Visit our Popular Forums

Thames 4 Blood · 16-09-2013, 06:09

Does anyone have any advice / experience on how to deal with minor scuffs in an anchorage?

We are currently at anchor in Syracuse, Sicily.

The weather has been quite squally and twice in 4 days boats have dragged into us!

The 1st, a small French yacht collected our anchor on the way, bounced off all 4 sides of us due to awful helming and I finally managed to haul his anchor up with mine and set him on his way. No real damage done due to some fast fendering except for an annoying gouge in my teak toe rail. And no bloody apology either! This was in daylight.

Last night a 49ft cat bounced un-fendered off our starboard side at 4am. I have checked the hull as best I can and see no damage there. His davitts bent a guard rail fitting and moved my Bimini frame but I'm hopeful both will straighten out. At least he had the grace to come over in the morning and say sorry! Polite American gentleman.

The point is this... I haven't dragged nor done anything wrong yet I have a dig in my toe rail and bent fittings and a worry about my hull.... It's not enough to warrant an insurance claim but should I just accept this as part of life? How does everyone else deal with this sort of thing?

I fully accept that both incidents were accidents. I am not angry in any way apart from the lack of curtesy of an apology. Sooner or later I'm sure to do something stupid to inconvenience another cruiser! But in the end I'm damaged through no fault of mine!

Just to add moral high ground to my winge... We have a 27kg Manson on 10mm chain with 50m out in 9m water. The gusts causing the problems aren't frikken hurricanes! The problems come from both boats having undersized anchors or chain. A small Danforth in the 1st case and a 25kg delta on the cat which must weigh double our weight and twice the windage to boot!

Rocketman · 16-09-2013, 06:23

When you anchor out, you take your own chances. In some ways, some would say that you anchored your boat in a way that allowed the other boats to hit you if there anchor moved so it was your fault. I know this seems a little extreme but that is reality. I think technically, a boat that hits your boat is responsible for any damage they cause, but good luck collecting. Even when sitting in a marina and someone smacks you it can be hard to collect anything. In some cases, even if the offending boat has insurance, the insurance will find a way to not pay.

Unfortunately most offending boats that cause damage to others do not have a responsible owner, or insurance. Good luck collecting anything from these folks. It is best to be as careful as possible and not anchor in there way.

**boatman61** · 16-09-2013, 06:33

Sadly there's not a lot you can do apart from fender up and where/when possible stay upwind of suspect boats.. you get to know after a while by the angle on their chain/warp... the state of the boat etc... charter boats etc..
Sadly there's a lot of daysailors used to 'lunchtime hooking' who then decide to go cruising and do not upgrade the ground tackle... or they charter a boat and day sail port to port charging in mid afternoon and piling chain on top of the hook while someones prepping the dinghy.. they all pile in and head ashore... couple of hours later the evening breeze picks up and away they go..
And I never ever park behind motor boats and Cats... I'll move rather than stay behind them.
Couple of weekends back I was down in Portimao... there was a really nice red boat there called Redmax... she'd been anchored on the edge of the channel all week and the owner maybe decided to go away for the weekend on Friday... when I hit the beach am Sat she was in the middle of the channel and stayed there till the owner returned late Sunday afternoon... he was lucky no cruise ships came in that's for sure.
But he did get some pissed off horn blasts from a navy patrol boat coming in.. only surprised they did not tow him away as they have been known to get really pissy sometimes.
The French guy wasn't around 60-70, stocky and slow moving in a steel boat was he...? a guy like that slowly smashed his way along the Algarve about 5 yrs ago...

IdoraKeeper · 16-09-2013, 06:33

My old boat got hit three times while in her slip in the marina....substantial damage all three times....never a note, not one cent for repairs and plenty of attitude from the probable offender..it still rankles me.

**David M** · 16-09-2013, 06:34

There is no 100% solution to this. Just try anchoring as often as possible so that there is nobody directly to weather of you. If someone anchors directly to weather of you and they look sketchy, then move.

Palarran · 16-09-2013, 06:45

Quote:

Originally Posted by Thames 4 Blood

Does anyone have any advice / experience on how to deal with minor scuffs in an anchorage?

Go back to sleep after you sort it out and not worry about it in the morning. It's going to happen and I don't think anyone is going to come over in the morning with a handful of cash so you might as well forget about it.

We had two this summer. Both didn't damage the boat and one guy gave me a bottle of wine in the morning. He came in at 3:00 am to the outside quay in Korcula during a Bora. He was kind of in trouble mentally with charter guests and did his best but it was a bad decision. The other was a bunch of Frenchies who anchored too close to us and we bumped in the night. I knew it was possibly going to happen because cats swing differently than mono's but didn't care enough to move that late in the evening.

zeehag · 16-09-2013, 06:46

my repair friend got slammed bad in la cruz de huanacaxtle anchorage by a catamaran out of nuevo vallarta that hit and rammed to the cabin companionway--he is still working out thi s after almost a year of time. this one is spozedly an insurance resolution--we will see.....
he had to speak with the owner of the offensive boat and deal with insurance and notify the owner of offending boat--or is it other way around--lol----so we swill see if he is compensated. he suffered many thousands of dollars damage when rammed from transom to coachhouse by a catamaran armed with an aluminum pole from bow.....

Thames 4 Blood · 16-09-2013, 06:46

Thanks. That's pretty much as I had assumed but its good to sound off lol...
The winds literally boxed the compass last night so no chance to pick a better spot... Just not a lucky week. As I said, its not intentional damage.
Just seems un necessary in such a big anchorage with acres of room and pretty good holding.
I'm actually worried that the Manson will be half way to China and never come out again!

Thames 4 Blood · 16-09-2013, 06:50

I can honestly say that the apology made it hurt a lot less!
I know for a fact that if I were to cause someone else a problem I would be absolutely gutted and would only feel right if I said sorry.

Vasco · 16-09-2013, 06:51

For persistent incompetents who drag, the only solution is to fend off with a fireaxe. There is nothing more irritating than being hit by an idiot who does not know how to anchor. Usually these idiots ignore your warnings or advice when anchoring on top of you and then don't even have the decency to apologize when they hit you.

zeehag · 16-09-2013, 07:04

dragging is different from a cat driving up your stern to the companionway hatch destroying all in its way, as my friend had happen...
dragging boats do not usually get enough speed and force to destroy another boat as completely as does a driven one--HOWEVER there are exceptions--in a storming situation, some other folks i know were dragged by another boat into another boat yet.... the tartan was holed at hull to deck connexion and had rough spots on it from the contacts in violent weather and seas.
needeless to say, they performed their own repairs at dock and was the end of it
one is not always compensated by the mayhem of others.
good luck.

**JPA Cate** · 16-09-2013, 07:19

Good morning, Thames 4 Blood,

Sorry your boat got hit. We've been fortunate to have only cruised where there is more room than in Europe, generally. FWIW, I think we would tend to anchor on the outskirts of anchorages, as we have always done. Our mono is pretty stable in a chop, we don't pitch much, and so we sleep just fine. The "catamaran solution" is unavailable to us as we draw 2.2 m.

There are people who just don't care when they hit others, and some who may be so mortified they cannot apologize. If you make the latter assumption, maybe it won't bug you so much. There are some rude--fill in the nationalities, all of 'em have em!

What a PITA!

Ann

Charlie · 16-09-2013, 07:30

Mark
Sorry for your troubles. I always thought there were a lot of lazy people in the Med who left their bumper over the side while at anchor. I realize now it is b/c of a lack of anchoring skills -- on other people's boats. Spread them all around the boat and save the biggest one as a Rover and keep it near the companion way. I had a guy pull up anchor and then drift back and hit me then claim it was my fault b/c he had anchored their first. His outboard broke my running lights. More damage was done to his boat. He just left. Couldn't find anyone to report it to.