Anchoring Your Pleasure Craft: Step-by-Step
Follow these steps to anchor your pleasure craft.
- Select an area to anchor with plenty of room. Ideally, it should be a well-protected area with adequate water depth and a sandy or muddy bottom.
- Head slowly into the wind or current to a position upwind or upcurrent of where you actually want to end up.
- When you are at that position, stop the pleasure craft and slowly lower the anchor over the bow to the bottom. Never anchor from the stern as this can cause the pleasure craft to swamp. The square stern may be hit by waves, and water will splash into the craft. The motor’s weight will add to this problem.
- Slowly back the pleasure craft away downwind or downcurrent. Depending on the wind strength, wave size, and the length overall of your pleasure craft, let out as much anchor line as needed. Tie off the line around a bow cleat, and pull on the anchor line to make sure the anchor is set.