Re: anchor buoys - are they useless?

Tony of Judicious wrote:

Any ideas on how to get it right, just like the pictures?

I never use one, but here's an idea:

Pay out an amount of chain roughly equal to one and a half times
the depth, but keeping the anchor on board, so you end up with a
bight of chain hanging from the bows, about 3/4 of the way to the
bottom.

Then pass a thin line through one of the links and secure it to
a cleat. Now pay out a second bight of about the same amount.
Secure the inboard end.

Untie the thin line and walk it aft, securing it there. Now you
have two bights hanging from bow to stern, under the boat, both
of which hang clear of the keel but don't reach the bottom.

Then lower the anchor down gently *by the tripping line* so that
it lands on the bottom the right way round, and since chain, anchor,
and line are under tension all the while, no twisting can happen.

Then nip aft and untie the bit of line, which should have been on
some kind of quick-release slip knot. You are now anchored with
3x depth of chain, and can adjust at leisure to however much you want.


Or you could design and build a gizmo which attaches between the
anchor and buoy. Initially they are tightly coupled, and the
gizmo has the tripping line coiled up inside it behind a trap door.
There is a mechanical 1-minute timer, primed by winding it up using
a key against a spring. Press the button, lower away the anchor as
normal, and when the timer expires, the trap door pops open, releasing
the tripping line, and the buoy shoots vertically to the surface, by
which time the chain will already be horizontal and out of the way.

.

Quantcast