Long, long ago I had a sail boat and from those days I remember now that she would yaw terribly, about 40° while at anchor in a moderate wind. An anchored boat is an unstable system, mainly because of its topsides that act as a (bad) foresail. Actually, the wind tends to put the boat broadside to …

If the ship is dragging anchor in the so-called figure 8 pattern, at the end of each “8” the ship will sometimes drag the anchor a meter or two. This can be seen as the ship slowly works it’s way downwind. That implies that the ship is lifting all it’s anchor chain off the bottom, so why not just …

I am not sure that the anchor’s flukes are entirely lifted out of the seabed, perhaps it is more of an enormous yank on the shank that cuts and pulls the anchor through the seabed a couple of meters. There is some anchoring discussion to found here .

No need to lift the flukes, just the chain. If the chain, at the anchor, is lifted 15 degrees it is estimated the anchor loses about half it’s holding power. From here .

The two ships tied alongside each other can be seen is one new ship with a combined center of gravity and displacement. The combination of these ships will take more force to turn while the aerodynamic force is about the same as for one ship. This is probably the reason that the combination will not…

Another thing that may not scale up, but kellets are designed to keep the chain on the bottom.

When I use google to search for anchor information I always use “-boat” and “-yacht” so I don’t have scroll though hits that are irrelevant.

Ships in an anchorage area are most likely swinging on one anchor and the ships are manned by professionals. Pleasure boat anchorage can be more entertaining. Some weekend warriors don’t observe how others are anchored. Some will be using two anchors off the bow, others anchored fore and aft and oth…

The other issue is being able to recover the anchor easily. When heaving in if there is too much strain on the chain the anchor windlass will not have enough power to heave in. The correct move in this case is to stop heaving and correct the situation (wait or kick ahead or whatever). Better yet pa…

Indeed, in hard sand and a stiff breeze the anchor can become set almost too well. My relief was picking the hook in such a situation and he got to an “up and down” situation with increasing swell. I believe he was shifting anchorages as we did around St. Paul back in the day. Anyway, a large swe…

I had an owner that I had done a couple of deliveries of his 65’ cutter rigged yacht who also had a large gin palace. We were swapping marina berths one day so the gin palace was closer to his home. He decided to do some fishing with an all chain rode in rather boisterous conditions and the anchor s…

Anchored Vessels Behavior in Wind

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Anchored Vessels Behavior in Wind

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