Best Method to Anchor your yacht solo

The Best Method to Anchor as a Solo Sailor

The best method to anchor as a solo sailor? More important, is why I anchor using a certain method. This is how I anchor, anchoring is quite personal, generally based on your level of experience. Everybody has a slightly different approach to anchoring and it will depend on you, the type of boat you own, also the type of anchoring gear that you're using.

I’m currently using a Rocna anchor as my main anchor. The Rocna is a beast, digs in and holds incredibly well. The Rocna is attached to the yacht with 10mm short link galvanised chain. I have a heavy duty deck mounted windlass with anchor chain on one side and a rope drum on the other side.

I’ve been sailing and boating for over 30 years. I've done a lot of sailing, I've also done a lot of anchoring in a variety of different situations and bottom types and in some incredibly terrible conditions. 

This is the best method to anchor as a solo sailor, a technique that I've developed for anchoring as a solo sailor using the motor of the yacht to move into the anchorage, there are times when you will need to sailing into an anchorage and anchor. When I'm looking at an anchoring position, I first do a recon of my charts. So I'm working out where I'm going and where I think I'm going to be able to anchor.

I'll plot a course to that position to make sure that it's actually safe to get in there on a high and low tide.  If I've got paper charts, great. If I've got an electronic chart, which is more the case these days. Something such as Navionics, I will go to the smallest scale and review the tiny details such as reefs, bommies, made made structures. I'll have a really good Iook at the course I plotted, review the course all the way into that position and where I plan to anchor, I also trying to review the bottom type If it's available to me.

On Navionics you will find comments where people have been anchoring in the past, a little comment, and if you read those comments. People often mention the bottom types, so they're worth reading because someone's been out there and they said, sand or it's mud or it's coral. Also if  it's difficult to anchor, or they dragged anchor a lot. 

Those things are handy to know. So the other thing I do is I check the tides. Tides are incredibly important for anchoring. Some places have huge tides, you will find 10m to 15m tides and you need to be really aware of these situations. It's easy to be caught high and dry if you mess this up.

I'll check the tides for the next few days because I'm going to be anchored there. I want to make sure the tides are relevant for the next few days, sometimes tides are just plain weird and make no sense. Also, I'll always ensure that I have two metres of water under the keel of my yacht or I try to get at least two metres under the keel. It's super important as a solo sailor to set yourself up for success.

I also try to forecast the swell. If I get 1m of swell in the anchorage and I only have 2m of depth under the keel, then in the bottom of those swells I would only have 1m of depth under the keel, not great. My keel is getting very close to the bottom every time, the boat lifts up and drops down. A big swell might result in a hard grounding on the keel. I try to find a desirable anchor spot for myself. That has plenty of water not affected by swell.

Maybe a little bit of protection from a headland or a land mass. Then I will review the tides and my keel calculations, the reason I do that is, often you're tired, you're not really thinking about it that much, it seems right. You know I found myself going to places and I really messed that up when I was dog tired.

So check it again, maybe check it the third time or get someone else to check it. If your in doubt, initially I check the wind direction and what I think it's going to be for the next couple of days. I'll check the tides again. I'll check any currents that may be present. If you're in a river, make sure that you understand what the tides are. If there's any tides changing in the river. Particularly for the entrance to a river. How many boats are going to be in that area? and how many boats may be coming? If the swell is running, check the direction as well.

Is this going to come into that anchorage? Or come into that anchorage after you've got in there, these things can make your anchorage incredibly uncomfortable. The bottom type is important, so if you can get that information off, Navionics. Great. If not check around the local area, look at the land mass, the banks of the anchorage can indicate the bottom type.

If it's all rock or sandy, chances are the bottom type is going to have a combination of sand and mud. All right, once I've done all those things and I'm comfortable that I'm going to be able to anchor in that area and my boat is going to be safe for the duration that I plan to stay there I will approach the area. As I approach, I'm looking at escape routes. So I'm looking at how I get out of there in the middle of the night if something goes wrong in the middle of the night, and i need to leave.

So I'm looking at reefs, I'm looking at man-made and artificial dangers. I'm looking at other boats. I'm considering all of these factors as I'm moving in to anchor, to make sure this anchorage is safe to leave as a solo sailor. As I get closer I will turn the motor on, I'll then drop the sails. I'll make the boat ready to anchor as a solo sailor, clean decks, no hazards. I will then make sure that the anchor is ready to release. I’ll release the anchor chain lock on the chain. I'll make sure that can be taken off. And the windless and the anchor are ready to lower.

I'll then go to the spot where I want to anchor, so I'll find that desirable spot. And I might take a little bit to find it. I'll be just checking depths and once I found a spot, say five metres deep which might be a nice comfortable depth at low tide.

Must provide not less than two metres under the keel. I'm happy, I'll come to that spot. I'll then do a lap around my swing room on that anchor spot. So I'll travel around 360 degrees from that spot at approximately 25m to 30m Which is my swing room in a 5m depth anchorage to check if there's any bommies or reef.

When motoring around in that circle, I'm looking over the side to see what the bottom is like, if there's room there, is there weed, are there fishing pots. Once I've done that, I'll come back from down wind towards that anchor spot. As I get closer, I'm washing off all speed, I'm slowing right down. This is me entering as a solo sailor. I washed off all boat speed, once I get to the spot where I wanted to drop my anchor. The boat is basically at a standstill.

I select neutral, move forward to the bow. I lower the anchor and chain overboard, it's 5m deep. I put the first five metres down. With the boat drifting back. I put the next 5m down, drift back a little more, I put the next 5m down So now I've got 15m of chain on the bottom. What I'm doing now is trying to get that chain to go taut and get the anchor to dig in. I want the anchor to set. It’s also the reason I don't dump all my anchor chain on top of my anchor.

I want the boat to be slightly drifting away and the anchor chain to be laying out flat, and not laying on top of the anchor and fouling the anchor. So ideally my boat is drifting away. It should pull tight and come to wind, which means that my anchor is digging in. If it's not happening, I'll put out more anchor chain.

Sometimes the anchor just drags along the sand a bit, or until they set or the the anchor landed on its side in the mud and its just not setting. If it doesn't set, I will pull it up and I'll go back and start again from my original spot depending on the swing room. But once it sets, I stand there for a moment. Make sure that it has set. When the boat stops moving I'll go back down to the cockpit.

I'll put the boat into reverse gently. I'll set that anchor further. Then I'll add more power to the boat in reverse until I know that that anchor is set and dug in. I'll select neutral, I'll move forward and then I'll release another 10 or 15 metres of chain. So that I’ve now got 25m out and a five to one scope, which is what I always work on as minimum, five to one safe anchoring scope in normal conditions.

If it's going to be windy, I might put out another 10m. So that I've got, you know, seven to one scope out. If its going to be really windy or a gale and you have swing room put it all out. You know, there's no point having chained in the locker, in the middle of a storm, it doesn't do you any good. So, if you've got the room, And you need it, you put the chain out. If it's going to be light conditions, you put out a five to one minimum, it's going to be heavier, seven to one or more. If it's going to be a gale, put out all the chain, if you've got the scope to swing in that spot. Most yacht don't carry more than about 100 metres of chain. So, most boats in deeper images, never get more than about a five to one ratio.

I then lower my anchor buddy down the chain if it's going to be windy. I have a 20 kilo piece of Steel, it's got a chain on each end, and it has a stainless steel carabiner on one end and a rope on the other end. I lean over the barrel, I clip that onto the chain, I then lower that 20 kilo piece of steel down my chain with the rope until it touches the bottom. I then raise it up a metre.  I secure it to a cleat so that the 20 kilo anchor buddy stays off the seabed. 

I will then attach my snubber to the anchor chain with a rolling timber hitch. The other end, I'll attach a cleat and I've got really heavy bow cleats, it has to be a solid point. So this cleat is designed to take up the load on the chain and the boat between the chain and the boat. Any snatching any movement because of swell or wind, It just makes your life on anchor more comfortable, and quieter. So I then release more chain out until that anchor snubber is taught. I use a nylon rope. It's rated to 3 tonnes with a little bit of stretch in it, I use 5m. Once the anchor snubber is tight. I then put an anchor chain lock on my anchor chain. I use a rope sling around my windlass with an anchor chain hook, I put that onto the anchor chain. So if the anchor snubber snapped, I then have another backup before it gets to my windlass.

The last thing you want is your anchor chain loading up your windlass in a storm because something snapped, it will bend or damage your windlass. So I've had it happen before through my own fault. But I'm trying to protect my windlass from damage because it's essentially when you're trying to get 100m of chain in So, at that point, my boat is anchored. I've got the anchor set, anchor buddy down, I've got the snubber on. I've got the chain lock on. I'm pretty comfortable. I'll stand up and I'll take visual bearings of my location. I'm looking towards the wind, left and right and behind me. So I've got a reference point of where I am in case my electronics failed in the future. I then move back to the cockpit. I turn on my chart plotter anchor alarm. The plotter obtains a position of where I am at that point in time. If I've got a 25m swing, I'll put a 50 metres alarm on the Chart plotter.

So the boat can swing around without setting off the alarm, at that point I'm quite comfortable. My yacht is in a position where it should be. The anchor is set into the seabed the chain is laid out correctly. I've got some swing room. I'll turn off the engine. I'll go down and have a cup of coffee or a beer.

 If I'm not sure that the anchor is set correctly, I'll put on a set of fins and a face mask, I'll jump overboard and I'll swim on the anchor. If the water's clear enough, if it's not clear enough or too deep, I'll just take a punt that everything I’ve done is working, but I've got the anchor alarm to back me up as well.

That's what I do to anchor my vessel, to keep myself, my boat and my crew safe. I see lots of other people, just come in and they dump the anchor and chain and then go have a beer. In many cases the anchor hasn't even dug in, it's not set. When the wind picks up their boat starts dragging and then they worry about trying to set their anchor. So the time you take setting up your anchor, digging it in correctly and making everything secure when you first arrive is essential to a peaceful night's sleep.

Safe sailing and see you out there.

Regards Trev

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