March 10, 2005 -- Anchoring (doing it our way)
by Michel & Jane DeRidder

	We can clean a muddy anchor by spinning Magic Dragon around its keels. Hard over rudders and a little power and we spin on the spot, pulling the anchor through the water sideway so it doesn't bang under the bow.

When we started cruising in a 24-footer, our anchor was small and we hoisted it by hand. To make it easy we used 1/4" chain and 1/2" nylon rope. We made sure that we always had chain only on the bottom so as not to chafe our nylon. In British Columbia, where we often anchored in deep water, we learned to use a float to keep the nylon from riding the bottom. By deploying approximately one depth of chain length and two or three depths of nylon, we could set plenty of scope, and one float was enough to keep the nylon clear of the bottom. The action of the float and the stretch of the nylon prevented hard pulls on the anchor itself. We kept chain and rope on deck or in pails so that we had no problem with mud and seaweed smells below.

This system proved very satisfactory on the little boat. On numerous occasions we noticed other craft experiencing more problems than we did with their more elaborate ground tackle. The windlasses of the 1960s were not what they are today and we were not impressed with the routine that some people had to go through to deal with chain below deck while lowering or hoisting anchor. Several stories of fishing boats being sunk when their chain stuck fast under some rock on a rising tide while unattended--or suffering damage when their chain snagged under rock, leaving them with too short a scope in rising wind and waves--made us aware that anchoring on all chain is not necessarily foolproof. On many boats that we encountered, the chain locker was a smelly messy grotto of mud, rust and tangled chain.

We loop the float tie around the nylon before lowering the ball.

When we planned MAGIC DRAGON, we tried to avoid those problems by keeping the ground tackle on deck, and we stayed with the chain and nylon approach. On the 40-footer we did not want to handle 45lb anchors by hand, so I installed an electric capstan driven by a surplus aircraft starter motor with a 250:1 planetary reduction gear, a very powerful unit that brings in the gear at the rate of a foot per second. Later in the workshop of a friend I made a bronze cone clutch chain-and-rope sprocket in addition to the capstan drum. While hoisting, I have to handle the rope and chain and lower it into the fiberglass deck bin, an easy and fast operation. One hundred and fifty feet of 3/8" chain and 300 feet of 3/4" twisted nylon fit into their separate spaces in the bin on deck, easily accessible for lowering or cleaning.

We had discovered early that the rode float has to be made of solid material; inflatable fenders compress when they go down and then sink. We use plastic fishing floats. A loop of 3/16" line big enough to go around the float makes a good noose to grab the nylon to adjust for any depth. Lifting some chain off the bottom, we put the loop around the nylon, drop the float into it and cinch the noose so that, when slack, the nylon hangs up off the bottom. We can let out a little less than two depths between the float and the boat and still keep the nylon clear of the bottom. Another float can add two depths of scope.

	Our 45lb CQR made into a 85 pounder.

This unconventional system has made anchoring easy enough for us so that we don't hesitate to anchor for a brief stop, or move anchorage for more shelter, or to catch morning or evening sun, or simply to get a better view. Shallow or deep water makes little difference. It's much easier to anchor than to pick up some barnacle-encrusted mooring. Our 300 feet of chain kept in 75' and 25' lengths gives us many options of scope. It can be galvanized in individual sections when needed--cheaper and easier than galvanizing a long length, so it gets done in time. I seem to remember taking a length on the back of the motorcycle in San Francisco. We still use the same chain that we bought forty years ago, although some of it got left behind on our mooring in Canoe Bay, BC, and one length was left in the acid bath too long at the galvanizing shop so is now of questionable strength.

Nevertheless, it has been a learning curve over the years. Only just over two weeks after we launched MAGIC DRAGON, we came back from our shakedown cruise to Desolation Sound to find the marina berth assigned to us at the West Vancouver Yacht Club still occupied by a boat that had been sold but not moved yet. I decided to anchor in a bay below our house. We set our 45lb Danforth anchor hard, backing into the bay. Unfortunately that night a rare but strong squally offshore wind came down from the surrounding mountains (known locally as a Squamisher) and when I came at first light to check up on her, MAGIC DRAGON was gone!

Expecting that she may have blown out into the strait I drove to the yacht club hoping to find a water taxi to take me out looking for her. A local log-salvager, who had just come into the cove in his fast high-powered tug, asked me if I was looking for my boat. "She is riding on Bird Rock," he said. I couldn't believe it. If we'd looked out the front window we could have seen her. She was riding a rocky ledge with her starboard keel and rudder keeping the hull clear. Dropped on board, I fired up the engine and powered away. When I hoisted the Danforth, I found a waterlogged twig of wood jammed between the shank and the flukes, enough to keep it from resetting itself when the wind shifted. It was a close call, judging by the wear on the steel keel and skeg base. Had her hull hit the rocks, she could have been sunk. But it was a lesson too. Danforths have great holding power, but cannot be depended on in shifting wind or current situations. From that time on, we anchored with our CQR plows.

This photo shows how we lead the chain around the windlass and an idler drum to handle it into the deck bin.

MAGIC DRAGON being a beamy beast, her sail plan had to have a big lead over her keel lateral plane so that she balances well under sail. The result is that her high-wooded forward freeboard and the mast and rigging are all forward of the keels. All this windage forward of the underwater lateral plane makes her unwilling to stay with her head into the wind, a trait in common with many modern yachts that balance under sail without a bowsprit. Anchored in gusty wind, she can be like a lion on a leash, trying endlessly to escape, now this way, next that way. However, the reverse is true also; stern into the wind, she is steady as a rock, feathering off the wind without any fuss or hesitation. So we have learned to anchor by the stern occasionally in crowded anchorages. In hot climates the added ventilation in the cockpit is an asset. We drop the hook and retrieve it by the bow, taking the rope tail to and from the stern cleat by hand.

In a strong wind, MAGIC DRAGON is best maneuvered with her stern into the wind. So positioned, she is perfectly controllable, with her propeller pushing against her rudders we can move the stern sideways and reverse or go forward where needed. No point heading into a strong wind to drop the anchor--as soon as she comes to a stop she'll spin and face downwind anyway. So we let her come downwind, stop her where we want to drop the hook (very easy to do under power), lower the anchor and let her pick up the scope.

Anchored by the stern, we have confused the issue at times. In the Caribbean it was not rare for a chartered yacht to come and drop their hook nearby, then try to back into the wind and look very surprised when their boat would turn around and face the opposite way! One of our early charterers, Bob Carroll (he who wrote for I Love Lucy), asked one morning: "Skipper, how come all the other boats are anchored the wrong way?" In a crowded anchorage on St. John, the skipper of a charter trimaran tacking between the anchored yachts quickly put his boat into the wind and signaled us to go by when he suddenly saw our bow coming his way. He did not look pleased to find out that we were on the hook stern-to.

Most of the time, particularly where the wind is cold, we like the protection of our windshield and we anchor by the bow. To minimise swinging on the anchor in very strong winds we sometimes use a 15lb Danforth set on rope directly abeam without any chain, taking some tension on it to keep us steady, just enough to keep our bow into the wind but still pulling on the main anchor. We used this configuration successfully in a prolonged period of 50-60 knot winds. The system works well but has the disadvantage of requiring attention when the wind shifts.

We had been dragging our 45lb CQRs in many parts of the world. "Magic Draggin," we called it. Coming back from a river dinghy explore in Falmouth in the south of England we found MAGIC DRAGON in an embarrassing embrace with another yacht. A nasty squall with 180-degree wind shift had sent her on her way in the anchorage. In the Society Islands, another squall at night had us towing our anchor on the coral plateau until our keels were banging on coral. The depth sounder positioned amidships read 40 feet, but a spotlight revealed that our bow was about 3 feet over a large coral head that was stopping our keels. Good thing that we had been anchored by the stern, otherwise our rudder would have been in trouble. In Pago Pago we traveled through the anchored fleet in a rain squall, but no collision that time. In Sausalito and in Opua, New Zealand we came back to find MAGIC DRAGON re-anchored near where we had left her by some caring friends. Those were not the only times...but after years of lying at anchor with inadequate ground tackle, it is only a small percentage of the time. Just the sort of things that stick in our memory. On a few occasions when expecting strong winds we anchored with two 45lb plows in tandem, or with the 45lb Danforth chained behind a plow. That makes for a good holding tackle, but it is cumbersome to deploy and retrieve.

The last straw was in 1975 when we weathered the tail end of a cyclone in New Zealand's Whangaroa Harbour. From our bunk we had a bearing on the lights ashore. I realised that our well-named "plow" was indeed plowing in the soft mud bottom, but very slowly. We had plenty of room. Once when we woke to check our position and could see no lights at all, we got worried. Where had we fetched up? But it was the lights that had gone out. We were still slowly plowing into the night in storm force winds, but with ample fetch. It was far too miserably wild and wet to deal with willingly at the time. We waited till first light to reset the anchor. It was obvious we needed a larger, heavier anchor.

Before our next 45lb CQR had to be re-galvanized, we added two inches of steel to flukes of one of our CQRs to form a larger-surfaced anchor, and filled the boxed point with another 40 pounds of lead. This 85-pounder has been our "every occasion" anchor ever since, and is much more trustworthy. Over the years it wore out the cast pin of the shank, and we had to have a SS pin fitted. The windlass doesn't seem to have noticed the difference in weight.

We have a removable bow roller for our 14-foot shore boat. This is a great tool if moving an anchor becomes necessary. Standing amidships in the boat I can bring up the rope or chain over the roller until it leads straight down to the anchor. Once cleated there, using the outboard I can power the anchor wherever needed and drop it again. On several occasions after drying on a beach at low tide...or to minimise the strain on a questionable berth in strong winds...or a few times after inadvertently running aground, when we realise that an anchor set in deep water could become useful, we have set and retrieved our 85-pounder that way with little effort. Just drop it to the bottom with the windlass then move it with the dinghy--or pick it up with the dinghy and lower it to the bottom under our bow to be lifted aboard with the windlass. The 15lb Danforth used to steady us can be powered loose easily from the dinghy even when deeply set in a blow.