"Sailing" on the hook

[briblack]

Our boat (46' center cockpit cutter), like almost all, seems to tack back and forth while anchored from the bow. back and forth, 30 to 40 degrees each way. it's uncomfortable, and it seems like it would greatly increase load on the ground tackle, and chafe. a riding sail is an idea to reduce this, but I very rarely see anyone trying to use one. other ideas?

[barnakiel]

More and heavier chain, deeper anchorage, remove windage fore, add windage aft, etc.

b.

[zeehag]

more chain, use a bridle to snub.
ALL boats yaw.
if you truly dislike the movement, place a steadying sail on your backstay to limit that movement.
i find my boat stays best put with a bridle as opposed to a single line snubbin gher chain.

[Stumble]

A wind scoop in the aft cabin. Fly a kite... Particularly with a CC you have a lot of windage forward that accelerates tacking. You need something to add drag in the back of the boat.

[UNCIVILIZED]

Drop a 2nd anchor under foot. Or you can experiment with a drogue hung off of the transom in mild - moderate conditions.

[barnakiel]

nay nay nay

off the bow

If you hang anything of the stern, you sail MORE.

If a sail, then only a v sail, not a flat pane.

b.

[Cap Erict3]

I use a snubber with a lot of stretch. Settles the yaw right down.

[weavis]

Originally Posted by barnakiel

nay nay nay

off the bow

b.

Drop a horse off the bow?

[Mike OReilly]

I'm with Zee. I almost always deploy stretchy bridle snubbers when anchoring. Helps settle the yaw nicely. I use two sketchy nylon snubbers, tied via rolling hitches. Make sure they're more or less even, and taking equal loads.

However, I should say that our boat doesn't yaw that much anyway -- not nearly as much as most. Not sure if it's our full 6' keel, heavy displacement, low freeboard or hull design, but we don't move around nearly as much as most. Even boats much larger and heavier seem to dance around the anchorages way more than we. I wonder how the crew lives with it .

[TrentePieds]

A common, common problems arising from the fact that the design desiderata for racing sailboats are quite, quite different from those for cruising boats, and never the twain shall meet. Most "cruising" boats that have been designed in the last forty or fifty years seem to be neither fish nor fowl, but unless your are custom designing and building, you get what you get.

In short, the Centre of Lateral Plane of the "naked" topsides of a racing boat (and therefore of a "bastardized" cruising boat) is too far forward to permit the hull to lie still when anchored over the bows in light winds. The remedy is simple: Move the CLP aft as much as necessary to make the hull lie still. You can do that by many means, notably by using a "riding sail" that you run up the BACKstay and sheet flat to a point forward - sort of a bassackwards jib.

But the easiest of all is just to anchor over the stern. Some circumspection is required when you do that, cos if the seas come up you might find yourself with water over the transom. Therefore the technique is essentially a fairweather technique.

TrentePieds "ranges" ("sails") like a bugger when anchored over the bows, but quietens down as the wind rises and the tension on the rode grows. Being but a fairweather sailor I customarily anchor over the stern therefore, but I set up so all I have to do is slip the lashing aft that acts as a chock (call it "hawse" if you will) when stern to wind. When I do, she's automatically blown head to wind and Boreas can do his schtick.

TrentePieds

[redhead]

We had this problem on a previous boat. The best solution for us was to raise a small triangle of mizzen sail. I made a special sail just for this purpose. The motion just settled down under all conditions.

[wrwakefield]

Originally Posted by briblack

Our boat (46' center cockpit cutter), like almost all, seems to tack back and forth while anchored from the bow. back and forth, 30 to 40 degrees each way. it's uncomfortable, and it seems like it would greatly increase load on the ground tackle, and chafe. a riding sail is an idea to reduce this, but I very rarely see anyone trying to use one. other ideas?

Briblack,

As others have mentioned, the combination of a longer, stretchy bridle [double line snubber secured to opposite sides of the bow] and either an anchor riding sail, or a small drogue hung just below the waterline on a tensioned section of the rode will usually do the trick for us.

Our heavy displacement [44k lbs cruising wt] 43 ft S&S hull with modified fin keel will sail a bit when winds exceed 35 knots or so. But we are a ketch, so a flat reefed mizzen sail takes care of that.

If we don't want the mizzen up for any reason, we attach our 2 ft diameter dinghy drogue on the anchor chain a few feet below the bridle attachment point. [i.e., the drogue is attached to a section of chain that is always in tension, always in the water, and clear of the bridle lines...]

This works amazing well to dampen the movement thereby greatly decreasing the horsing and peak loads on the ground tackle.

The trick with the small drogue is to keep it just a few feet under the water surface. This means when we want to do this with a longer bridle, we will run the bridle tails through the bow chocks along the deck to the jib sheet return blocks on the stern and then to the primary winches. [That is also our storm configuration so we can adjust the bridle from the center cockpit...]

This allows long bridle legs, with the chain attachment point just at or slightly below the water surface with the drogue just a few feet below that and always in the water...

You may have to experiment to determine what size small drogue works best for you. 24 inch happened to be what we had in the RIB, and it is perfect for our boat.

Simple, fast, and cheap.

Best wishes resolving this issue on your boat.

Cheers! Bill

[oregoncycle]

During my charter fishing days we would attach a five gallon bucket to the anchor line just below the water line. This would slow down the movement enough. Haven't tried it with my sailboat but think it would work.

[ingrid75]

Trentepieds is correct, "tacking" at anchor is a common problem and it is caused by poorly designed boats. Most boats today are designed to be "entertainment platforms" in a marina. Yawning at anchor is not only uncomfortable for the people on the boat but it is dangerous to boats anchored near or downwind of the tacking vessel. Violent, persistsent yawning can and does break the anchor out and send the boat careening through the anchorage. Increasing the windage abaft the beam is the only solution.

[hamburking]

I've had the same problem. I drop a second anchor off the bow, forming a V. Then the boat stays rock steady. This also spreads the load. And if one anchor breaks out, you still have one. I have weathered many a storm with 2 anchors V'ed out the bow. I carry 2 identical bruce anchors for this purpose.