Sailing at Anchor

[a64pilot]

How do you deal with it? Our boat is full keel and sails at anchor much more than most boats in an anchorage.
Right now I have the Sail rite anchor riding sail up, but it seems ineffective.
What usually happens if if we have wind against current, I surmise due to having so much more wetted area we are affected by the current more and she will turn beam on to the wind, of course when she does that she will sail forward, often past the anchor. It’s not uncommon for us to have the anchor chain tight to stern, and of course when the wind drops she drifts back etc.
Most every other boat is bow to the wind.
Attached picture is right now in Lake Worth. I’m in 10’ or water with 80’ or so of chain out, the anchor is actually in the center of the monitor, but you can see how the boat is behaving. This is only a couple of hours of sailing around in a circle.

[Shrew]

All boats do it. It is perceived worse when you're on the boat. Look at any time lapsed video of an anchorage or a mooring field. They wall 'wag'.

[thinwater]

I did some testing with single-luff riding sails, like the Sailrite kit, and was unimpressed. They work if the problem is trivial. The two-luff sail from Banner Bay is much better. But I doubt even that will help with wind against tide and a full keel.

If the tide is strong relative to the wind nothing really helps, other than 2 anchors in a V... but then you sure won't swing with the crowd.

Try a hammerlock and report back. It's easy and I would be interested in hearing how it works for you. Please let us know the wind speed and tide as well. Thanks! [Lower a second anchor to the bottom plus about 10 feet of chain. It will drag but not set.]


Some times tide against wind is just weird. I remember watching my boat do 6 360 in 15 minutes while eating dinner! It was like being in one of those spinning restaurants, except much faster. Fortunately, this behavior stops when the wind picks up.

[psk125]

See other threads on swinging at anchor.
We find that dragging buckets in the water off the stern sometimes helps.

[sailorchic34]

Ah the Joys of winds against tides. My solution is to find a spot where the winds are 90 degrees to the tide. Not always doable I know.

The Real Joy is weighing anchor and finding 4-6 wraps or more around it. If you're lucky you're not dragging. That happens more in hard sand. Mud is not an issue as the anchor is buried well.

[Shrew]

If you're talking about wind opposing tide causing the boat to yaw in an odd direction which causes the wave angle to be uncomfortable, then springing a line from the anchor line (out 15-20 feet from where the anchor rode attaches to the bow) to a midship cleat until the bow is brought into the waves. This usually helps more with roll.

However, I took the scope of the OP's post to be more about simply wandering 'wagging' at anchor, which isn't really the same thing.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Shrew

If you're talking about wind opposing tide causing the boat to yaw in an odd direction which causes the wave angle to be uncomfortable, then springing a line from the anchor line (out 15-20 feet from where the anchor rode attaches to the bow) to a midship cleat until the bow is brought into the waves. This usually helps more with roll.

However, I took the scope of the OP's post to be more about simply wandering 'wagging' at anchor, which isn't really the same thing.

No, I’ve done as you suggest and it does indeed help, better than the anchor riding sail anyway.
I’ve thought about a bucket, but just haven’t bothered to be honest.
It’s not “Wagging” the anchor riding sail really does seem to help with that, it’s actual turning beam onto the wind, and away we go sailing, stopped of course when the anchor chain comes tight, often with a jerk and noise, sometimes snatches the bow around and we start off on a different heading and circle then.
It’s not a predictable behavior at all, seems random, and I’ll sit in an anchorage and all the boats are pointed into the wind, except mine.
In more moderate winds, like less than 10kts, I really won’t sail, but will sit beam onto the wind where everyone else is pointed into the wind.
This has caused some consternation in mooring fields for neighbors as we will sail over to them and get quite close at times.
I theorize it’s the full keel being the difference, I don’t know that of course, just a theory.

[Mike OReilly]

Our boat is also a full keel. I noticed that in strong currents (say around ~4+ knots) she will ‘sail' upstream, often resulting in the anchor aft of us, and the chair rode sometimes scraping against the hull. When this happens we don’t sail around much. We just stay locked there in this weird position of the anchor aft, with the rode running along one side of the hull.

My understanding of what is happening here is that the keel is behaving as the wing it is, and is driving forward via the same Bernoulli effect. I guess if wind is 45 degrees to the current this would produce what you’re experiencing.

[model 10]

If that is true then locking the rudder all the way over would stall the keel.
Less snubber and more chain on the bottom helps too, maybe.

[Shrew]

Is your rudder hard over?

[thomm225]

My boat does the same thing, but after I took a wave over the side when beam to at 0330 one morning, I now spend the extra hour or so sailing to a better more protected anchorage

Here's where I last anchored when the winds had been near 20 knots in the bay 8 miles back. I spent the time sailing way up the river so I would get a nice sleep but the boat still wondered around a bit but no worry because it's almost flat calm.

Forgot to turn off the you tube playlist before I started recording

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWwQ4iUfiyM

[Mike OReilly]

When I tried moving the tiller over we would then start ‘sailing’ back and forth over the anchor rode, or sometimes against the rode. We would still drive up on the rode, but would then yaw back and forth. This was worse than simply staying in one position, so I would generally leave the tiller locked centre.

Hmmm, less snubber … didn’t try that. How do you think that would change the dynamics? Our rode is all-chain (3/8”), but always with a bridle snubber.

[model 10]

I was thinking of a64, if he uses a long snubber. Chain all the way up to the boat would have more drag on the bottom and the boat would gain momentum more slowly and never fly fwd maybe.

[thinwater]

Lift the rudder and keel. No more yawing, no more trouble with tides.


Not an answer for cruising boats, but very effective for trimarans.


I'm anxious to hear if he tries a hammerlock mooring.

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Lift the rudder and keel. No more yawing, no more trouble with tides.


Not an answer for cruising boats, but very effective for trimarans.


.

Works for us too.