When neighboring boat disagrees

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by malbert73

What’s an anchor thief device?

Not this:





Although they're also handy to have on board.



Rather, this:

[CptCrunchie]

Originally Posted by thinwater

This might even make a good thread:

I'm in the set-hard camp, mostly because unless I dive, it is the only way I know the bottom is capable of holding (might be 2" of sand over hard pan or similar).

I'm a diver, and the reason I will never use a Danforth sand anchor ever again was because I saw how pitifully the anchor worked. After setting in Fresh Water Bay, on our first dive, I saw the anchor's tines pointing up, with a small 'pile' of small rocks and mud under them. I looked at it thoroughly, thinking that the tines had to have been bent because of the angle of them.

Once we got back onboard, we raised the anchor to have a look at it. The tines moved to exactly the same angle both ways. So, we reset it. But next dive, same same.

We had someone onboard who knew boats well enough to watch for anchor drag, follow our bubbles on the surface, who could have raised the anchor and drifted until we completed our dive. Otherwise, we would have aborted because the area we were in is prone to slight currents. As it was, it wasn't that relaxing of a dive. I will never use one again.

My point earlier about the Weekend Warriors who use them, they give us experienced types a reason to move.

[JPA Cate]

If they've anchored over you, we ask them to shorten scope for us to leave. Only had one Frenchman refuse, saying, "They anchored under me, they can get it out!" We broke our windlass in Tahiti, lifting both our anchor and his chain.

Haven't needed to place fenders to move them out of the way, but it makes sense. Maybe the person who remarked that North Americans assume they need more space than Europeans is correct: we seem more paranoid about any contact than they, to me.

Ann

[mbarbian]

How about:
Tight anchorage
Boats all moving In unison with good spacing
Wave to neighbor exchange hello s
No issues for more than a week anchored with neighbor
Big blow coming in but not here yet
All of a sudden I’m on top of my neighbor after more than a week no issues
Neighbor says he just set out a second anchor and changed scope on first anchor
Insisted I needed to move because I arrived after him.

Thanks moved but I’m not sure what’s right.
Any ideas?
Mark

[Capt Phil]

Thanks for the support, Pelagic... I think I recall that incident of the towboat bringing the cement barge into False Creek to the cement facility next to where the Granville market is now. I believe the father died in that incident of stupidity! I visited the markets last summer visiting my grandkids who still live in Port Moody, BC. That was a horrible accident witnessed by many on the beach at the time. I had the whole thing explained to me by a couple who had just come out of the Maritime Museum where the RCMP vessel, St Roche, was open to viewers. She was the first vessel to make it through the NW Passage many years ago. I grew up in Vancouver and cut my sea going teeth aboard a tug, the Scotch Fir, skipper was Doug Rust, long since dead! That was back in the 1950’s and went on to drive other tow boats and worked several years commercial fishing for Nelson Bros. I attended Vancouver Vocational School to get my Mates ticket for Coastal inland Waters then headed south where the U
SCG grandfathered me into my 200 ton Masters license because of my previous sea time, licensing and tonnage. That was in the late 70’s as I recall but don’t think they do that any more.
Cheers, Phil

[Pelagic]

Small world Phil, I am sure we know many of the same people in the towing industry as I supplemented driving tugs and pilot boats with yacht deliveries around the same time and was close friends with the Dolmage family

[Souzag818]

Happened to me once only. Came into a bay and found the biggest hole to drop in. All was good until a French guy from another boat started yelling that I was too close, but I wasn't even the closest boat to him! Finding this odd, I politely said I'd monitor the situation, and move if needed. About two in the morning I woke up and went on deck to check things out. Another boat that was 200' away from both of us initially must have had a ridiculous amount of scope out cause he has swung around, past me, and was now about 20 away from him. I assessed the situation, decided I was in a good place, and went back to bed. I kept waiting for the screaming, falsely blaming me for hitting his boat, but it never came. When I woke up, he had moved to a public dock, and the second boat was casually floating where he had been. Wadayah do.....

[markhatter]

Originally Posted by Peeew

Here is my question as to how you handle this; pulling into a fairly crowded harbor to anchor and I find the best hole available for me. While dropping hook and backing etc the closest boat folks begin yelling that I need to move elsewhere. I assess that we are a safe distance apart and pretty much the whole harbor is similar spacing. This is not really a privacy option there are a lot of boats, safety seems to be the only real valid concern here. Everyone is going to be near their next boat. I looked and honestly decided this is as big a hole as I will find and there is no risk of meeting when tide/wind shifts that I see. I do respect that the first to anchor deserves proper space and if this were a private open area I would always stay far from other boats.
I decided to be polite and respond that I think we are safe and I understand his desire for more room but that’s really not an option in this crowded harbor.
How do you handle these situations? This trip is now 4 months of anchoring and despite some crowded places I have never really felt that I upset someone else before. I just can’t see moving because this one wants more space than everyone else has.
Am I wrong? Would you move if you felt you took the best space available and it was safe? I’m sure that a dinghy ride to explain my position would not be a good idea. Fairly sure we need to agree to disagree.

HI inform the new arrival that I am anchored on 200 feet of chain, I weigh 29 tons, 60 feet of boat.... the last time the credit card captain's came and anchored all around me, they ran into me while they still had their anchor down in the morning.... fing idiots.
If they can't do the math 260 feet x 2 pie... then I start engine I. Reverse and demonstrate while I have my happy hour cocktail. They normally move on

[markhatter]

Boats don't move in unison. Light boats with small keels, move with the wind. Heavy boats with large keels move with the tide

[JPA Cate]

^^^^^
In Mexico, a number of years ago, a trimaran used a small drogue so that his boat would like in sync with all the monohulls. Way to go, Dave!

Ann

[RaymondR]

I used to take my kids to an island with numerous small anchorages where crowded anchoring conditions were fairly prevalent and arguments common.

I had a friend who's business required a lot of shipping and they had a machine for making stencils with large lettering. In a fit of larikinism I had him make me up a stencil which I then used to mark some lee cloths made out of dark green shade cloth.

The stencil said:

"UNINSURED STEEL BOAT"

I don't know that it kept other boats any further away from me but it did cause a fair bit of amusement in the various anchorages until the spray paint flaked off.

[Icarus]

Ah the joys of boating, i am sure we all have been in similar situations. .it can be tricky when the tide direction, or wind changes. Some boats tend to sail about a lot in a different way then my boat.
All one can do is keep an eye out and have a plan B...in case things get pear shaped, which usually happens in the middle of the night.
Happy days

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

^^^^^
In Mexico, a number of years ago, a trimaran used a small drogue so that his boat would like in sync with all the monohulls. Way to go, Dave!

Ann

For every story about some clueless soul doing something clueless (or at least, for every 10 stories ), there's a story about someone doing something particularly skillful, insightful, seamanlike, and considerate


Where possible, though, of course, boats should anchor away from boats unlike them. Tris and cats can often anchor in places monos can't even go! Lucky guys!



I generally anchor further out than the crowd -- with 100 meters of heavy chain, I'm OK in deeper water than what most like.

[Simi 60]

Originally Posted by Icarus

Ah the joys of boating, i am sure we all have been in similar situations. .it can be tricky when the tide direction, or wind changes. Some boats tend to sail about a lot in a different way then my boat.
All one can do is keep an eye out and have a plan B...in case things get pear shaped, which usually happens in the middle of the night.
Happy days

Or give them the death stare on arrival, tell them the error of their ways in a crazy Jack Torrance / Max Cady fashion, watch them move away and then sleep well that night

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by markhatter

Boats don't move in unison. Light boats with small keels, move with the wind. Heavy boats with large keels move with the tide

Boat of roughly similar type move roughly in unison. It would be very rare indeed that you would have one boat at the end of her scope lying due E of her anchor, say, and another boat at the end of her scope lying due W of her anchor.



Light boats move with the wind but against the tide only if there is quite a bit of wind. Given enough wind, heavy boats will, too. It is only in very light conditions with little tide and little wind, that you see boats drifting around quite differently from one other. But in that case, catenary pulls boats closer to the anchors, too, so they don't drift far.



So in practice, conflicts are very rare, even in very crowded anchorages. The main problems occur when someone drags, not from boats swinging into each other.



In 30 years of cruising, I don't believe I've ever had a boat swing into me at anchor, not once. But I've had boats drag into me a number of time, sometimes causing damage.





As a good rule -- if boats are spaced an anchor rode away from each other, or a bit more (so 50% overlapping swinging circle plus a little bit), conflicts are almost impossible. Give a little more space than that, to boats which are much different from you. And don't stress about it.




Another good thing to do in very crowded anchorages and in benign conditions is to let smaller boats raft up to you. A boat tied up to you can't swing into you , and once you've got a boat rafted up to one side of you, nobody can swing into that side of you . I do this quite often.