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

Saturday, 4 November 2017

Dinghy cruising: anchoring

Some time ago I was given an anchor buddy as a present. I've been meaning to try it out for some time. Essentially it is a long bungee cord that you attach to your anchor and anchor rode. It stretches about four times its length and allows you to pull your dinghy offshore for a temporary beach stop. In the past I have used the anchor on the edge of the side deck, pulled in by a trip line. Explains all the scratches on Arwen's deck and coaming. So I thought I'd give it a try. Here is the first part of my vlog on using the anchor buddy. I split the video in two because it would have been too long otherwise. part 2 next week.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=h5KltbFu8oQ




2 comments:

Paul Mullings said...

An anchor buddy in my part of the world is a weight lowered down the warp to alter the angle of pull thus enabling the pick to dig in!

steve said...

Same over hear but this bungee is actually called an anchor buddy and it seems to be popular in the States........confusing but I felt I needed to use its trade/marketing name - personally I'd call it an elastic band anchor warp - but doesn't trip off the tongue so well - but that is essentially what it is