Red Skys at Sunset

[Love MACs]

We took our oldest grand daughter out on an evening sail yesterday. Got out on the water about 6:30, no wind, so we motored a few miles and found a nice cove to anchor in. Now this was our first time anchoring the boat so it was a learning experience for Admiral and I. I had planned on a "lunch hook" situation, not really worrying about scope, so told her just to let out the anchor and chain and tie off the rode. But the weight of the combined nearly pulled her over the bow as she tried to do so standing up. The retrieval was a fiasco also as it was stuck good in the mud bottom. Took both of us to break it free as I couldn't convince her to let me use the motor to free it

But beside that they had a good time swimming for a while as I kept the dog in the boat. Labs love to swim and it was all I could do to keep her from jumping in after them. We were anchored to deep to have us stand on the bottom and assist the dog on board. I am working on making some type of doggy ladder. The ones I have seen for sale by different companies all seem to big for the X. So I have a game plan, just have to see if it works. Will post pics if it does

We headed back far too late and it was pitch black, no moon to help. It was a great ride back across the lake and wife nor grand daughter had ever really been out in any boat after dark. Docking in pitch black was another matter The only salvation was that I had a 12v spot light that I had put on the boat months ago (must have been anticipating this happening ) It took us three tries but we made it happen

Attached a few pics for your viewing pleasure

Allan

http://s918.photobucket.com/albums/ad28 ... 119.jpg%26

[bubba]

The photo looks great but where are the women you talked about?

[Love MACs]

Try clicking "NEXT" at the upper right of the photo to see the rest of them



Allan

[NiceAft]

Allan,

Nice shots. You may be interested in this for anchor retrievals which are difficult? It works.

[DaveB]

Next time take advantage and pull her to the Bunk. Sometimes better to wait for things to happen!
Dave

so told her just to let out the anchor and chain and tie off the rode. But the weight of the combined nearly pulled her over the bow as she tried to do so standing up. The retrieval was a fiasco also as it was stuck good in the mud bottom. Took both of us to break it free as I couldn't convince her to let me use the motor to free it

[Highlander]

Ray

I just bought one of these so I hope it was worth the money ! course I waited two yrs for it to go on sale >
I bought the 12" ball hope its big enough " I know your now gonna tell me I need the 15" ball "
J
PS Funny thing is I also bought the orange ball

[Catigale]

The retrieval was a fiasco also as it was stuck good in the mud bottom. Took both of us to break it free as I couldn't convince her to let me use the motor to free it

Gotta give the Admiral credit on this one. Ive never used my motor to get an anchor out. Although this isnt a danger on our relatively underpowered boats, the guys who died in the Ocean down in Florida sunk their boat trying to drive an anchor out this way on a powerboat. Found them several days later, with only one survivor.

Removal technique. Pull rode up by hand until you reach chain. ALL HANDS FORWARD ON THE BOAT.

Now hook one link of chain on front cleat.

Prepare for harbor stations - engine idle, helm ready.

ALL HANDS TO STERN.

The boat will nicely leverage the anchor up out of the mud since the chain has no stretch.

Voila!!

[NiceAft]

John,

It definitely works.

I first saw it used when I was fishing in the Keys. The captain used it every time we anchored. I have used it several times. When I can't get an anchor up by simply doing the hand-over-hand process, I use the ball. The metal ring on mine is now elliptical. The upward force has bent it

When one has a crew, Catigale's approach is effective, but if you're by yourself, have a ball

Ray

[Hardcrab]

I haven't seen that ball thing before.
How about a simple report on how it works?
I can't tell from the picture.

[dennisneal]

Bill,

I haven't used one, but I think the idea is to attach the ring to the anchor rode so that the rode can slip through the ring. Then, drive the boat over the anchor to pull it out of the bottom from the "back side". Take up the slack in the rode and cleat it off at a stern cleat and continue driving the boat in the same direction. The anchor will slide towards the ball's loop and eventually float to the surface.

My method is similar to Catigale's. I drive the boat over to an area directly above the anchor and put the motor in neutral. I then pull on the rode until it is taut. Then I cleat it off. In a bit, it will become slack. I then pull on the rode until it is taut and cleat it off again. After several iterations, the anchor will come loose and then can be raised. I admit, this method is a heck of a lot easier with two people on the boat: one to drive, and one to raise the anchor.

[Catigale]

Ive actually done it singlehanded pretty effectively. Its cool that the natural order of things (going to the bow to set the chain, then going back to the helm to drive the boat) is exactly whats needed to break out the anchor.

Moving my 200# larda** from front to rear is like putting 400# on the stern - you get a pretty good tug on the anchor when you do this. I cant quite stow the anchor from the cockpit since my Bull wont roll up onto the roller reliably, without a helping hand, but It does jam enough so that it wont hit the hull. I can motor to open water, then go back forward and stow it correctly if I am singlehanded easily enough. With my Tillerpilot, I can actually bring the remote all the way to the bow and keep control of the boat while doing this.

[NiceAft]

Hardcrab,

Here is a quote from the West Marine site:

Simply place the anchor ring over your anchor line, attach the anchor ball, lower the ball overboard, and run a slow
course 30-45 degrees away from the anchor. This will move the ball down the anchor line to the anchor, pulling it free, and floating it to the surface.

A similar quote from the Southern Charm site.

1) Slip the ring around your anchor line and fasten the ring ends into the cliphook which is attached to the rope and buoy.
2) Drop the ANCHOR MASTER into the water and motor towards the anchor.
3) Run past the anchor at the speed of 6-8 knots. The buoy will mostly submerge until the buoyancy of the buoy raises the anchor.
4) When the anchor is fully raised into the ring, the buoy will pop to the surface. The ring will hold the anchor at the surface.
5) Slowly return to the buoy while you are retrieving the loose rope.
6) Carefully lift the buoy and anchor into your boat.

I purchased it years ago, and I don't remember it being this expensive ($79.99 at West Marine).

Ray

[technicalman]

You have to be careful anchoring and pulling up the anchor. I was reading a story about some NFL players that were lost because they improperly were pulling up a stuck anchor. They ended up flipping their boat. Here's the link: http://www.foxnews.com/story/0,2933,511055,00.html

I've used my anchor once so far and it was in a lake. I found it hard to pull up. I like that float with a ring idea. I've never seen that before.

[Catigale]

Gotta give the Admiral credit on this one. Ive never used my motor to get an anchor out. Although this isnt a danger on our relatively underpowered boats, the guys who died in the Ocean down in Florida sunk their boat trying to drive an anchor out this way on a powerboat. Found them several days later, with only one survivor.

These guys were in a massively powered-up fishing boat, and probably slammed the throttle on twin 900 Hp motors to try to break their anchor out, swamping the stern and then losing the boat.

This would be impossible to do in a Mac - both due to underpowering as well as flotation!!

[Russ]

Gotta give the Admiral credit on this one. Ive never used my motor to get an anchor out. Although this isnt a danger on our relatively underpowered boats, the guys who died in the Ocean down in Florida sunk their boat trying to drive an anchor out this way on a powerboat. Found them several days later, with only one survivor.

These guys were in a massively powered-up fishing boat, and probably slammed the throttle on twin 900 Hp motors to try to break their anchor out, swamping the stern and then losing the boat.

This would be impossible to do in a Mac - both due to underpowering as well as flotation!!

If memory serves, when the guys in Florida couldn't get their anchor up, they did what any lug-head would do, threw the engines in reverse full throttle trying to brute force the anchor loose. Good anchors doing what good anchors do, it set even deeper and when the rode stretched to its max the only place for the boat to back to was DOWN. The engines essentially pulled the transom underwater capsizing the boat. Similar to the way this E-Tec promo video capsized the other boat.

Frankly, I've never had a problem dislodging an anchor set in a regular bottom.

I'm sure that anchor buoy thing works well, but storage on my Mac is at a premium and another big object to store is not in an option.

What Steph describes is all you need to do.
The simplest method is to drive your boat up as close to you can to be directly over the anchor and cleat it off. The anchor needs scope to keep the flukes from pulling out. By doing this, you are defeating the anchor's design to hold. Most of the time, the bobbing of the boat will rip it out. If not, go back (or have a helper) SLOWLY drive the boat in the opposite direction you were swinging on. The key is "slowly". Don't jam down the throttle or you will cause a problem.
This technique has worked on every boat I've been on, including some larger heavier anchors.

Ideally a trip line and buoy is best, but honestly I've never had the patience to connect one. If anchoring in rocks or lakes with a lot of submerged logs to be concerned with it might be worth it.

Now if it doesn't come out this way, you may be caught on something. Last year my son couldn't get the anchor up and complained it was too heavy. I thought he was being a wimp. I went up and sure enough we managed to grab a submerged tree. If you hook a cable or rock or some such thing, well you are in a world of hurt. If not prepared to dive for it, you could tie a fender to your anchor line and come back another day with some underwater gear to try and retrieve it.



--Russ