Anchored Vessels' Etiquette

[rrranch]

The man I was looking for turned up alive thank god.

[nautical62]

I have a hard time evaluating your observations/perspective.

You dragged anchor - and assumed it was because someone snagged your anchor rode, yet you never heard or felt anything to indicate that. The few times someone snagged my anchor rode, believe me, I knew it.

You talk about two boats under power passing each other in a channel port to port, the larger maintaining it's course as it should. Nobody hit anyone or took evasive action. Sounds like that's how it should be.

You were uncomfortable with some boats passing in front of you and were worried they'd snag your rode. I get not liking them so close, but the reality is they didn't get close enough to snag your rode.

It sounds like an area with a lot of insensitive power boaters and that's too bad, but if I'm reading your posts correctly, you report no collisions, no proven snagged anchor lines, no evasive action to prevent collision and boats passing port to port in a channel as they should. It's not clear to me what you feel should be reported exactly. (The scuba incident being another subject, - once I had a fisherman actually snag my dive flag lead.)


I second the thoughts about going with all chain and forgetting the ball.

[rrranch]

The trawler obviously snagged our rode. The alarm woke me up when he did it. The barge in the channel signaled for a stbd to stbd pass coming out of a turn in a narrow part of the channel and he got as far to port as possible, so did I. Why didn't others heed his signal? He's in restricted maneuvering and is the vessel with right of way. I guess by what you say since no one got smashed its ok to break the law. That thinking does get people killed!
I guess other boaters don't recognize the bal diamond ball day shape the barge was flying as required by colregs.thats ok. No one got killed.
Or the two horn blasts indicating to pass stbd to stbd.

It's ok to run over anchor rodes. That's fine. No one ripped the bow off my boat this time. No harm no foul so go ahead and break the law all you want!

These trawlers are notorious around here for only having one person onboard. I guess it's ok to leave the pilot house to work the nets these days. My colregs book must be out of date. I'm so sorry for being such an inconvenience to everyone while trying to follow outdated laws.

[JRM]

Originally Posted by rrranch

Oh and last week while in a search for a body by the jetty to our marina I was diving on the rocks. Had the diver down flag on the dingy which was anchored above me. Three times I saw a fast moving hull directly overhead. I'm losing patience with this crap!

Um, if you're diving such a search mission without surface support or the jurisdictional agency closing or at least monitoring the search area you might want to re-examine your protocols. It's your tender's job to watch the surface (you did have one, yes?). If not, what were you going to do if you found your target? Bag him yourself? That's misery with a weighted mannequin much less a bloated body that squishes between your gloves every time you try and grab it.

Paint "POLICE" on the side of your support vessel and the buzzing will stop. People avoid our Whaler like the plague, and I'm not a cop so I don't have the practiced "don't even think about it" grimace. Of course, the operator is usually an officer, so he's wearing it for us.

JRM

-- just think what the guys in the power boats are thinking... "look BobbyRay, some idiot in a sailboat anchored right here between the dock and the fishing grounds!"

[micah719]

Recently I lurked on a powerboat forum....exactly the same discussions, though they seem a rather foulmouthed lot compared to even the saltier sailors on the CF crew. They spent a lot of time complaining about grotty cheapskate yotties, especially ones that took advantage of sailboat right-of-way to annoy them. As always, it only takes a few ratbags to tar the whole bunch. Incompetence or ignorance will still find grace and patience in me, but someone endangering lives and property out of sheer bloodymindedness won't.

[rrranch]

Yeah I had a tender. My son was on the boat trying to wave people away but of course they just ignore him. We were well outside the pilings marking the channel too. I was checking snags and other areas he might possibly have been caught. I was helping the police that time while they were searching other areas. I do it a lot at home and on the water since its something I've had pretty extensive training in.

Really all I'm trying to do us provide some examples of stupid things people do and asking that everyone be safe and courteous on the water. Reading the colregs book would help a lot. I guarantee you if I ever do get hit and it ends up in court the law will be behind me. If people learned the rules this would never happen though.

[sailorboy1]

The only thing that has a higher magnetic attraction to a boat than a lobster pot float bouy, is another boat at anchor. Doesn't matter what material your or the other boat is made of, if you anchor you will attract other boats!

Don't know why, just that it seems to be a fact!

[nautical62]

Originally Posted by rrranch

It's ok to run over anchor rodes. That's fine. No one ripped the bow off my boat this time. No harm no foul so go ahead and break the law all you want!

These trawlers are notorious around here for only having one person onboard. I guess it's ok to leave the pilot house to work the nets these days. My colregs book must be out of date. ...

Okay - according to your colreg book, what regulations do you feel you can prove were violated?

You didn't actually see the trawler snag your anchor line. You saw and felt nothing. All the anchor alarm proves is that you dragged anchor. You state the other boats passing in front of you did not snag your anchor line, you were not in a collision, did not need to take an evasive action. You did not witness any other collision or see anyone else take evasive action to avoid a collision. You and one boat signaled to pass to starboard. Another boat passed port to port as per custom, again with no evasive action required. You stated the boat maintained it's course, which is standard.

I most certainly prefer quiet places to anchor, and don't like power boats buzzing around. I've had similar experiences in SE Florida at anchor and in channels. I understand your frustration, and I understand your feelings that people could have been more safety conscious.

You mentioned wanting to report regulation violations. What is not clear to me is specifically what regulations you believe were violated and what real evidence you have in support of such violations. (Personally, even when someone snagged my anchor rode and I literally had to go unhook them from my rode, I can't image reporting them.)

You expressed a worry about your rode being caught, and I think a few people have provided some good recommendations about how to reduce that risk and thus reduce the worry.

[ohdrinkboy]

In my experience, it's usually very obvious when an anchor line is snagged. Like the time i was on race committee and a boat snagged the my anchor line. I had to dive in and cut the sailboat free as it was dragging the committee boat into the fleet.

Had a fishing boat cut my anchor line on my power boat he was so close.

Inconsiderate people are everywhere. Letting them get you too worked up ruins your life.

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by ohdrinkboy

Had a fishing boat cut my anchor line on my power boat he was so close.

Another plus for all chain rode!

[rrranch]

I keep wondering how much weight in chain I can carry. Our boat is a ranger 29 sailboat. I carry 500 feet of rope with 6 feet of heavy chain in the anchor locker now. I know I can't carry that much chain can I? I figure if I can't lift it then it's too heavy in the bow.
Oh Texas law says stay at least 50 feet from other boats if possible. Common sense says don't go between a boat and it's anchor but it's not a law I know. In some states it is.

[noelex 77]

I don't know the Ranger 29, but my first sailboat was a trailerable 25 foot light displacement yacht. I cruised coral waters in this boat so all chain rode was essential and I carried 60m (180feet) of chain (6mm from memory) without any problems.

[nautical62]

Originally Posted by rrranch

I keep wondering how much weight in chain I can carry. Our boat is a ranger 29 sailboat. I carry 500 feet of rope with 6 feet of heavy chain in the anchor locker now. ..

A 6 foot chain leader is fairly short for a 29-foot boat. That might be part of your problem right there.

I can't speak specifically to the characteristics of the Ranger, but on my 26-foot Centaur I carried 150-feet of chain, plus another 50 feet of rope and that gave me no problem. On my Hunter 30, I carry 130 feet of chain plus another 50 or so of rope.

[ohdrinkboy]

I have 15', but I am on an inland lake and can anchor in very protected locations at night.

I would think you are looking more at needing 50' of chain as a starting point.

[cwyckham]

Why can't I go between a boat and its anchor? Can't imagine I can avoid it, and I don't expect other people to avoid doing so with me.

If I'm anchored in, say, 30' of water, then I'm about 120-150' from my anchor. Since the wind is often light, and I'm using chain, my boat could be pointed in any direction and the anchor isn't off my bow. So that means that nobody can safely come within 150' of my boat? Yeah right.

But why would I care? As long as people don't throw too much wake and they stay a reasonable distance from my bow so they don't snag the rode, we're all good. You can see the angle and direction the rode enters the water, and it's pretty easy to estimate how much room you need to give.

I've recently had powerboats passing within 5' of my pulpit in the dark while I was at anchor and I was severely annoyed. I actually shortened scope until I had only chain out (my rode is half chain, half nylon) as a result. But I wouldn't have had an issue if they stayed at least 15-20' away even though I had 175' of rode out.

Oh, and I agree that anchor buoys are almost always a bad idea. They create more problems than they solve.