Archor Drag Alarms - Survey

[T.Emigh]

I have been cruising Mexico for the pass 4 years. I haven't been using any kind of anchor drag alarm. I my opinion there is nothing on the market that works.
My question to everyone is do you use an anchor drag alarm? If so which one?
If there was a anchor drag alarm setup that really worked would you use one?

[Sailmonkey]

I use a handheld gps plugged in next to the bunk. Set properly it alerts me to wind shifts and dragging. Only a few false alarms per month.


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[surfmachine]

Hi, I have a garmin mapgps set up in the hatch coaming above my buck, the external alarm wire triggers a flashing red strobe and a siren, which alerts me and wakes me up! Excellent results.
I can also watch the course and speed whilst resting in the aft cabin while the crew is on watch.
Keith.

[Nicholson58]

Our Vesper Marine Watchmate 850 does this very well. I added external loud buzzers for below and on-deck. Drop the anchor; hit the anchor watch SET followed by the circle distance and enable. It records on the monitor where you are in the circle (or out) every 20 minutes. If you come on deck in a sleepy stupor, you can see where you have been. About 10 watts.

[chouliha]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

Our Vesper Marine Watchmate 850 does this very well. I added external loud buzzers for below and on-deck. Drop the anchor; hit the anchor watch SET followed by the circle distance and enable. It records on the monitor where you are in the circle (or out) every 20 minutes. If you come on deck in a sleepy stupor, you can see where you have been. About 10 watts.

I second the Watchmate 850. Simply outstanding. if you turn the AIS transmit off very little power is needed. It tells you the distance to the anchor, compass course and shows the location on the screen.


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[Nicholson58]

Here is the image from the Vesper showing the anchor set, range circle at 30 Meter, current bearing 179, 10 meter from our set, direction for North and the field of spots logged over the course of several hours. Also incoming bogies at 11 & 3 o'clock.

I might add that the operation of this is so intuitive you may never open the book. Even guests can figure it out.

[monte]

Opencpn works well, as does anchor watch for iPad or iPhone
Here's anchor watch showing bearing, distance to anchor, radius and google earth overlay. Works flawlessly. And cost.. Maybe 2 dollars...it will also send you and email or SMS if you appear to be dragging.
I'm not sure what else anyone might want in an anchor alarm...?

[Winf]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

Our Vesper Marine Watchmate 850 does this very well.

Another vote for the WatchMate. Very easy to set and use.

Winf

[seahag]

Drag Queen, iPhone App. Need some access to a signal but for free it seems good.

[Nicholson58]

Originally Posted by monte

Opencpn works well, as does anchor watch for iPad or iPhone
Here's anchor watch showing bearing, distance to anchor, radius and google earth overlay. Works flawlessly. And cost.. Maybe 2 dollars...it will also send you and email or SMS if you appear to be dragging. Attachment 95803
I'm not sure what else anyone might want in an anchor alarm...?

I don't doubt that it works. If its running on a laptop it is probably pulling 30 to 50 watts and must be on all night. Watchmate - 10 watts or less. It's stand alone/dedicated so nothing else need to be running.

[Bregts]

Very happy with the anchor alarm in InavX (ipad, iphone)
It allows you to specify the location of the anchor by selecting degrees to the anchor and distance after anchoring instead of a circle around your current location. While dropping the anchor I have other things to do instead of running back to the cockpit and pushing buttons.
This way the circle is around your anchor and not your boat so you don't get any unnecessary alarms even if you have 180° wind shift or 'no wind' drift at night.

[Panope]

Drag Queen on a small Android Tablet. Tablet placed near a pilot house window for GPS signal. Must be plugged into power supply but draw is very low. Can hear alarm from bunk.

Steve

[Scott Berg]

It's hard to beat the Vesper Watchmate... indeed all of their products are well engineered, easy to configure, and have the lowest power consumption. Their AIS interfaces are intuitive and accurate. Love mine and am considering upgrading to their latest unit. Just great gear from responsive people...

[clownfishsydney]

Our Garmin 128 GPS at the navigation desk (next to our cabin) works well and wakes us up.

[Mirage Gecko]

Anchor Alert on IPhone and IPad only couple of dollars.Simple ,efficient easy to set no issues yet but only been using it for 12 mths.

Chris