Anchor question

[Marvin willis]

Every year on vacation a storm comes up and rips my anchors out the ground and my boat comes to shore crashing into everything on the way in. Last year it pulled up and 2 and 3 ft screw down anchor. Problem is the sand is soft. I bought a 4 foot anchor last year so I was planing on using all 3 this year. Ideas?

 

[KXCam22]

When i am on vacation i put the boat on the trailer each nite, just to be safe. By boat did get stuck out in a storm once, all nite at 60 mph winds. It was fine but I got no sleep. I use a DIY bulawagga (australian) anchor which is fantastic in sand and worked great that nite. Cam.

 

[Ronnie]

I'm thinking box anchor and/ or shore spike on an anchor buddy (big bungee cord). If you can also tie off to a submerged tree even better.

http://slideanchor.com/store/index.php/the-box-anchor.html

http://www.overtons.com/modperl/product/details.cgi?i=33367

I leave my boat in the water overnight when I go camping and anchor/shore spike off the bow (with anchor buddy) and stern. Last summer the when they winds picked up most of the other boating campers headed for the ramp and their trailers. I anchored in the middle of the small shallow cove next to the campsites and it was just as I left it in the morning. A few guys asked me about my anchor set up, the same ones admitted they thought I was nuts for not trailering it the night before. This was a hard lesson I learned on my first camping trip there almost 15 years ago now, I remember standing knee deep in the water at 3 am with the wind blowing trying to keep my boat off the shore. Back than, " when in Rome do as the Romans do " was the the unwritten rule. If old timer is trailering you better be to or you learned the hard way while they slept.

 

[Ronnie]

If picture is worth a thousand words ... this is how I float.

In the first pic you can see the anchor buddy extended and the blue buoy marking where the shore spike or box anchor is (can't remember which but probably the shore spike, it's cheaper). It's about 4 feet deep. I move it in closer to make boarding easier when we are in the full swing of a day on the water (in and out).

 

[Marvin willis]

They have a rope keeping boats from coming in less than 5 ft of water. Pulling it up everyday isn't a option bc for one its $10 every time u go to the ramp and two I go on night rides. One time I made the mistake booking the rope to one side of plastic thing you would put on the side of ur boat up keep it off the dock and continue the rope through the other hole. Storm came up and ripped the plastic float in half

 

[justason]

Does your anchor have a healthy chain lead in it?

 

[waterboy]

@Marvin willis Usually a good Danforth or fluke style anchor will hold in sand considering you have the right size. However, one of the biggest issues in storms is the shifting winds. When going un attended for a period of time like overnight, best practice is to set 2 anchors at different angles so that as the wind shifts, you have at least one anchor properly set.

http://cruising.coastalboating.net/Seamanship/Anchoring/Two_Anchors/index.html Here is a good article on a couple of methods for setting 2 anchors.

 

[Bruce]

My experience is that an anchor buddy significantly increases the holding capacity of the anchor. The stretch of the anchor buddy takes the impact off of the anchor making it less likely to pull out.

I bought a box anchor in 2013 with plans to replace the fluke anchor and 5 feet of chain at my bow that was not holding in the face of large wakes. I also bought the anchor buddy. The fluke anchor and chain has not come loose since I started using the anchor buddy.

 

[d_coyne1984]

Anchor buddies are the shit! Before I bought a lift I used mine off the bow facing the center of the lake and then tied the back of the boat to the dock with about 4 feet between the boat and the dock. When you want to board just pull the boat back with the stern rope up to the dock. Never had an issue loosing the anchor in a couple small storms. I hate tying my boat directly to docks.

 

[Marvin willis]

Have to have a permanent anchor to reserve my spot. I like the anchor buddy idea but have no room to stretch bc of all the boats. Pretty much boat after boat with 4-5 ft between. Need a dive tank to get my screw down anchors further out in the water so my boat isn't right above it

 

[Bruce]

You use a rope along with the anchor buddy. Even if you only allowed 2' of stretch it would help with pulling the anchor out.

 

[sysinu]

Well... almost all soft bottom anchoring heavily depends on the anchor setup. The only reason your anchor should pop and not re-set is if you don't have the right combination of rode scope and weight. You need ~ your boat's length in chain if you're only using light chain, about 1/2 your boats length in 3/8" chain (because it's more heavy). Then depending on your depth and wind conditions, you need a proper scope of up to 7:1 (rode length : water depth) for crummy weather. Also, you need to pick the right spot to anchor. If you select a location that is 5' deep to anchor and your boat at rest when anchored is in 20' of water... then you anchored the wrong direction, most likely.

Anchor buddy won't fix anchored wrong. There are a lot of tools to help you anchor up easier, but you have to implement the basics and with those you will have the most success.

When I anchor over night (when I'm not beaching: bow-in), I place a bow anchor into the weather where my stern is toward shore (bow-out) and then run a stern line into shore (and sometimes I will run two lines off that to the same shore anchor, one from stern and one from mid ship). I can do that because my bow anchor is a fluke-style anchor with 12' of 3/8" chain and I anchor in about 10' of water with ~80' of nylon line.

 

[itsdgm]

Box anchor, anchor buddy to the bow & shore spike at the stern.

 

[Marvin willis]

Thanks everybody. Will be buying a anchor buddy.

 

[Murf'n'surf]

Sounds like you need to pay out more anchor line. A short scope will not hold in stormy conditions. You need to have a 4-6 foot chain rode also.

 

[Marvin willis]

I know I need more anchor line but it's not an option. I'm already screwing down a anchor in 8 ft of water. It takes 30 mins to screw down one anchor. If I go out further I will be in 15 ft of water. I can't hold my breath long enough to put down the anchor

 

[Ronnie]

Consider replacing the screwing/auger type anchor you are using with a shore spike. They are more expensive but they come in different sizes and are much easier to put in and take out.

 

[sysinu]

I know I need more anchor line but it's not an option. I'm already screwing down a anchor in 8 ft of water. It takes 30 mins to screw down one anchor. If I go out further I will be in 15 ft of water. I can't hold my breath long enough to put down the anchor

Can you please describe exactly how you anchor today? Something doesn't make sense here. Is your bow anchor an auger anchor? That could explain a LOT.

 

[Marvin willis]

Yes it's a auger anchor but its the one with a straight shaft with a disk at the bottom. Last time I had a 4 ft anchor screwed all the way down In the front and a 2 ft in the rear. Bow facing the storm. Can't use a shore spike bc boats and anchors aren't allowed closer than 100 yards from shore. Anchors have to be flush with the ground

 

[sysinu]

I'm pretty sure the problem is a combination of your scope and the fact that you're using a shore anchor for your bow. Auger anchors are not an ideal fit for bow anchors, you should be using a plow style or digging style anchor (fluke/danforth, manson/rocna/delta, box, etc). Where it has to be flush with the ground, you will likely have to use a Danforth anchor (since a box anchor won't submerge and plow anchors usually stick out of the sand at least a little with their shank). The Fortress FX7 of FX11 (overkill) is probably your best anchor. Put 12' of 3/8" chain on that and set it using the power of your boat (not your back+trying to scuba).

When set, danforth anchors are under the surface of the lake bottom, and they have a LOT of surface area to combat either horizontal or vertical tugs from the line. An auger anchor only has the 2" radius around the shaft and even though you might have 6 rotations of the auger into the bottom, the second you tug straight up on that with enough force (or at an angle with enough force) it's going to pop free - which is exactly what you have going on here. What is misleading is the depth that your auger goes, but the reality is that once the ground is disturbed by the first upward tug on that anchor, the next upward tug is going to pop it out as the lake bottom won't have had time to settle. With a fluke style anchor, when you pull up on them they have more than (7" x 12")/2 surface area per fluke, and 2 flukes per anchor which is 84 sq inches of resistance compared to your 3.14*(2^2) =12.56 sq inches per rotation (though as mentioned before, each rotation has diminishing returns on its effectiveness because there is not a lot of depth between the rotation blades of the auger anchor...

Finally, with an auger anchor, if it pops free - it will not re-set itself. All of these other anchors will.