be for a while...looks like Dec '08 before I get back to my .

I have the roller furling genoa and the jiffy reefing so those two things are fairly straight forward for me and make singlehanding pretty easy. Some minor difficulties getting into my slip singlehanded on windy days but mostly no real problems.

I have always had a partner when loading/unloading the trailer and for raising the mast.

But I have never singlehanded the anchor. And I have never used a mooring ball at all.

So many things to try and never enough days in the boat to try them all out.

Thanks again to all you guys for your words of advise.

Jim

[Moe]

Depends on the bottom, but in most cases, you can probably pull it up by hand. If not, cleat it off and walk aft. The weight shift alone may break it free. If not, shift in forward gear heading the same direction the boat was moving as you hauled the rode in by hand.

When hauling the rode in by hand from the bow, the boat will probably start swinging. Take your time and only haul in when the boat is in the middle of a swing, not at the ends. Makes it easier and doesn't contribute to the swing as much.

As said, for deploying in wind or current, lower the anchor to the bottom slowly so it won't get tangled, then pay it out as the boat moves with the wind or current. Cleat it off at the bow and go back and set it.

To deploy with no wind or current, lower the anchor to the bottom, and since you have a bow roller, walk the coil of rode back to the cockpit where you can pay it out with a little tension on it as you motor in reverse. Once you're about where you want to be, cleat the rode off to the stern cleat, then go forward and cleat it off to the bow cleat before going back and setting it.

[Russ]

To retrieve an anchor single handed I presume you just pull/take in the rode to get the boat back to the anchor and then lift straight up.

Don't even need the engine???

Jim

That's true for a relatively light anchor that hasn't been set deep into mud.
I've had to get a 20lb danforth up after a day of blowing wind which has the effect of digging the anchor deeper into the mud (which is a good thing when you want it to hold strong).

If you can get the rode as close to 90degree angle straight up and down cleat off the line, the bobbing of the boat will probably pull the anchor out. However, if the wind is blowing, it may be difficult to pull the anchor line by hand to the point where it's 90degrees. In this case, you might be wise to use a bit of engine power to drive the boat over the anchor. If the anchor is set really really deep (like in mud) I've found cleating off the rode while directly over the anchor and driving the boat over will un-hook and pull it out. Then I just had to shake off all the mud from the anchor flukes.

As for docking in wind, putting the board down will help keep you from blowing sideways and give more control as the boat will pivot around the board. Of course, board down hitting the trailer isn't a good idea. This only works if you are docking and in deep water.

Don't be intimidated. Pick a calm day and practice. It's really not as complicated as it sounds. You can "feel" the instant the anchor catches. It has a solid feel of resistence when it's in. If you don't feel like you are fighting with a bear, it's probably not set. Depending on the bottom, you can feel it "dancing" along the bottom as well.

I aways chuckle when I see another boater pull up, stop and just toss a pile of anchor and rode over the side. Sometimes they get lucky and it holds, but it's not the proper way.

[NiceAft]

I should have mentioned before, but I forgot Sometimes you may have a tough time retrieving a well set anchor. I use this.

I first saw it used on a fishing boat I was on in Key West, Florida. It relieves you from a lot of back breaking work. It does work!


Ray