Stow Anchors

[Russ]

Does anyone leave their anchors stowed and secured on the bow pulpit during long offshore voyage??
OR do you stowe them below in the bilge or whatever?

Ditto your outboard motors.

Russ

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by Russ

Does anyone leave their anchors stowed and secured on the bow pulpit during long offshore voyage??

Some do.

We don't.

We've a small boat (anything less that 100 metres is small, right?).

And follow the principle of stowing to keep the ends of the boat light. That means keep mass out of the bow, mass out of the stern, mass away from the mast head, and so on.

So went off soundings, we stow our anchors on deck (in designated locations). In our case, those locations are about abeam of the mast (small boat, not much choice).

[daletournier]

No one I know removes their anchors for long passages, including me.

I tie the anchor of so there can be no issue.

I also leave one outboard on the pushpit.

[DefinitelyMe]

I stowed it once. Pulled my back out doing it. Since then it has stayed right where it is. 40,000 miles later, no issues :-)

[DefinitelyMe]

Only time we've stowed the outboard was in Madagascar and that was only so it wouldn't get nicked. Rest of the time it's either on the dinghy or on the aft rail.

[Jim Cate]

After well over 100,000 miles of cruising, our anchor still remains on the bow during passages. While there is a small theoretical advantage to moving it to the central bilge, a look at the numbers shows that it is pretty small, especially when one considers that most would leave the chain in the chain locker... usually a much greater weight than the anchor.

On the other hand, having the anchor ready to deploy in an emergency could be a lifesaver, to say nothing of relieving one of the need to relocate the hook during even a routine arrival. I tend to be a bit tired and unenthusiastic about that task at the end of a long passage!

YMMV, but this has worked for us for many years and many voyages.

Jim

[charliehows]

have had the anchor moved about by big seas so it gets fairly firmly lashed in place as part of the going to sea preparation. Cant see any advantages to stowing it anywhere else and fiddling about with the crane before entering harbour doesnt appeal at all.

[model 10]

Having an oversize modern anchor on the end of a bowsprit is going to be a much bigger deal than something like a CQR. I have a set of chocks on deck that I will never use for our Rocna.

[psk125]

Our anchor locker is just forward of the shrouds (weight out of the ends!). We do not have an anchor roller. For racing we can detach it so the rode doesn't trip people up on the foredeck. On passages we leave it shackled to the anchor line so it can be deployed quickly if needed.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

While there is a small theoretical advantage to moving it to the central bilge, a look at the numbers shows that it is pretty small, especially when one considers that most would leave the chain in the chain locker... usually a much greater weight than the anchor.

Agree 100%!

That's why once we're off soundings we pull as much of our 100 metres of anchor chain aft so that it's right close to the mast step.

Yep. Answers sure divide the sheep from the goats. Some folk prioritise sailing performance. Others just don't.

[Pegu Club]

We keep our anchor on the bow, and the outboard on the stern rail.
There really is no other place to put these items on a boat that is 29.9 LOA.
We have never had an issue with their placement, even through a few rookie, shall we say, miscalculations...

Fair winds,

[Jim Cate]

Yep. Answers sure divide the sheep from the goats. Some folk prioritise sailing performance. Others just don't.
_

Was that aimed at me, Alan? Sounded like it..

And yeah, some folks are concerned about sailing performance at sea, and have chosen a boat that is designed to be fairly quick. In many cases this means no real bilges, so moving a quarter tonne of chain to the central bilge is kinda difficult. But even with the weight forward, she sails pretty well.

And in the event of needing to anchor in a hurry, either as we are leaving harbour or arriving at our destination, our normal tackle is available in seconds. How long does it take you to reorganize your chain and anchor into a usable configuration?

This goat thinks the sheep might well be up on the bricks...

Jim

[Mike OReilly]

Never have removed them for passage. Don’t know anyone who does.

I suppose it depends on your boat. Unless we’re talking a pretty high performance boat, I really doubt most cruisers would notice much difference. If yours is one of these, where bow/stern weight really makes a measurable difference, then I suppose it’s a good idea. But that’s not the kind of boats I’ve owned.

[CassidyNZ]

Have two anchors both with chain/rope rides. On a passage, one lives on the roller with its chain, the other in the stern lazarette but the chain still in the chain locker. Moving 60m of 10mm chain at sea is not easy without damage to the decks and since I have no critical performance requirements, the weight placement is what it is. I do put a 10mm SS bolt through the anchor and roller cheeks at sea to make sure the anchor doesn’t go feral.

Outboard lives on the stern rail unless it’s in use. Had a dingy and outboard stolen in Nose Bay, Madagascar. Trust in locals since then is not extensive.

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Was that aimed at me, Alan? Sounded like it..

You've the wrong person, Jim. Ain't my habit to criticise anyone on the forum. I just don't answer or respond to people who have shown themselves to be fools. You ain't one of them.

Let's instead consider the sheep and goat situation.

To date, in most all human endeavours, the rule is that anyone seeks to gain the knowledge learned by those afore us. Learning from the elders, from the experienced.

Some few people, establish new learning themselves and emerge as leaders, creatives, and innovators within the established paradigm. Picasso or Dali.

Then there be those who kick against the norms established by the experience of the elders. The first category of goats, as it were. The goats think they are being creative. But many of them just neglected to learn the established paradigm. And fail. Or, for a very few, develop something new.

Now there be a new route. Shown to us by Artificial Intelligence. The so-called 4th Industrial Revolution. AI based on machines learning from all of human experience, then devising new tactics that have never occurred to humans (whether those following the sheep route or those kicking against the dominant paradigm and thinking they are creative goats). And in doing so revealing to us that all of what we thought was genuinely creative (Picasso and Dali) was really "conventional".

Should you play the board game variously called go/weiqi/baduk and you've watched the AlphaGo documentary, or should you've read the WEF 4th IR report on beacon (or "lighthouse", the term WEF chose by mistake) factories, you'll ken my meaning.

What does that mean for cruisers?

Simple. We know that all cruising boats are compromises. Compromises between comfort and performance, compromises between inherently unstable racing designs and stable barges.

You've shown yourself not to be a sheep by choosing a hull that is designed for greater performance while delivering acceptable comfort.

My way is when off soundings, such as when I departed Long Beach headed for Hawai'i - with no where to anchor on the way - to haul my anchor chain aft so as much as possible is as close as possible to the CG of the hull. And to move my two bowers to positions amidships.

Just like you've a hull that is designed for performance, I've a hull and deck that is designed and set up for precisely that: to get mass out of the ends of the boat.

Carrying the equivalent of a few people's mass sitting on the pointy end for a few weeks of sailing over water too deep for anchoring jes doan seem wot any smart goat would do, right?