Video: Anchoring Your Boat

Transcript for Anchoring Your Boat

Haley: All right. This is the spot. Let’s anchor here. Whoa. That is not an anchor. This is an anchor. Even though we’re not in an emergency, you’d never want to trust your life or your boat to that. Here’s the deal.

Types of Anchors

Haley: There are three main types of anchors. The fluke-style anchor, also called a Danforth, is good for most boats and holds us by digging those flukes into the bottom. A plow-style anchor, also good for most boats, holds us in place by plowing into the lake bottom. And this is a mushroom-style anchor. There’s no gripping mechanism on this one. So it’s only for small boats when there’s little wind.

Haley: And it’s not as simple as throwing it overboard. There are a few things we need to consider when setting our anchor.

Setting the Anchor

Haley: That chain may look like overkill, but it actually helps set the anchor. Plus it saves the end of the rope from getting torn up on the bottom. It might also look like there’s too much line. But we need to let out about 7 to 10 times as much anchor line as the depth of the water, depending on the wind strength and wave size. And we never anchor off the back of the boat. Instead, we anchor off the front. We slowly motor into the wind or current past where we want to end up. If we want to end up there, here’s a good spot. And allow some room for changing currents and wind.

Rob: Whoa. Hold on. The rope is around my leg. That is one reason we lower into the water slowly.

Haley: Don’t just chuck it overboard. Take your time while lowering the anchor. You can let the boat drift or back up slowly until the rope is out. Then, tie it off to the bow cleat and make sure it’s set. All right. Let’s go swimming.

Haley: All right. That was fun. Let’s go retrieve the anchor.

Rob: All right.

Retrieving the Anchor

Haley: We motor toward the anchor slowly while pulling in the line. And once we’re over the anchor, it should come loose when you pull upward. And although it seems like a no-brainer, if the anchor’s stuck, don’t drag it behind a moving boat. Instead, circle the anchor with the line tight until it comes free. Then, stop and pull it up. And we store the anchor and its line nicely and neatly and where we can get to it in a hurry. Anchors aweigh. Let’s head back to shore.

On screen: boat-ed.com