Anchoring techniques

Using a tripline

Anchors can get jammed under rocks, stuck under heavy chains, or can get entangled in discarded netting. Especially volcanic seabed is prone to grapple all types of anchors.

Therefore a tripline is often required to retrieve the anchor.

Tripline connecting the anchor to a floating buoy via a tripping ring.

The image shows the proper use of a tripline (in yellow) – connected to a tripping ring on one side and a floating buoy on the other side.

  • The tripline should only be a few metres longer than the depth, or you could use a counterweight to keep the line taut (tidal waters).
  • This line should be strong enough to lift the anchor using an (anchor) winch.
  • Do not use a tripline in a location where it can foul the propeller of other yachts; (the entrance) of a port for instance.

Using a snubber

Anchor chain snubber or bridle correctly for charter yachts.

An anchor snubber is an elastic line that attaches to a boat's anchor chain on one end and mooring hardware on the deck at the other; a bridle uses two elastic lines.

Once the anchor is adequatly dug in, attaching a snubber or bridle (indicated in red) to the anchor rode will create a sacrificial layer and reduces strain on the bow roller and winch. It also reduces swaying and yawing and the noise of the chain.

Using a kellet

On charter yachts the second anchor – often deployed at the stern as illustrated below – has a combination rode (i.e. a rope + a few metres of chain) instead of a full chain rode.

The weight of this section of chain allows for a horizontal force (pulling along the seabed) instead of pulling partly vertical which would hamper the grip of the anchor.

The chain length is therefore a compromise: while a longer chain section is safer, it would make it too difficult to deploy the anchor from the dinghy.

Anchor sentinel or kellet for charter yachts.

Without a full chain, one can use a sentinel or kellet (as heavy as possibly) to:

  • provide a better angle.
  • get a catenary effect that improves the dampening, like a snubber on an all-chain rode.
  • keep the rode away from other boats and propellors.
  • keep the rode from wrapping your keel / rudder / prop in light winds or shifting currents.

Better holding should be achieved with a full chain rode, with a heavier chain and a heavier anchor. In other words: the primary anchor.
The kellet is therefore typically used in light winds or only with the second anchor.

In the Mediterranean a kellet or sentinel is not commonly used, since:

  • in case of an emergency it takes longer to raise anchor(s).
  • when the winds pick up or turn it can affect the (location of) the swing circle.
  • when the seabed has rocks there is an increased risk of fouling the chain or line, and there can be a chafing issues in case of a anchor line.

Watch keeping while at anchor

Ideally there are enough crew members to set up a watch system for 1½ hour watches, or shorter. The most stressful and difficult watches (e.g. tidal or weather changes or moonset) should be filled by the most experienced persons. If the skipper expects to get woken every now and then, he/she/they is best left out of the roster.

  • Keep the engine key at a standard place at hand.
  • Keep a search light at hand.
  • Write down the order of crew members and their wake-up times.
  • Make sure the skipper is woken even when in doubt.
  • Wear a life jacket outside the safety of the cockpit.

Day signs and anchor lights

A black sphere is used for a day sign, as shown below on the left, and an all-round white light is displayed during the night, as shown below on the right.

Anchored sailing vessel Day sign Anchored sailing vessel abeam

For more in-depth lights & signs descriptions, see chapter 10 of my navigation course.

Other yachts at anchor

If possible, anchor away from other yachts. With other vessels close, you should try to anchor near yachts that are similar to yours.
For example, a keelboat is much more influenced by currents than say a powerboat with its shallow draft. Powerboats instead tend to swing with the wind, (small) catamarans likewise.

Of course, in the absence of current, the keelboat will also swing with the wind. Assess how vessels will swing on their anchors if conditions change.

Your yacht will swing in a circle whose radius is, to a first approximation, the length of the rode you have out plus the length of your boat. The swing circle for other catamarans, motor yachts, etc. is found in the same manner.

You would like to be further away than your swing radius from the swing circle of any other vessel.