Dragging Anchor (or Losing a Mooring Ball)

Precautions You Should Take Beforehand | Back To The Case Study | Who is "The Coastie"?

Imagine the situation: it's the middle of a moonless night, wind howling at 30 knots+, blowing down the hill in Cane Garden Bay, British Virgin Islands. Rain squalls are coming through. There is a nasty reef entrance 100 yards behind you. Your anchor drags, or the mooring ball line breaks at 2:15am. WHAT DO WE DO on this brand spanking new 473 you just picked up in Road Town yesterday? And how should you have prepared beforehand?

By the way, you thought moorings balls are secure and comfy? Check this picture of a mooring ball which snapped in the Spanish Virgin Islands this year! (pic. contributed by David Booth).

Precautions You Should Take Beforehand

• Do a crew briefing before you ever get underway. During the briefing, you need to make sure your crew knows what to do if they need to set the second anchor. Where is the 2nd anchor? How do we set it? Have you selected the crewmembers that would assist you in such a situation and made sure they know what their duties would be?

• If your boat has the appropriate equipment, you can set up an anchor watch with the GPS, to be aware of the situation early.

• When anchoring the first time, a bearing should be taken where you are anchored at as well as a bearing to the escape path out of the anchorage. This is to include cross bearings or direct "from" bearing from a landmark to guide you out of the anchorage. So if you have no other alternative, motor to your original cross-bearings and without any other anchor, proceed out of the anchorage to open safe water.

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Dragging Anchor

First thing to do is start the engine! Do you have enough room to let out more chain, or do you have to pick up the first anchor? The chances are that if a reef is 100 yards behind you, you won’t have time to set the second anchor, and you need to pick up the first one and get back to windward away from the reef. Most charter boats are all chain on their first anchor and you need to have the engine running to work the windlass. Assign a crew member to secure the dinghy on a short leash or at least grab the painter and remove the slack.

There will be tense moment while you previously assigned crew is picking up the first anchor, yet not running over the top of the chain. If the second anchor is located in the anchor well, you could have dropped the second anchor and tried to make it hold, but frankly, if a reef is that close behind, you are better to pick up the first one and start over.

Mooring Ball Line Breaks

Back to preparation. Whenever I take a mooring ball, I get settled on the line that is on the ball, then I get a dock line, get in the dinghy, and put a bowline to the eye on the top of the mooring ball, running the dock line back to the other cleat on the bow I am not using for the original mooring ball line. This way, if the first line breaks, I have a back-up dock line attached to the mooring ball.

If the line from the bottom to the mooring ball breaks, that is a different kettle of fish! You are going to be going downwind fast! Tough situation, you could try to use reverse and turn your stern into the wind while you drop the mooring ball. Why would I do that? So I don't power forward and put the long line from the bottom of the mooring ball into my propeller! After dropping the mooring ball, I then decide if I am going to anchor or look for another mooring ball. How could we have prevented that problem? The only suggestion is to dive the mooring line to see if it looks OK.

One other thing, yelling voice commands through 30 knots of wind is impossible. Hand signals won't work at night. If you have a 3rd. crewmember who can act as a relay, have that person stand amidships. They can holler commands from the bow back to the helm and pass commands from the helm to the bow.

Catamaran

I use two lines, one from each of my bow cleats. I run each of the lines through the eye of the ball painter then back to the cleat. The lines are adjusted to center to eye along the centerline of the boat. If one line fails hopefully the other line will hold until discovered. If the painter fails or drags my response is the same; start the engines and maneuver to a safe location and assess the situation. (Cat Tip contributed by Terry Powell.)

The main moral here is that anchors WILL drag and mooring pennants WILL fail - so don't skimp on backing down boat to set anchor - use a 2nd anchor if the weather is not good - use plenty of scope and a heavy anchor. When you use a mooring add a safety line independent of the pennant and if feasible, snorkel to check that the mooring tackle looks in good order....
- or tie up at a dock and use about 12 spring lines ;-)

Bottom line is, prepare for the worst, and you probably will have no trouble!

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