Anchor retrieval

[Boblee]

If you are physically or balance challenged why not an electric winch but do they work for both rope and chain?
Personally yes at 66 it is becoming harder to manage but not the problem I sometimes think it will be, usually when overnighting we have two anchors out and yes sometimes they stick requiring a drive over them.
The Sarca does have a slide to allow the chain to pull the front of the anchor out and yes in sticky mud and rocks it has been used, the rocna has a facility to fix an extra rope to pull the front or attach a buoy and never used it.
I got one of the foam balls after seeing it work on a charter boat and have never bothered to use it but it could be good in rough weather, so you could pop up the front hatch and reel the rode in from there.
BTW the float does not go down to the anchor it stays on the surface and the rode pulls the anchor up through the ring, all you are pulling is the float with the anchor attached through the water until you lift it onto the boat.
My understanding is you attach the ball and ring and then reverse or drive over the anchor, the float keeps the rode off the bottom (to stop snagging) until it passes over the anchor and then lifts the anchor forward and up or that is how I saw it done.
I daresay I will never use it as I always pull the anchor by hand and it would then be too late to attach the ball and ring then for full effect, anyway rarely carry it nowadays.
Note my rode never goes through the roller until retreiving, they just hang off the cleats.

[Catigale]

Easy way to break anchor out of mud ..

Pull rode up until you reach chain, now pull chain slack out until chain is vertical, hang on cleat

Now go astern ( you, not motor) and bounce up and down in transom...you are rocking the boat bow and stern and breaking out the anchor...presto...done!


Motoring over stuck anchors can break stuff...be careful.

[Ixneigh]

I have a windlass that is manually operated. its great. It allows me to use 80 feet of chain and some more line. with a large anchore. It comes right up. I anchor out mostly. A serious anchor system was a must. Its easy to use, I can crank it with one hand incase I am injured or to use the other to hold onto the bow rail. I can sit down or kneel and take my time.
its on you tube under user Lastlionmonday. It does have some minor issues but it works well for me.
Ix

[Russ]

Easy way to break anchor out of mud ..

Pull rode up until you reach chain, now pull chain slack out until chain is vertical, hang on cleat

Now go astern ( you, not motor) and bounce up and down in transom...you are rocking the boat bow and stern and breaking out the anchor...presto...done!


Motoring over stuck anchors can break stuff...be careful.

Waves rocking the boat up and down will break anchor out. The fact that you have zero scope will often break the anchor out with some motion. Get the boat as directly over the anchor and simply wait, a gust of wind will pull it out. And yea, if you are in still waters, bounce on the deck to rock it out.

It should be noted that powering over an anchor can break stuff, especially once it's broken free from the bottom. Overpowering can break lots of stuff, anchor, rode, cleats. However, I can attest it works very well to remove a deeply set anchor. Done it for 40 years, never broke anything. One time we hooked something that wasn't moving. Had to give up and call a diver. So yea, if gently powering over the anchor doesn't get it up, something is wrong. In our case it was a cable. It wasn't going anywhere.

If snagging something (rocks etc.) is a concern, a trip line will do the trick.

--Russ

[dxg4848]

I have a windlass that is manually operated. its great. It allows me to use 80 feet of chain and some more line. with a large anchore. It comes right up. I anchor out mostly. A serious anchor system was a must. Its easy to use, I can crank it with one hand incase I am injured or to use the other to hold onto the bow rail. I can sit down or kneel and take my time.
its on you tube under user Lastlionmonday. It does have some minor issues but it works well for me.
Ix

Very nice setup! I am thinking about duplicating this on my boat. I am including the links to your videos. Thanks!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oc3HOglW ... eS--hg3Mzg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fyQ8GOf8 ... eS--hg3Mzg
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cwYKWo6c ... eS--hg3Mzg

[yukonbob]

When fishing deep we usually have 40 ft of chain and 450 ft of rhode out. I know, but I don't have any room for more chain anywhere. At anchor 40 ft of chain and 250 ft rhode. All with a 30 lbd fortress. Had major problems keeping hitched this year in deep waters. Only ever had problems at regular anchorage depths getting wrapped up in kelp. It is a long process pulling up 400 plus feet of rope chain and anchor and have cursed many times that I want an elec or manual windlass but can't justify the cost. But it is a workout either way. Especially when all in the same day you bring up a couple of crab pots from 75 ft and a couple shrimp pots from 300 ft. Have had the anchor stick a few times in mud in heavy seas 3-4 ft seas. While standing on the bow pulling directly up the bow would plunge 2 ft below the water line and still not break. Fun stuff.

[Johnacuda]

Easy way to break anchor out of mud ..

Pull rode up until you reach chain, now pull chain slack out until chain is vertical, hang on cleat

Now go astern ( you, not motor) and bounce up and down in transom...you are rocking the boat bow and stern and breaking out the anchor...presto...done!


Motoring over stuck anchors can break stuff...be careful.

while we're being careful, watch out for the PCBs that GE left in the mud.

[Paul S]

Easy way to break anchor out of mud ..

Pull rode up until you reach chain, now pull chain slack out until chain is vertical, hang on cleat

Now go astern ( you, not motor) and bounce up and down in transom...you are rocking the boat bow and stern and breaking out the anchor...presto...done!


Motoring over stuck anchors can break stuff...be careful.

had not thought about doing that. I usually do the same, take up all slack in the anchor rhode, then just kiss the motor forward for 1-2 seconds. usually enough momentum to break it free without breaking anything.

[dxg4848]

then just kiss the motor forward for 1-2 seconds

Never heard this nautical term before

[K9Kampers]

then just kiss the motor forward for 1-2 seconds

Never heard this nautical term before

It's known as FWD-play!

[grady]

Has anyone has sucsess or used this before?

http://www.anchorsaver.com/anchorsaver.com/Home.html

[csm]

Have not used that product, but I have used the concept with 2 lb claws for kayaks. I' ve used nylon tie raps and cord in place of the shear pin. Works great, the trick is determining the right size cord (or pin in this case) to break away when your hung and not during routine anchorage or retrieval.

[Sumner]

One thing to consider if you are going to bring the line back to the cockpit winches is how are you going to actually deal with the line and chain. Where is the bitter end going to be tied and so forth.

We deal with the two anchors and ....



...their rodes at the bow and store them there in the bags and the bitter ends are tied off to the stanchion base.

On Lake Powell when I fractured my shoulder Ruth had to winch the lines in from the cockpit with me helping as much as I could.



As you can see we had a mess of lines. Most of those were the 3 long shore lines, but we did have one anchor down, but it didn't do much as it had slid off an underwater ledge into deeper water as the lake is very deep where we were hiding from a storm.

When you get to the chain then you don't want to be dragging that back to the cockpit over the deck. So now you are going to have to go forward to deal with it and still secure the anchor if you are using a bow roller which you would need in the first place.

I'm just saying think the whole thing through and go through the whole process in your head or on the trailer so that you are sure you have a good idea of how you are going to handle putting the anchor in. Where the bitter end is tied. How the rode is retrieved and stored. In heavy weather you don't want the rode through the roller and secured like in the first picture above. The leverage of the roller out front could create some pretty good loads.....



...... If we are in or expecting heavy weather we bring the line from in front of the roller back through one of the bow chocks and then cleat it off so that now there is no load on the roller as in the picture above where we had both anchors down on a Bahamian Moor.

I can handle the 22 lb. claw and the 25 lb. Manson on the Mac all from the bow. The roller is the secret there along with the rode bags and how easy it is to let the line stream out and how easy it is to stuff the line in when retrieving. The Endeavour is a different matter. We are using a 35 lb Manson and 35 lb. CQR and want to replace the CQR with a 45 lb Manson. You add the weight of the anchor 12-15 feet of the last of the chain and the anchor load with 20 lbs. of mud and it adds up to a lot. I bought a used manual winch from Minney's for $95 and have it cleaned up and made a mount for the Endeavour.

Before getting the winch I had considered clipping a parallel line to the chain for the last 30 foot of the rode going to the anchor. The plan was that when I got to the chain during the retrieval that I would unclip the parallel line and clip it on to another line going back to the cockpit. Then Ruth could use that line to help me by putting it around the winch there. This way all of the road would be stored at the bow but I would get help.

I also recently converted one of those HF 12 volt winches with the steel cable into a windlass that I'd like to try on the Mac at some point. I used it in the shop and it easily lifted the 25 lb Manson. I took the cage off the end where the steel cable was and converted it so that it is open and you can put 3 wraps on it like a normal winch. I'd use it with the parallel line to the chain. If there is interest I'd post pictures but you about need a mill to do this,

Sum

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Our MacGregor 26-S

Our Endeavour 37

Our Trips to Utah, Idaho, Canada, Florida

Mac-Venture Links

[DaveC426913]

Others have mounted the anchor on a rail by the cockpit and dropped/retrieved it from the cockpit.

Surely I'm misreading this. You're not suggesting the anchor is actually mounted anywhere other than the bow!

Surely the anchor is mounted at the bow, but the line runs back to the cockpit.

[Highlander]

Others have mounted the anchor on a rail by the cockpit and dropped/retrieved it from the cockpit.

Surely I'm misreading this. You're not suggesting the anchor is actually mounted anywhere other than the bow!

Surely the anchor is mounted at the bow, but the line runs back to the cockpit.

Here's my dinghy / beach anchor mouted on my port aft arch