Too Close! WAY TOO CLOSE! Anchoring Near Jerks

[FrankZ]

Originally Posted by imagine2frolic

I dislike when I am an anchorage enough for 20 boats. Tucked up in the corner all alone. The next boat comes in, and practically drops his hook on top of mine. That herd mentality bugs me.......i2f

They are just hoping you will grill them up some chicken.

[Sandero]

What Cam said.

In Newport I used to put a float on my anchor. The bottom is fouled and I've had to have a diver down 2x to unhook the plow from crap down there. The float can be use to back or the anchor from some fouling situation. It also marks the anchor so others don't drop up wind and fall back on top of my anchor so I can't retrieve mine.

But I get hell from jerks who tell me that when they swing my float will snag their prop... which I suppose is possible, but it it didn't I would not be able to retrieve my anchor because his boat was on top of it.

To float or not to float?... how about that question?

[David M]

I have used anchor buoys a number of times. If someone can snag on your anchor buoy then they are too close. Plus as you pointed out, they are also over your anchor or nearly over your anchor potentially preventing you from weighing anchor. I never understood the need to anchor so close to another boat when so many times there is plenty of space to go anchor further away.

[GordMay]

I wouldn’t generally recommend the use of anchor buoys.
I wouldn’t generally recommend the deployment of 10:1 scope.
Both are selfish practices, of very limited value to the user.

See also the previous discussion:
http://www.cruisersforum.com/forums/...uoy-21566.html

[Christian Van H]

Mark, YOU ARE WAY TOO CLOSE!!! to the truth! I remember one night on the intracostal, I was awakened by a 30' Nonsuch bashing my bowsprit. I dashed up on deck, and banged on his hull for a minute or two. I had given up, and was wondering what to do, while trying to fend him off in the forty or so knots of wind, when after about 5 minutes the twit decides to join me on deck! His first response? WTF, you drug down on me! That was it... I reminded him that he had started the night UPWIND of me, using virtually every curse a sailor knows, and told him he had 30 seconds to fall away before I cut him away with my trusty Lirakis. He listened. Funny thing is, some "sailors" never learn. I ran into the same boat a month later, this time piled up high and dry on a jetty down in Florida. Turns out, same thing, drug an anchor. Maybe we should start a new topic; Sailboat Darwin Awards!

[Sandero]

Putting a float on your anchor is not selfish and can hel you extract an anchor caught on a cable or coral hear etc.

How is it selfish?

[Fishspearit]

Originally Posted by defjef

How is it selfish?

I hate those things, about as annoying as the crabbers who like to fill up a small anchorage with pots every 50 feet. Just one more thing to have to dodge. Besides your boat and it's swinging room, now I have to watch out for your float too.

It's only the really crowded anchorages where this stuff matters. I try to cut people a lot of slack, I've had some times where I didn't lay exactly at anchor like I had thought I would when I dropped it, especially with a little current around. If I think someone is too close to me, I just go out with my digital camera and snap a couple of photos. If they swing into me, than it's pretty easy to show negligence. Or, if I'm feeling cheeky, I'll go hang some fenders off the side.

I'm guilty of 10 to one scope a lot of the time though, but only when there's plenty of swinging room. The chain doesn't do me any good sitting in the anchor locker while I'm ashore.

[sailorboy1]

Maybe he is yelling "too close" because everyone is, well ME! Fear drives lots of people crazy :-)

[speedoo]

Originally Posted by Hud3

Funny how that couple gets around! I've seen them, too, but it was in Admiralty Harbour, Bequia, in the Grenadines. It reminded me of that meerkat show...you know, the one where the little furry beasts stick their heads up out of their burrows and peer around.

I've only anchored in Admiralty Bay a couple of times, with a danforth on a charter boat. I seems to me that the problem there is the large sections of the bottom that are covered in grass. Next time I go, it will be on my on boat and I will be using a big Delta that should be able to penetrate that grass.

Has anyone ever tried to anchor in that grass with a big anchor designed to penetrate?

[donradcliffe]

The only time I used an anchor buoy was in Farm Cove, Sydney harbor (off the opera house) on the day of the Millenium. I set a second anchor with a marker buoy after no less than 4 power boats had tried to set on top of my primary anchor. It was blowing 20 and gusting higher, and the event of the day was when the floating restaurant barge dragged through the anchorage. The fireworks were an anticlimax...

I also knew a boat who was big on anchor buoys until one day the tide came in further than he calculated and the buoy lifted the anchor off the bottom...

[donradcliffe]

Speedo, your big delta ain't gonna work in some spots in Admiralty bay. A couple of weeks ago I dove on the anchor there and found that it was in 3 inches of sand over hard pan. It would hold in 15 knots, but it wouldn't have worked in the 30 knot squalls.

I've got my favorite spots on the north side of the bay--15 ft or less with sand, but they are surrounded by some really dodgy and some really deep areas.

[Hud3]

Hey, speedoo.

I'm sure there must be some grass in Admiralty Bay, but what I've noticed is that the poor holding areas seem to consist of sand over hard pan. It looks like your anchor has set, but it's really sitting in a relatively thin layer of sand with no chance of really digging in if the wind comes up. And it can really blow there--the hills funnel the wind.

[Edit: yeah, what Don said!]

[speedoo]

Right, Hud and Don, the hard pan under sand is definitely a problem in Admiralty Bay, which is why it's wise to dive on your anchor there to check it out. So Don, is the north side of the bay relatively free of that problem?

Also, I would think that the grassy spots do not have the hard pan problem. Am I wrong?

[Hud3]

The good spots are where all the boats are. But if you try to anchor there...

TOO CLOSE! WAY TOO CLOSE!

[44'cruisingcat]

Originally Posted by MarkJ

Yesterday motoring slowly through the anchorage towards a good spot, Nic already on the bow, I passed a lady on her boat and gave her a friendly wave. To which she responded pointing to keep going.

Now thats ignorant....

In Sydney a few months ago coming into the international anchorage this voice yelled out "Too Close! You're WAY too close!"

Mark

Well you can't blame them. Who wants to be anchored next to...