CHAPTER 7 Setting up a sheer


When a strong tide is running past an anchored vessel, she can change the location where she lies by lashing the helm across. The water flowing past the rudder gives her stern a cant, the keel is presented at an angle to the stream and she ferry-glides away as far as her cable will allow. Very often, she will lie stably in the new position. This can be most useful in a crowded anchorage or when anchored close to a river bank, but care must be taken in a reversing tide, because the sheer which gave you comfort in one direction may set you ashore in the other.


Weighing under sail, the trick is to allow the head to pay off with the mainsail hoisted and the sheet set for a close reach. Not trying to point too high, the boat now sails as far as she can on one tack. When the cable snubs her up, tack and sail back near towards the anchor as possible, heaving in the slack cable as you go. As it comes tight, catch a turn, tack again, repeating the operation until the hook breaks out.


Fouled anchors Weighing anchor


Bringing an anchor back on board is generally just a matter of shortening the cable until it is ‘up-and-down’, motoring hard against it to break it out, then heaving it up. The conventional method is to motor ahead over the shortened cable, which trips out the anchor efficiently, but if you’re uneasy about going ahead over a rope or a chain, motoring hard astern is almost as effective and involves fewer potential dramas.


Fouling the anchor is usually predictable and can be avoided by not bringing up where the bottom is known to be littered with debris. Occasionally sheer bad luck pays a call and we are left with no choice but to try and clear it. If it’s not too cold or too deep, the ideal answer is to don the ship’s mask and snorkel (all should carry one), take the plunge and unhook the fluke from its snare. If this is not possible, use whatever power you have to heave the anchor up to within reach of the surface. A windlass is best, but failing this, you may be able to lead a messenger line to a primary winch. When you can get a hand to it, you will probably find that the fluke is around an old ground chain. Pass a line beneath this, make it fast, then slack away the anchor which, duly relieved, should fall free. This is the favoured technique in crowded Mediterranean harbours where many boats anchored stern-to can foul one another’s cables. If it doesn’t work, or the obstruction is too heavy to lift, try passing a small bight of chain under the anchor cable with a rope on each end and using the dinghy to ‘worry’ it down to the anchor. When it’s there, heave up and away from the boat as hard as you can. With luck, it’ll trip out the fluke. If this fails, buoy the cable with a fender, slip it, and return with a diver to retrieve your gear. Anchor buoy If you must anchor in dubious ground, attach a tripping line to the crown of the anchor and float it to the surface with a pickup buoy or an old fender. If the hook fouls, you can capsize it clear by heaving directly up on the line. This simple ruse works almost every time and is a highly worthwhile precaution.


MANUAL OF SEAMANSHIP | 83


Anchoring


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