Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Wednesday 4 April 2012

storing anchors....reasons why not to..............

OK - reasons why I shouldn't store my anchor, chain and rode in the anchor well like this ...if I secure it to stem post and bowsprit in someway..........any thoughts? please let me know because at the moment it is stored in a bin in the cockpit; it's accessible single handed and easy to flake back into bin. On the other hand in the event of a capsize that anchor is going to flail around the cockpit like nobodies business!

so......reasons why I shouldn't store it like this are..................?





I'd put some protective rubber along the inside of the anchor well; a little block on the deck on which it can rest. But....all the weight of rode, chain and anchor up front like that - is this good boat trim?

Steve

4 comments:

Joel Bergen said...

I like it. Looks very tidy and looks like it would work out well. You could easily secure it with a couple lashings - one at the stem post and another to a small cleat on the side of the bowsprit near those two bolts. In fact, now I'm tempted to do the same thing. How do you like your claw anchor? What's it weigh? I have an 8# danforth that barely fits in the well after a complex sequence of twists and turns, but it's so light it's sometimes difficult to get a hold, especially in weeds.
-Joel

steve said...

Hi Joel - how is it going across the pond? i love the anchor - it seems to hold in just about everything. mind you it is pretty heavy - I think its a 14 lb anchor and then 10' of chain as well

do you think all that weight at the bow is an issue?
steve

Joel Bergen said...

It's going great. After months of rain it's finally starting to show signs of Spring here.

I don't think the anchor weighs enough to have any significant effect. Even if it did, more weight up front helps. JohnW noticed in one of my vids that the bow was making a slapping sound in the chop. He told me that it's important for me to sit as far forward as possible to keep the bow down. We've also got outboard motors weighing down the stern too, so the more weight up front to compensate the better.

steve said...

good points actually - i guess it is just a way of securing it safely and making sure chain can't fall out in event of a capsize.

Our spring has gone back to windchill, 8C, howling gales....and two weeks ago it was 23C - who says global warming doesn't affect jet streams?

thanks for the tips Joel
Steve