How to anchor a dinghy off a beach?

[poiu]

Originally Posted by fgd3

Drop the anchor. Bring the dinghy to the shore. Make the anchor line fast. Walk the shore line along the beach so the dinghy is anchored at an angle, which holds it away from the shore.


Fabbian

That's good. Simple, like the best ideas. It would need a very long rope, but rope is cheap. I can see it working well so long as there wasn't a lot of movement i.e. so chafe and tangling over the coral didn't mess things up. I suppose a few little buoys could be rigged on the line. It also wouldn't be so friendly on a busy beach to hog it with your line.

[eheffa]

We use the anchor buddy and it works well for when you come to shore on a beach in a falling tide.

I put 2 of the anchor buddy bungies together to give it a longer stretch. It can be tough to estimate where to throw off the stern anchor (a 4 lb danforth style anchor with a short length of chain) but it usually digs in well.

I approach the beach and estimate when to launch the stern anchor. (The 2 bungies give more flexibility - literally and figuratively.) I nose the dinghy to the beach under power with the outboard with the bungies resisting my forward motion. The passenger(s) get off, with a long bow line / painter in hand. Passenger holds onto the bow line. I get off and tie the bow line to a hard point on shore before easing the dinghy out into deep water. The anchor buddy bungies nicely pull the dinghy off shore away from the beach.

To retrieve the dinghy, we just haul the bowline in and reverse the process.

I haven't tried this in surf and don't think I would do this in anything but calm conditions but in our area the big tides mean one won't be stuck on shore with a beached dinghy we struggle to move.

-evan

[Dave22q]

As others have noted there is no simple way. You need a block on the anchor. you fix the rode to the dinghy. run through the anchor block to the shore.
Then you run to shore, unload, and pull the rode to get the desired distance off shore and secure to a firm attachment that you may need to place. However, after freeing the rode you will also need a second line to pull your dinghy to shore to board. you need to rig a stop on the end of your rode so not to not risk losing your anchor when unsecured from shore.

[PEACETIME]

We do it all the time, mostly to keep our dingy just enough out to make it not so easy to rummage through. Haven't tried it in seas that I could surf in, mostly 1 ft chop or smaller.

[eheffa]

Originally Posted by Dave22q

As others have noted there is no simple way. You need a block on the anchor. you fix the rode to the dinghy. run through the anchor block to the shore.
Then you run to shore, unload, and pull the rode to get the desired distance off shore and secure to a firm attachment that you may need to place. However, after freeing the rode you will also need a second line to pull your dinghy to shore to board. you need to rig a stop on the end of your rode so not to not risk losing your anchor when unsecured from shore.

I respectfully disagree Dave. There is a simple way.

(What you describe is quite complex and prone to failure - in my opinion.)

The anchor buddy method is much simpler and pretty quick and easy to deploy. No blocks or extra lines to snarl and foul. (Around here, we don't like to have to swim for our dinghy - it's too cold.)

-evan

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by poiu

I am sure someone has solved the problem. How is it best done?

You can do it with several variations on the "clothesline mooring" method shown upthread.


Rather than use one continuous line I find that it makes sense to use two lines. I put an cheap old block on the anchor, run a line from the boat through the block and to shore, this will pull the boat back to the anchor after everyone has disembarked. Then have a separate retrieval line that goes from the boat ashore. I suppose you could use a shackle in place of the block.



By having two separate lines you can, in practice, get by with shorter line in the common situation where you are tying off to a tree or something that is a reasonable distance ashore, and it is more straightforward to extend the lines by tying a bend, if you need more length.


We have done this sort of thing on extremely steep, rocky shorelines in cold water where there isn't any place to beach the boat and where wading/swimming would be a last resort.

[PEACETIME]

As Jammer described is how we anchor our dingy with one exception. I have a small cable attached to the stern that I lock at shore. I also use non floating line so it can sink below any curious dingy that use an outboard.
Works for us

[NorthCoastJoe]

I don't know if this would work for you. Put clothing in a dry bag and swim or wade into the beach.

[Greg Mason]

Go to West Marine, they have what your looking for. Also works for tide changes like we see in the Pacific N.W.

[Dartanyon]

Like eheffa, we use two anchor buddies connected together. Works a treat here in the Pacific NW of the USA, where we've got pretty big tidal swings.

We spent a couple of weeks at anchor in Hood Canal last year, where the beach was fairly shallow and was 200ft wider when the tide was out. Clearly the anchor buddy did not work in this situation. I dropped the dinghy anchor and buoyed a line up off it and then ran 400ft of poly pro line through a carabiner from the float to a stake on the beach. A really long clothes line mooring, but without it going down to the seabed. I am sure chafe would have eventually gotten me, but the line looked no worse for wear after 2 weeks.

Nice thing about that arrangement is that it didn't matter where in the tidal cycle we came back to shore there was always the spot to grab the anchor line with a prussic.

[CarlF]

Here's an alternative to Anchor Buddy. A bit more expensive but Anchor Buddy has a bunch of reviews about it having a short life. Anyone have experience with this one?

https://www.amazon.com/gp/product/B0...KCI3EGGF&psc=1

[CarlF]

Here's Larry's Remote Anchoring technique from Jeff Siegal. I've used it in calm conditions where a good shove will get the dinghy far enough out from shore.

TakingPaws: LRA - Larry's Remote Anchoring technique...

[Franziska]

In non fouling waters (no nasty rocks underwater) that is rather clever.
Thanks for posting it.

I agree the chain will help and the tripline acts as save guard.

Originally Posted by CarlF

Here's Larry's Remote Anchoring technique from Jeff Siegal. I've used it in calm conditions where a good shove will get the dinghy far enough out from shore.

TakingPaws: LRA - Larry's Remote Anchoring technique...

[IslandHopper]

This is pretty much the same set up as we used in big tidal areas (Kimberleys WA) the majority of the time we used a second anchor on the beach.....

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=63ShKwldmUg

[Sorcery61]

I use an anchor short chain and 3 meters of line to a hard plastic float with two eyes
Anchor line is secured to one eye of float
Then a reasonably long Dacron (sinking) line is run through second eye to bow ring on dinghy
Other end of line is secured to stern cleat
When unloaded you pull boat out like it’s on a clothes line
Secure rope to pin drones in beach above tide line