Anchor question

[Bill Paxton]

How do you Weekender skippers deal with muddy anchors and rode? The forward hatch seems like a natural place to store them, but what tricks to you use to keep that space clean and dry?

[capt jake]

Wow! A good question!! That is on my to-do list!!

[Guest Anonymous]

15 tp 20 feet of anchor chain works well to keep the rode out of the muck and pretty much clean.

Anchor chain, and the anchor itself typically cleans pretty easy by simply swishing up and down a number of times before hauling in. At least in the muck waters I have experienced here in Maine.

Ray Frechette

[Barry Pyeatt]

That is typically a sticky question! :roll:

Yes, 15-20 feet of anchor chain helps. Swishing it around and taking a long handle brush to it before dropping it on deck will also help.

5 gallon buckets help too. That way you can keep the rode, chain and anchor seperated. There is room below the forehatch of the Weekender for two square and one round 5 gallon buckets and still get two marine batteries and the jib in there. I also have an oversized Rubbermaid storage container that I am cutting/forming to fit in the bottom of the well to act as a "dirty" container and keep the space clean. It can be removed to clean it out. It also keeps things from scratching thru the painted bottom and hull sides.

The Weekender that I saw in Hawaii had a plate on the foredeck that he had a mount on for the anchor with three brackets. It clamped into the brackets and the plate under it kept the deck from getting all beat up. He dumped the chain and rode down into a bucket in the forepeak.

[Johannah]

We have been keeping the anchor and rode in a large dish pan in the forpeake. But the forepeake is going to be crowded because I'm adding ballast bags filled with bottles of water plus canoe type flotation bags. So what to do with anchor and rode now? Having the anchor on deck is appealing in terms of functionality but alternative suggestions would be helpful.

[Guest Anonymous]

Yeah, get the ballast out of the forepeak. Or switch to ballast that is more dense.

I actually store my anchor and rode under the starboard cockpit seat.

I store it there mostly because the forepeak is just such an unfriendly space to be when on the water. Very tippy on deck.

Once the anchor is set, then I go forward to leat off on the bits and secure the rode in the chocks.

Another advantage of keeping the anchor and rode aft is if you are having trouble and bearing on a lee shore, the anchor is very accessible to deploy and cleat off on the stern cleats in worst case scenario.

[High C]

I'm thinking about hanging my Danforth type anchor from the bowsprit, like big boats do. Haven't given it much thought yet. So little brain to go around. :wink:

[Mike Pennington]

I have been storing my anchor in the cockpit, too. Simply because of the easy ability to deploy the dang thing while single handing the Vacationer. My other reason of coarse is I don't like a smelly cabin and I like to keep the forepeak dry and clean for those tons of other goodies. I have read on previous post that some builders have built a separate box beneath the forward hatch, sealed to keep from leaking below. I believe they used a plastic wash tub to contain most of the mess.