What constantly amazes me is how many boats I see have undersized or inadequate ground tackle setups. Even if you’re not typically someone who anchors out overnight, a decent ground tackle setup is a necessity—as it is an important part of your safety gear aboard a small boat—not a luxury. There can be a lot of reasons you might need ground tackle, even if you don’t typically go out for more than a day sail.
A couple of examples:
1) Say your engine gives out on you and you can’t use your sails immediately for some reason. If the water is shallow enough, dropping the anchor will generally allow you to deal with the engine and/or sails and then resume your journey, without putting the boat at risk. This may be especially important in areas with strong currents, like many harbor approaches.
2) A really bad summer afternoon thunderstorm comes up, and you’re too far from the marina to make it back safely. Anchoring until the storm passes maybe the safest way to ride out the storm.
A decent ground tackle setup, like a Rocna 15 kg anchor, with 60' of 5/16" G43 high-test chain and 200' of 5/8" nylon octo-plait line is probably less than $1000. Add in a manual windlass, bow roller, chain pipe, bow chocks, rub strakes and cleats, and it is still less than $1600 all told. Takes about a weekend to install everything.
Rickcentalonza wrote:Thanks to all for your valuable input on the subject. I will work on my technique.
I guess in bad weather, if possible, it would be better to sit it out at anchor.
Rick