Anchoring uptide of a wreck

[Newboy]

I'm pretty novice regarding anchoring ( pretty novice everything really ).

 

When we locate a wreck, how do we know which way is up tide? Is it experience, knowing which direction the tide goes or do we chuck a bit of bread into the water and see which way it goes ?

[boybilly]

Hi Kam, First job is to drift over it and get an idea about how it is lying and strength of tide. From this you will get the line for the anchorage and the distance. You are better off anchoring a bit farther than you need because you can always bounce the lead back into the wreck. Make sure you have enough warp and chain to hold because the chances of getting it back from the wreck are minimal mate. Dont forget you need to re-anchor when the tide changes, obvious but I have seen it forgotten. BB

[great white]

Its a hard one to describe in a few words Kam

 

It is really better left until you have some more experiance. as Billy says it is easy to get it wrong then the anchor gets dragged into the wreckage and its goodbye to that.

 

I would advise going out on a couple of Charter boats or Members boats to see how they do it before attempting it yourself.

 

If you are going tomorrow or Sat I will talk you through it, but a practical demonstration is far better.

 

Charlie

 

[duncan]

Unless you are already anchored, in which case it's a bit late, the bread will bob along beside you as you drift.......

 

If you have a chart plotter then first find your wreck and mark the wreck with waypoints as you drive over it on maximum map zoom (you will loose the map picture but you dont need it now) - one person steering one plotting should give you at least 6 points around the edge of the wreckage.

Now stop the boat near the wreck and delete the the track recording to clear the zigzags. Let the boat drift with the wind/tide a bit and you will see the direction as a single track line on the plotter screen.

Now go 'uptide' parallel to that drift line and anchor so that the boat drops back along the same direction from the anchor towards the wreck - the plotter showing the boat relative to the wreck and using the scale from the plotter screen you want about the same distance between boat and wreck as the depth when you have finished.

But -

(1) don't try and anchor with a short scope (less than 3:1) as if the anchor loses it's grip you can say goodbye to it as it get's to any real wreck.

(2) plan to recover the anchor after the tide has changed - again if you do it when the tide is running you can be back into the wreck before you realise it.

(3) mark your anchor rode accurately, and check the ground uptide of the wreck so that you can let the line down to a couple of metres shallow of the depth well uptide of the wreck then drift down to the position you think you want the anchor to get the boat where you want it, erring as said above on the anchor going early and you letting out extra scope to position the boat. This is a 2 man job based around calling the position on the plotter (line and length) and being prepared to abort the drop if you drift off line and start again.

(4) don't bother if the winds are strong or variable. You can just about get away with variable strength if the direction is constant and in the same direction as the tide.

(5) practice on a feature such as Evans Rock in Swanage bay or Lobster Rock or the patches in Poole Bay. The latter are in about 30ft so you can haul and drop the anchor a few times before exhaustion sets in! You don't actually need anything to practice on though - just create a way point on the plotter and try and anchor the boat relative to it. Like coming in to a difficult mooring it's something that people just don't practive enough to get confidence.

Enjoy

[Maverick Martin]

See its easy in it

 

Wish I could get it right though

 

Oh and nicely explained Duncan I must give it a try sometime

 

Martin

[Newboy]

I think I'll stick to drifting.........

[great white]

Nice one Duncan

 

Didn't work on Sunday anywhere near as well as we hoped

 

But that was due to slack water and a lot of variable wind.

 

 

 

Kam if you are already able to drift wrecks with a high percentage of repeat drifts over the actual wreck and fish, you must have sussed out how to work out where to start the drift from.

anchoring is sometimes just a case of going further away from the wreck into Wind and tide and then putting the hook down.

 

As Duncan says anchor well uptide and let out plenty of rope to position yourself in front of the rusty bit.

 

 

An easy one to sketch out but not explain here.

 

It does need a bit of practice but can definatly be worth the effort

 

Charlie