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05-11-2021, 21:59
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#1
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2021
Posts: 44
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How long would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on anchor
So, this is incredibly vague question up for interpretation but I’m just so curious as to the laws of anchoring while cruising.
Let’s say this, would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on an anchorage for a weekend if the weather was unremarkable?
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05-11-2021, 23:47
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#2
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2018
Boat: 50ft Custom Fast Catamaran
Posts: 11,832
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Re: How long would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on anchor
The laws for each anchorage are set by the municipality that the Anchorage is in typically. There are different anchoring limits in different areas. Some areas have no limits. Others have a limited time before your boat is ticketed or moved at your expense.
These days, if in anchorage has limits, you will almost always know about them soon after arriving. Typically, the harbormaster or some other helper will come around and tell you what the rules and regulations are.
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06-11-2021, 03:55
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#3
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2006
Location: Fairfield Harbour, New Bern, NC
Boat: Down East 45 Brigantine schooner
Posts: 1,322
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Re: How long would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on anchor
Let’s say this, would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on an anchorage for a weekend if the weather was unremarkable?
It rather depends on your definition of “unremarkable.”
Actually, I never feel comfortable leaving my boat unattended at anchor, even though I can lay 100lbs. of anchors, and 250 feet of 3/8” chain. There are other considerations to think about, not least having someone take a shine to your boat.
If it worries you, take a look at a “Floathub” device, which sends constant data to a phone about wind, direction, battery state, bilge pump activity, etc., and importantly, location. It’s a very reassuring feeling to see the old gal still in the same place where I left her, and all systems go.
I then did a review for a boating magazine, which can be read here. FLOATHUB (schooner-britannia.com). I have no affiliation to the company by the way.
__________________
Visit Britannia's website, containing published articles about some innovative things that have been done to the boat over the past twelve years.
www.schooner-britannia.com.
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06-11-2021, 04:00
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#4
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Registered User
Join Date: May 2017
Location: NE Florida
Boat: 1980 Endeavour 32
Posts: 865
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Re: How long would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on anchor
I think my deciding factor would be - are there other boats anchored there already ? I wouldn't want to be the only boat around.
But then again, I can think of a few places I have anchored here on the St. Johns river where I was the only boat, and I guess if circumstances were such that I needed to get off the boat and leave it for a few days I would have done it without too much worry. I think I would worry more about thieves than authorities.
Tough question - so much depending on location...
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06-11-2021, 05:34
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#5
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Registered User
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Toronto area when not travelling
Boat: Nonsuch 30
Posts: 1,663
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Re: How long would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on anchor
Depends on the circumstance. Generally not comfy leaving my boat unattended at anchor for very long. Made an exception when we were anchored in a protected harbour on San Cristobal island in the Galapagos. They make it very, very expensive to take your boat to several islands so we did a four-day tour to visit other places. Weather was not an issue as you are virtually on the equator and there is rarely any wind. The harbour was protected with good holding. We got back and the boat was just fine. Next day the big tsunami from Japan arrived and all boats had to go to deep water for a few days. Would not have been good if it had come when we were away as the waves went a couple of blocks into town.
__________________
Have taken on the restoration of the first Nonsuch, which was launched in 1978. Needs some deck work, hull compounding, and a bit of new gear.
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06-11-2021, 06:19
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#6
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Nearly an old salt
Join Date: Jun 2009
Location: Lefkas Marina ,Greece
Boat: Bavaria 36
Posts: 22,801
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How long would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on anchor
For me it’s measured in hours and only if it’s very benign. I do know people who’ll leave it for days.
__________________
Interested in smart boat technology, networking and all things tech
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06-11-2021, 06:41
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#7
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Registered User
Join Date: Apr 2017
Location: Queensland Oz
Posts: 295
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Re: How long would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on anchor
I sailed into Rabaul New Guinea & was invited to anchor in front of the yacht club. I was offered a 1 year contract for work around the northern part of the islands. This involved living in a company House with radio & phone attached.
There was no commercial moorings, & the yacht club suggested I lay my own in front of the club. I used a 45Lb CQR & 100 ft of 3/8 chain in 35Ft of water. The boat sat on this for about 70% of the next 20 months.
It proved so adequate that I had to get a 125Ft copra boat to break the anchor out when I was leaving, I could not get it free with my yacht.
This was equivalent to the anchor gear I used when anchoring for more than over night. It was a well sheltered spot in the prevailing light winds.
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06-11-2021, 06:48
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#8
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Registered User
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Good question
Boat: Rafiki 37
Posts: 14,131
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Re: How long would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on anchor
Although I anchor well, and have never knowingly dragged once properly set and dug in, and I am loath to leave my boat unattended for even a few hours. I would if I had to, but I would not feel "comfortable."
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06-11-2021, 08:57
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#9
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Registered User
Join Date: Dec 2015
Location: Panama / Bahamas / Newport RI / Marathon Fl (now mostly)
Boat: Bristol CC 41.1
Posts: 318
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Re: How long would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on anchor
Quote:
Originally Posted by Brassmonkeys
So, this is incredibly vague question up for interpretation but I’m just so curious as to the laws of anchoring while cruising.
Let’s say this, would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on an anchorage for a weekend if the weather was unremarkable?
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Hell I get nervous just sleeping aboard at anchor... leaving it at anchor is like leaving a newborn baby asleep in the next room...It's always on your mind.... but of course it must be done from time to time.
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06-11-2021, 09:00
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#10
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2013
Location: Ladys Island, SC
Boat: Catalina-Morgan 504
Posts: 340
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Re: How long would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on anchor
Try anchoring your boat before a hurricane, and leaving it unattended for up to a week (in one situation). A couple of days is usual for hurricane anchoring, with very strong winds and tide changes causing currents up to 2-3 knots. Then, the state's DNR folks show up and want your contact information, and ask if you plan on staying onboard--if so, names and contact #s for next of kin. Definitely 'not comfortable', but safer than being at the dock, at a mooring, or hauled out (in some cases).
That said, there are some places where leaving it for a few hours is worrisome.
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06-11-2021, 09:12
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#11
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Marine Service Provider
Join Date: Feb 2012
Location: Vienna, Austria
Boat: Vagabond 47
Posts: 922
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Re: How long would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on anchor
I think it is a good sign if the one does not feel comfortable leaving his boat unattended. And it is only a bit of help to ask another liveaboard to have a look after it while you are on a 2-3 days sightseeing tour.
I think I would not leave her for more than 3 days unattended and would choose s marina instead.
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06-11-2021, 09:30
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#12
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Registered User
Join Date: Oct 2019
Posts: 756
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Re: How long would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on anchor
Other than for a few hours during daylight, I would not feel comfortable leaving the boat on anchor.
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06-11-2021, 09:39
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#13
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Registered User
Join Date: Jan 2021
Location: Somewhere in the Gulf of Maine
Boat: THEN: Indefatigable Bristol Caravel #172; NOW: 42 makes of other people's boats (and counting)
Posts: 872
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Re: How long would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on anchor
Quote:
Originally Posted by Mike OReilly
Although I anchor well, and have never knowingly dragged once properly set and dug in, and I am loath to leave my boat unattended for even a few hours. I would if I had to, but I would not feel "comfortable."
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Same here. Moored in a well-protected and trusted mooring field with a lot of similarly attractive boats? No problem. Anchored alone? Not going ashore unless I have to.
One additional consideration is that at lot of the anchorages I choose are alternatives to paying for an expensive ball, and chosen for foreseeable conditions.
Those change quickly around here, and within a few hours, your protected anchorage becomes a lee shore. Don't want to be on shore for that.
See the attached screenshot. Your average summer day starts with an easterly and ends with a stiff southerly. In the fall, you get brisk northwesterlies that back gradually. Your summer thunderstorm comes from the southwest; your low pressure systems come from the east-northeast. Nowhere is completely safe enough to leave unattended for six hours, much less a day.
[EDITED TO ANSWER THE MAIN GIST OF THE QUESTION: Judging from what I've seen in this harbor for example, no one bothers boaters at anchor unless they get in the way of navigation or the marinas' mooring fields, and as long as they stay out of areas where anchoring is expressly prohibited, and as long as the boat doesn't look completely abandoned. Same goes for any harbors around here where anchoring is allowed, from what I've seen.]
__________________
We ran aground at 2300. Dad fired off flares all night, to no avail. In the morning, Mom called the Coast Guard and demanded to know why they had not responded. "But ma'm," came the abashed reply. "Yesterday was July 4th!"
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06-11-2021, 09:39
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#14
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Registered User
Join Date: Aug 2019
Posts: 65
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Re: How long would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on anchor
I have a friend who leaves his sailboat (35 feet) always at anchor.
It is in SC. He may leave the boat unattended for weeks at a time
due to work. He is a liveaboard, self sufficient and usually cruises
the Caribbean(pre pandemic), where he will not leave the boat unattended
and unwatched for long.
However
He has friends who check it al least weekly when he is away.
If there is bad weather projected he comes back to
town to either move it to a more protected area or out of the area.
The only incident I know of from him was a drifting piece
of a tree jammed itself between the rudder and the hull.
I have asked him about leaving it like he does and he said
"Only if you have friends you trust to watch it and if there
is nothing on board you don't mind losing."
As a side note he inherited a house on the gulf in Florida
and refused to bring his boat there because he was afraid
to leave it at all. I guess like real estate it is all about location.
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06-11-2021, 09:55
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#15
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Registered User
Join Date: Mar 2012
Location: Madeira Park, BC
Boat: Custom steel, 41' LOD
Posts: 1,372
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Re: How long would you feel comfortable leaving your boat on anchor
Quote:
Originally Posted by Chotu
The laws for each anchorage are set by the municipality that the Anchorage is in typically. There are different anchoring limits in different areas. Some areas have no limits. Others have a limited time before your boat is ticketed or moved at your expense.
These days, if in anchorage has limits, you will almost always know about them soon after arriving. Typically, the harbormaster or some other helper will come around and tell you what the rules and regulations are.
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This may be true in the US but it's not the same everywhere. In Canada, for example, we may anchor anywhere providing we do not interfere with navigation and the area, for one reason or other, is not designated as a "No Anchor" area.
I've left Scorpius at anchor for two weeks not fifty yards from the Government dock (read municipal marina) without concern, interference, or comment.
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