anchor rode around keel

[cyclepro]

I am curious whether there is a trick to avoid having your rode wind around your keel.
Last night was my first overnighter and at high tide our rode got stuck around the keel causing the boat to constantly move within a 15 to 20 degrees space. It also made us get most of the wave action on the beam.
Fortunately, early the next morning the rode was unwound. Kept me up most of the night though thinking about how to get loose.
Jan

[CSY Man]

Never had that happen.

Do ya use chain, line, or a combo?

[GordMay]

Suspend a Sentinal weight down the anchor rode. This helps to induce additional catenary and provide shock absorbtion - as well as keeping the rode somewhat vertical, and off the keel.

[cyclepro]

CSY Man, I used a combination of 15 feet of chain and the rest rope.

Thank you GordMay - could you explain a little more about this Sentinal weight - how far up the rode do I attach this device. Any idea who sells them?
Jan

[Vasco]

This happens frequently if you use rope and chain vs all chain in tidal waters or where the wind opposes the flow. Solution - go to Walmart and get a 5 lb. vinyl clad dumbell. Tie a line to it and lower it on a small loop on your anchor line to below your keel (depth of keel plus freeboard plus a foot or two). When it's slack tide the weight will keep your anchor line up and down and below the keel. This prevents the line from wrapping around the keel. You can also solve this problem by using half gallon milk jugs filled with sand. There is a danger to being keel wrapped (besides looking foolish lying sideways) as the sharp trailing edge of a metal keel may gnaw through your anchor line allowing you to drift free and end up god knows where.

[GordMay]

Like Rick I. indicates, a sentinal is just a weight (tho’ 5# is lighter than I’d use - I use 10-15# on a 6900# boat). Run it down the rode, until it’s just off the bottom.
Leash it to the boat separately from the rode.

[Vasco]

Sorry to disagree Gord but to prevent keel wrapping the weight must be just a little below the keel not near the bottom. For example if you anchor at Beaufort SC at high tide and leave the weight near the bottom your weight will be sitting in the mud at low slack allowing you to drift forward over the line or the line to drift back behind the keel . Also if you anchor in deep water lowering the weight to near the bottom might allow sufficient slack in the line to wrap around the keel. Keel wrapping usually happens at the change of tide when there is little or no weight on the anchor line. The line, at this time, must be up and down to a depth of a foot or so below the keel to prevent wrapping. Deeper than a foot or so below the keel it doesn't matter how the line lies as it will not snag on the keel. I learnt all this the hard way having a boat with a relatively small wing keel that skated all over at anchor. It was difficult getting the rode off the wing too! I have my weights (one for each anchor) attached to the boat all the time and just loop them around the anchor line and chuck them overboard after anchoring. No need to adjust the depth. These are only to prevent keel wrapping and are not like sentinels or kellets which are intended to improve holding.

[GordMay]

I won’t disagree /w what Rick says, except to suggest that I meant “off the bottom” under ALL circumstances (ie; low tide).
The choice between closer to keel or closer to bottom would be weighted by your prime exigency. The original query concerned “keel wrap” - so Rick would be correct - just a little beneath to keel to prevent keel wrap.

I use a sentinel to improve holding power, and prefer the weight closer to the anchor (more leverage), but still off the bottom.

Thanks for the correction, Rick.

Gord

[Jeff H]

I have only had that happen twice in all of my sailing time so don't think that this is a common occurance. In both cases I was anchored in an area with a strong current opposed by a vascilating wind. The boat was being pushed around in small circles. In the first case it was with a 1939 Stadel cutter and the line became wedged between the keel and the attached rudder. A fellow who was with me volunteered to go down and free it and was able to do so on the second dive. The other case was with my Laser 28 and caught the anchor line where it emerged from the windward side of the boat with a boat hook and tied it off and then I simply hung a snatch block on the anchor rode and let out more slack and walked it around the keel.

Jeff

[Vasco]

Jeff,

Keel wrapping happens to many first time cruisers on the ICW. It happened to me a couple of times before I saw how to prevent it (I wondered at first why this guy in a C&C 41 hung a couple of chunks of rusty steel off his rodes). The first time it happened to me, in St. Augustine, I woke up because it was blowing over 20 and wondered why I was sideways and everyone else was lying properly. I couldn't undo it because of the wind and had to wait till daylight when I used my dinghy to pull the boat around. I had first tried to resolve it by slacking the anchor line fast hoping it would come off the keel but that didn't work because of the wind. When I dived on the boat sometime later I found that the rode had broken off a bit of the trailing edge of the keel high up near the hull/keel joint leaving some very jagged lead.

I see a few boats keel wrapped every trip on the waterway. Wrightsville Beach anchorage is a prime spot because of the funny currents there. It seldom happens to full keeled boats but, as you found out, it does occasionally get caught in the slot between rudder and keel.

The trend towards all chain rodes in cruisers will undoubtedly reduce the occurences. This trend has also changed the anchoring habits of those cruising to the Bahamas. Now you seldom see boats anchored with two bow anchors whereas this was the norm 15 years ago.

[Sailing EV]

Guys I cannot stress enough how important it is to take precaution while anchoring on the east coast and along the hudson river. Over and over I found myself in the same predicament with my anchor Rhode wrapped around my keel after a tidal shift. It happened three times the last one where I dragged anchor under a bridge in Atlantic city damaging the top of my mast and almost loosing the boat. I now have ordered 300 ft of 5/16 chain instead of my chain/ nylon Rhode combo. I will return to this thread and tell you later how things worked out. HAVE FULL CHAIN ON THE EAST COAST!

[Rumrace]

So you are bouncing off your line and sailing over the anchor. I’m in Great Lakes so my advise does count on all things. An anchor sail is just a little rag you hang on the back of the boat. It will wander less. I use two anchors often and not behind each other. About 20 degrees apart. Add spring lines on both anchors of one stops the whip forward while the anchor sail keeps you from wandering

[Don C L]

This one may win the award for resurrecting an old thread!
As you may see in previous posts, use of a "sentinel" or kellet weight on the rode, just below the keel, should also do the trick for those who don't have all chain rode yet.
https://sailingmagazine.net/article-...el-anchor.html

In this case the kellet is not intended to increase the anchor's holding power but to keep the rode as vertical as possible to prevent it riding back along the hull as the boat turns to tide or wind changes.

[Shrew]

Originally Posted by Sailing EV

Guys I cannot stress enough how important it is to take precaution while anchoring on the east coast and along the hudson river. Over and over I found myself in the same predicament with my anchor Rhode wrapped around my keel after a tidal shift. It happened three times the last one where I dragged anchor under a bridge in Atlantic city damaging the top of my mast and almost loosing the boat. I now have ordered 300 ft of 5/16 chain instead of my chain/ nylon Rhode combo. I will return to this thread and tell you later how things worked out. HAVE FULL CHAIN ON THE EAST COAST!

A) It's not really limited to the east coast. A reversal can occur for a variety of reasons, though the most common is a slack period of wind and current or tide, followed by a reversal. If it's just wind backing or clocking, the boat tends to wind around the in a radius.

2) This thread is 18 years old.

[thinwater]

It is not an anchor sail, it is a riding sail.


Sentinel is a brand name. Kellet is the generic. My favorite kellet is a bundled loop of chain, because that will come over the roller, which a kellet will not.