Great Wkend Anchored!

[Teejay]

Finally got out for the first time this year. Spent Saturday and Sunday on beautiful Shuswap Lake. Winds about 7 to 10 kts, overcast with the odd light rain shower, but it couldn't dampen our spirits! Found a nice spot to anchor for the night but just after dinner the winds picked up quite a bit. The started to swing back and forth quite a lot and I was reminded of last season when we got no sleep at all. Then I remembered Frank's anchor rode bridle, and figured I'd give it a try. Well, I set it up as best as I could remember, and boy was I impressed. Swing was reduced by at least 75%. No excessive swinging and banging of rigging. We slept great. Thanks Frank!

Fair wids to all,
Teejay

[Shane]

Teejay,

Welcome aboard to another BC'er. Did we happen to talk about M's back in the fall? Hope you have lots of fun. Shuswap is a great place to use both the pwr & sail features of a Mac.


Regards,
Shane

Finally got out for the first time this year. Spent Saturday and Sunday on beautiful Shuswap Lake.

[Frank C]

Great news, Teejay, to hear the bridle worked as well for your M as for my X.
Great name for that boat, too ... maybe it just takes a dash 'o salt & a splash 'o lime??

I'm still reluctant about overnight anchoring to just a stanchion, but I guess whatever works is positive. I'm sure all would welcome reading about any specifics of your rig that you'd like to share?

[Randy McCotter]

I've houseboated on Shuswap many times... where did you stay? if you go up to silver beach it's awesome ..... with a bar on the beach! Been thinking of taking my X down that way pretty soon.

[Teejay]

Frank;
Blue tequila is very smooth, so we named our blue after it. Now the admiral is on the hunt for a small infaltable, but it has to be "lime" green of course ...
I did tie the bridle to the stancion, but next time I'll try a longer rope and go to the rear cleat.

Randy;
We generally launch at either Chase or at Little River marina. We achored in Fraser bay, just up from Magna bay. I've been on the Shuswap lakes for over 30 years, but still find places that I havn't seen. Hope to get all the way down to Sicamous or Salmon Arm this year.

Teejay

[argonaut]

Ditto that, I also had a good weekend sleep thanks to Frank's bridle.
Last weekend out was 10-15mph all night. Having had pretty good success with the bridle last time, I repeated it. But I got the best results using the aft stanchion. I watched a compass and we only varied about 5 degrees... it was terrific!
I wasn't too worried because the load is split between the forward cleat and the stanchion, but now I think I want a mid cleat somewhere.
My aft line was about 2/3 the length of my forward line, I'd guess we ended up about 40-50 degrees off the wind.

[Catigale]

Argo - use your winch - its one of the strongest points on the boat...

[Frank C]

Good News, guys! There's simply no question that our light-weight, billboard-sized hulls are anchor-tacking when tethered solely at the bow. Tying-off the anchor rode at the fore-quarter prevents the bow from crossing the eye of the prevailing breeze, while still holding the bow pointed into the prevailing seas.

WE NEED a pair of beefy cleats mounted near the pulpit's aft stanchions, 8-inch or 10-inch cleats. A really clever implementation might integrate a cleat or line chock right into the pulpit's aft attachment, making it beefier with ample backing plate.

Matt Roving ... lurking out there?? Ask Roger to consider bagging those wimpy 6-inch bow cleats.
Re-position them to the fore-quarters, in a larger size.

[johnnyonspot]

Frank, can I get a link to this bridle?

[kmclemore]

Here ya go, Johnny.

[Frank C]

Thx Kmc.

Jots ... you can try the 3rd example, but that drawing was my drawing over-simplification of a more complex bridle. I've never tried the simplified version, but another owner said it didn't work for him. Just a guess, it's illustrated with rode taut to the bow, so that prolly defeats that bridle.

Notice in the second example that the rode is not taut to the bow .. it's cleated at the bow only as a fail-safe, but left slack. The rode is tied at the last pulpit stanchion. That tether point prevents the bow from tacking across the wind. So the easiest approach is just snubbing the rode at that stanchion. I know the 2nd example works well on my 26X, but I don't like using that stanchion. I bought a couple of 10-inch cleats instead.

If you really want to use an adjustable bridle, tie a bowline loop about 6 feet along a 20' dockline. Attach that bowline loop to your anchor rode using a cow hitch (bottom diagram), leaving slack to the bow. The anchor rode is still cleated at the bow, but it also has surplus slack from bow to the bridle. Tie the short end of bridle at the stanchion, and cleat-off the longer end back to your same-side sheet winch. The bridle's "bowline hitch" on the rode now permits you to adjust the anchoring tether point fore and aft along that side of the hull. (Fourth drawing tomorrow).



http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lark's_head

[Randy McCotter]

well, the other day, I was out in aprox. 25mph winds and trying to fish. Spent a lot of time swaying back and forth and it was driving me nuts..... oh wait... didn't I read about the bridle... ohhhh, I'm going to try that!!

Hooked up the bridle to my anchor rode and wrapped it around the winch. Added some tension and the swaying reduced by about 40%..... kept on winching in and letting out the anchor rode.... the swaying almost completely stopped!!! I found that the bridle was about 8-10 feet straight out from the dinette window (Stbd side) and it was holding great!!

Not only am I going to use this all the time, I'm also going to show it to other boaters in the area and maybe reduce some insurance claims for them as well. Fantastic idea ...... Thanks!!

[Frank C]

well, the other day, I was out in aprox. 25mph winds and trying to fish. Spent a lot of time swaying back and forth ... Hooked up the bridle ... and the swaying reduced by about 40%....

Good news Randy, and thanks for the feedback. I've found great success with an anchor bridle in those conditions. I posted more on an afternoon bridle test to the Anchor Away thread.

In a quick summary of that post, seems to me that a bridle works well in winds over 12 mph. But when winds are light the rode sometimes falls slack, and nothing seems to work too well, though perhaps a drag-anchor off the stern wd help. Just gotta remember to hoist it before starting the outboard. I suppose a steady river current would also serve to stretch out the rode and steady the Mac's anchor tacking.