Weeds on anchor almost caused a crash!

[DayDream]

Sailing friends,

I was caught in a situation last week where my anchor had so many weeds (Great Lakes) that when I tried to bring it up, the fuse for the windlass kept popping, forcing me to run the length of the boat and keep resetting the fuse at the control center below. It took four tries to get it near the surface. When it came up, there were more weeds than I've ever seen, tangled and wrapped so badly that it took 25 minutes to get them all off.

In the meantime, the wind was pushing us ashore and we barely escaped a bad ending.

Has anyone seen a knife on a stick for cutting weeds?

[Pete17C]

maybe a pole saw would work?

[Alan N Crichton]

Check your windlass fuse trip values - maybe too low ? Mine 11t catamaran has a 120A breaker on a Lofrans windlass.

[DayDream]

Both responses are helpful. Thank you.

[Shrew]

Unless you're risking fouling the prop, I would get the ball the water level and slowly make way out of the anchorage to more open water and deal with it there.

[danielamartindm]

In a situation like this, if you snub the anchor chain and "run over the anchor" at slow speed, you can often free it. Sometimes it takes a few tries. Use the momentum of your vessel.

[Mike OReilly]

While cruising the 1000 Islands and Bay of Quinte I would lash a garden hand claw to a boathook. When I hauled up the inevitable ball of weeds I'd use the claw to quickly clear the anchor. Worked pretty well, but still a pita.

[hpeer]

Folks cruising in Terra Del Fuego swear by a serrated bread knife afixed to a pole or boat hook (tape or other means.) I’ve not tried it yet but will likely next year, we get some nasty kelp here as well.

[JPA Cate]

Day Dream,

The pruning saw will help, but also, just motor slowly out of the anchorage to where you have some room to ditch the weed. I was reading yesterday that there is a lot of weed and algae in the Great Lakes this year.

We were in a flood one time where water hyacinths gathered quickly on the chain, creating a mattress to catch logs and other river junk. Jim was very busy with the boat hook, trying to push the skeins of it off the chain to keep us from dragging. At one point, we had about a 12 ft long log, balanced on the chain, and he had the devil of a time getting it tipped enough to go floating by. A blinking red buoy sailed past us some distance off. A fairly hairy night, found a different place to go hide out of the main stream of the flow after it got light enough to see.

I've read about the bread knife on the boat hook trick, never tried it. Wouldn't want to lose my good bread knife, though, might try a carving knife, very sharp.

Ann

[StuM]

Try googling "oil palm sickle"

[DayDream]

Great feedback- very grateful for the input. I have a pruning saw I can connect to a pole. My saw has long, very sharp teeth. I'm concerned the slots between the teeth would collect the very stringy weeds we have here in the NorthEast US Great Lakes. If it collected enough, it would add more and more weight, which makes the task harder. Amazing how heavy these darn weeds can become.

I'm interested in the Oil Palm Sickle. Does anyone know if a serrated blade stays sharp longer? (seems like that is the case with kitchen steak knives?)

[Mirage35]

Interesting ideas for dealing with this - which we do regularly. I have a friend who talked about going out in the dinghy with a knife to do the job, but that sounds like a way to cause even more trouble.

To date our approach has been to attack the mess with a boat hook while slowly motoring out. Takes time but it works. It’s one advantage to having an old boat: if the anchor is just at the surface it swings around but doesn’t bang into the prow (is that the right word?), not like modern boats with a vertical entry.

I have not had the problem of windlass breaker popping, maybe because I take it pretty easy when raising the anchor. PO had a good idea: put the breaker on the engine control panel so the person at the helm has easy access. Also a safety feature if you want to kill the windlass in a hurry.

[Jim Cate]

PO had a good idea: put the breaker on the engine control panel so the person at the helm has easy access

On many boats, this would add considerable length to the high current wiring twixt battery and windlass... sorta counter productive IMO.

Jim

[Mirage35]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

On many boats, this would add considerable length to the high current wiring twixt battery and windlass... sorta counter productive IMO.

Jim

Understand your point, but on most other boats I’ve sailed it’s been under an aft berth, so not really much difference.

[svHyLyte]

Originally Posted by DayDream

Sailing friends,

I was caught in a situation last week where my anchor had so many weeds (Great Lakes) that when I tried to bring it up, the fuse for the windlass kept popping, forcing me to run the length of the boat and keep resetting the fuse at the control center below. It took four tries to get it near the surface. When it came up, there were more weeds than I've ever seen, tangled and wrapped so badly that it took 25 minutes to get them all off.

In the meantime, the wind was pushing us ashore and we barely escaped a bad ending.

Has anyone seen a knife on a stick for cutting weeds?

If you're going to continue anchoring in such areas/conditions, you might purchase a pruning saw blade and add a pair of machine screws with wing nuts to the end of your boat hook that would allow you to mount it easily/quickly if needed.