Achieving a peaceful, restful night at anchor requires a balance of the right gear, proper deployment and calming your mind. A secure anchor reduces psychological stress and helps you rest soundly, and more importantly it greatly expands your cruising possibilities, frees you from reliance on expensive and often crowded marinas and moorings and allows you to fully explore the incredible Argyll coastline.
Equipment Choice
Next Gen HHP (High Holding Power) anchors
There is now a huge range of ‘Next Generation’ high holding power or Super High Holding Power (SHHP) anchors, and the choice can seem overwhelming to the newcomer. Essentially, any of these will when used properly give you many nights undisturbed sleep, and in doing so will pay for itself in saved marina fees many times over.
In choosing your new anchor the main considerations are cost and whether it can be easily stowed on the bow roller for immediate deployment or safely kept on deck or in the anchor locker when on offshore passages. The author uses a Spade on one of his boats and a Knox on the other, and both have performed flawlessly for many years. Another newcomer to consider is the Viking, which gets great reviews and is lightweight.
A note on cost: Your anchor is your best insurance and, like your insurance, it seems expensive only before the accident occurs. When the weather deteriorates and your boat drags towards the rocks, it is too late to regret the tens of pounds saved on the purchase price. If your boat is tossed on the shore, then the cost may well be thousands of pounds. Security and quiet nights at anchor don’t have a price.
Overall, our top recommendation for a combination of cost and performance would be the Knox, which has the advantage of being a Scottish make with prompt delivery and a great performance/price point.
Chain and Snubbers
For most cruising boats up to 42ft 8mm chain is more than adequate. Going up to 10mm will add a lot of extra weight in the bow and is usually unnecessary; carry more chain instead of heavier chain. On smaller boats you might want to consider a mixed rode where octoplait line is spliced directly to the chain. On our Albin Vega we have 33m of chain spliced to 20m of octoplait nylon for occasional nights in deeper anchorages. You can find instructions online for splicing the line to the chain yourself.
A snubber should be used to take the load off the windlass and reduce snatching when the boat swings and ‘fetches up’ against the limit of the chain. You can make this yourself from 10mm or 12mm nylon and a chain hook.
Reliable Anchor Deployment
Calculate Scope: Scope is the length of the rode deployed. Ideally, lay out a scope of 5:1 (5 times the distance from your bow roller to the seabed) or more if rougher conditions are expected. This ensures a nearly horizontal pull on the anchor. In crowded or tight anchorages where swinging room is limited a shorter scope may be necessary; fortunately modern anchors like the Knox or the Spade perform much better on a shorter scope than traditional anchors like the CQR or Bruce.
Rocks and other boats always look much closer than they actually are. If you are worried, then before moving it is usually worth getting in the dinghy and having a look from the water, when what seemed like imminent disaster from the cockpit often turns out to be more than adequate spacing. Better to be closer on a longer scope than further away on an inadequate scope.
Pay Out and Back Down: Drop the anchor quickly until it is on the bottom, then allow it to pay out just slightly faster than the boat is drifting backwards. This can be a leisurely affair in light winds or a rapid drop if the bow blows off in stronger winds.
Once you have the required amount of scope out and you are happy with your position engage astern and gradually increase the revs to your usual cruising revs or more. Use a transit (eg a rock on the shore and a tree further away) to check that you are holding, and maybe also go up to the bow and put a hand on the chain – it should be solid, you will feel if it is dragging. Don;t be scared to give it plenty of welly in astern – if it doesn’t hold then get it up and re-anchor. You will only sleep soundly if you know your anchor held against full or nearly full revs, anything else you are just kidding yourself.
Relieve Windlass Strain: Attach a snubber to your anchor chain and cleat it off, preventing the heavy pull from resting solely on your windlass.
Set an Alarm: Set an anchor alarm on your GPS plotter, or use a trusted app like Navionics or a similar app to warn you if you swing outside a safe radius.