moring in rough water, any ideas

stylesabu

Master Chief Petty Officer
Joined
Aug 2, 2009
Messages
849
I was in Canada a couple of weeks ago, dock broke ropes and beat docks and boats to pieces. Any ideas on how to more a boat in rough water, with a huge anchor
 

stylesabu

Master Chief Petty Officer
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Aug 2, 2009
Messages
849
Re: moring in rough water, any ideas

I meant without a huge anchor
 

rallyart

Lieutenant Junior Grade
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Jun 7, 2008
Messages
1,184
Re: moring in rough water, any ideas

I'm guessing you are talking about the boat in your profile. First cover it to stop as much water getting in as you can. Install an automatic bilge pump. Even if it runs until the battery dies it is easier to charge a battery when it is on the surface than under it.
Next put a buoy on the anchor line and attach the boat to the buoy by a rope from the bow ring. The idea is to have the pull on the boat straight out and not down under the waves. You have to have the anchor well set and you will want a good length of heavy chain attaching your anchor line to the anchor. Bungy cord lines and most other kinds of stretch lines will just get pulled out completely in very rough conditions so they are not a help.

Here is my boat in 5' waves and high winds. The wave crests were about 30' apart in this storm in the mountains. It lasted about 90 minutes and took less than 10 minutes to build from calm waters.
10877.jpg
I'm sure you'll get other ideas too.
 

rbh

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Mar 21, 2009
Messages
7,939
Re: moring in rough water, any ideas

I'm guessing you are talking about the boat in your profile. First cover it to stop as much water getting in as you can. Install an automatic bilge pump. Even if it runs until the battery dies it is easier to charge a battery when it is on the surface than under it.
Next put a buoy on the anchor line and attach the boat to the buoy by a rope from the bow ring. The idea is to have the pull on the boat straight out and not down under the waves. You have to have the anchor well set and you will want a good length of heavy chain attaching your anchor line to the anchor. Bungy cord lines and most other kinds of stretch lines will just get pulled out completely in very rough conditions so they are not a help.

Here is my boat in 5' waves and high winds. The wave crests were about 30' apart in this storm in the mountains. It lasted about 90 minutes and took less than 10 minutes to build from calm waters.
View attachment 99768
I'm sure you'll get other ideas too.



You on the Shuswap in that PIC???

Storms come up fast and hard, you have to pay attention.
 

rallyart

Lieutenant Junior Grade
Joined
Jun 7, 2008
Messages
1,184
Re: moring in rough water, any ideas

Yep, those are coming down the main lake from the narrows. They only had 5 miles to build but that storm sure pounded a lot of stuff.
 

fishrdan

Admiral
Joined
Jan 25, 2008
Messages
6,989
Re: moring in rough water, any ideas

This isn't mooring, but I've had good luck anchoring in rough conditions with a 10# Navy anchor (Hooker brand) 10' of 3/8 chain and a 7-1 scope of anchor line. 7-1 scope is 7' of anchor line for every 1' of depth, so in 30' of water you want at least 210' of anchor line out.

I have moored like this a couple times also, drop the anchor 200-300' off shore, then play out a doubled over anchor line (one end tied to the boat and the other end free to secure on shore). When you get onshore, pull on the free end and it will pull the boat away from shore. Of course you need another line tied to the boat so you can pull it back to shore. Though, if the waves were as bad as you say, I'd be sweating bullets.

(BTW, I have 700' of anchor line on my 18'er since I boat on big reservoirs, 3-4' waves common, 5'-7' possible)
 

NHGuy

Captain
Joined
May 21, 2009
Messages
3,631
Re: moring in rough water, any ideas

So true, for anchoring use 7:1 scope with a good anchor and lots of chain between the anchor and the line. I have 6' of chain for normal conditions and another length that I can add for storm use.
Mooring has a different standard, heavy block anchors with chain & cable and a mooring ball floating in a designated spot.
But you wrote that the docks broke ropes, were they stationary docks or floaters? There are different tie off techniques for each. I boat on a lake that only varies in depth by a few inches a year so I spring tie my boat at the slip, by that I mean it is tied so it stays between the dock and pilings without touching them.
 

sublauxation

Lieutenant
Joined
Oct 13, 2008
Messages
1,317
Re: moring in rough water, any ideas

But you wrote that the docks broke ropes, were they stationary docks or floaters? There are different tie off techniques for each. I boat on a lake that only varies in depth by a few inches a year so I spring tie my boat at the slip, by that I mean it is tied so it stays between the dock and pilings without touching them.

I think the poster meant they were tied to docks, but I may be wrong. I had mine break off a floating dock last summer. If you don't mind elaborating, what's the difference when you tie to a floating dock vs a fixed dock?
 

rbh

Fleet Admiral
Joined
Mar 21, 2009
Messages
7,939
Re: moring in rough water, any ideas

Yep, those are coming down the main lake from the narrows. They only had 5 miles to build but that storm sure pounded a lot of stuff.

When you get wind s coming from the west (Kamloops) they funnel through the narrows and pick up the winds coming down Anesty and all hell breaks loose

HUGE ROLLERS!!!

We usually set up 2 klicks north of marble point and get beaten by storms almost every weekend were out during the summer (hot cold inversion late afternoon evening???)

anyways we drop our 16 pound danfourth over the lip of the drop off and it digs into the clay/dirt wall very good, 40' 3/8 chain and 80-100 foot rode.

pretty wild seeing the 29 foot sundancer doing the dance at anchor in the 3-6 foot troughs.
 
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