How to anchor a boat - Step-by-step guide to anchoring

Easy-to-follow video guide on how to anchor a boat. In this short, animated video, you'll quickly learn how to master the essential basics of anchoring a boat.

This includes;

1. How to determine the correct amount of anchor scope.
2. How to drop the anchor.
3. How to set the anchor.
4. Easy ways to make sure you're not dragging your anchor
4. How to retrieve your anchor
5. What to do if your anchor is stuck.

Learning how to anchor a boat is a valuable skill. We hope that you find this quick video guide, with helpful hints and tips, useful in building your boating confidence.

[melissah]

Thank you for the video, especially addressing if the anchor gets stuck.

[mountaintopbob]

As a working charter boat captain retired, if you are fishing and find fish with your fish finder just stop over the fish and let the boat drift away the direction back to the fish is your anchor course. Run that direction over the marked fishing spot and drop anchor as you back the boat down. make sure you have at least five times the depth of water in anchor chain and anchor line and move far enough ahead of your desired fishing spot. make sure someone has a fishing road on the ready and as soon as the boat is out of gear send a bated hook to the bottom. Offen times the fish will be excited from the activity top side and go right into a feeding frenzy. If i was commercial fishing I would spin the boat around and pull the anchor from the stern. Fluck anchors only as Thay will float to the top as you move through the water. if you do this always remember your last anchor course as it will be the course you steer when getting ready to stop on your next fishing spot, I always used a white bleach bottle with enough line for a weight of some kind to reach the bottom to mark my spot. don't worry the anchor won't go to the bottom as long as you are moving through the water but don't run over the anchor line. again, move away from your marker floating in the water far enough to have all your anchor line straight off the stern, watch the bottom machine and back down hard as soon as you see fish to let the anchor settle to the bottom and again be ready to fish as the boat settles back on the hook. This is how i did it commercial bottom fishing in the Gulf of Mexico. WARNING always ride the hook from the bow when sleeping or just hanging out. heavy seas can damage stuffing boxes for shafts and rudders letting in sea water. Yall be safe out there.

[mattlechner]

if anyone wants another anchoring tip - 1) be sure to strongly wire your shackles shut so the pins don't unscrew while the anchor is deployed, 2) if you are on a small boat and the anchor gets stuck, sometimes you can free it using the weight of the people on board, when the line is taut every goes to the bow and then you snug in the line and secure it, then everyone goes to the stern and that may lift the bow enough to break the anchor free, 3) make sure your hands and feet don't get caught by the anchor chain and/or line as it pays out, 4) have some kind of chafing gear you can stuff into the bow chock around the anchor line if its windy and choppy, when it's choppy the boat can generate more "sawing" effect at the point of line and chock contact, even a rag will help a lot. 5) if you have a decent size boat, it's worth keeping a grappling hook on board in case you ever need to recover a lost anchor or mooring, 6) be sure to use nylon line that stretches, not dacron or any other kind of non-stretch line for your anchor rode, 7) try to use a metal thimble/eye to connect your anchor line to the chain, ideally well spliced on to the line, i.e. don't just tie it on.

[davedavids]

I have a few comments on this video, which in itself is pretty good.
When calculating the scope there are a few things to take into consideration. First of all there is the point in the boat where you measure water depth. Yes, my draft is 1.5. meters, but my depth meter is positioned at 1 meter depth, it is not in the keel of the boat. So when I read 4 meters depth in reality I have 5 meters.
Second. My bow is 3 meters above the water and yes I will have to include that into my calculations. Third, if I am anchoring in a sea with 1 to 2 meter waves I will need to add the height of the crest to my calculations. Fourth, if I am anchoring in a tidal area I need to add that as well in my calculations.
Now, when it comes to the total scope the 4 to 6 times is only a guideline, it is not holy. In other words, there is no such thing as: 'I have set my anchor well, I have a scope of 5 : 1, no matter what happens I am not going to drag'.
I wish that was the case, but it is not.
Just like with everything else the amount of chain you need is based on the forces that anchor has to withstand. And yes you can calculate those forces your boat excercises on the anchor. I hope everyone understands that the forces (in the same wind) on the anchor by a sleek sailing yacht are somewhat different from a high motor yacht with a large frontal area. In 4 Bft we are talking about 15 N/m2, but in 8 Bft we are talking around 105 N/m2. Multiply that number by the total square meters your boat has exposed to the wind and you will know exactly what your ground gear should be able to handle. As long as you stay on the positive side you should be OK. But it can mean you will have to let out much more chain than the 5 : 1 or 3 : 1 scope everyone talks about, expecially when the weather is bad.
Another thing many people are unaware of is why the anchor starts to drag. Yes, it can be bad soil e.g. a rocky bottom with a layer of sand on top of it. But what most people don't know is that any anchor will start to drag, good or badly set when the angle between the ground and the chain/line remains below 25 degrees. Already at 20 degrees angle the anchor will have lost 50 % of its holding power. At 25 degrees it has zero holding power. So, keeping the angle between the chain (and thus anchor shank) at zero degrees will give you the greatest amount of holding power. And if that means letting out more chain / rope than the 'holy' 5 : 1 than so be it. After all, the 5 : 1 scope is based on a calm sea and measured from the lowest part of a wave, not the crest.
And just as with the wind we can also calculate the forces on the anchor / chain through water currents. Obviously here only the part of the hull that is in the water is the important part, so you will need to guestimate the m2 of hull you have in the current, i.o.w. your frontal view. below the waterline. At 3 kts you will have about 470 N per m2, but at 4 kts you will have as much as 800 N/m2, which means that if you boat is about 5 meters wide and sticks about 1 to 1.5 meters deep you will have to deal with forces of close to 4000 - 5000 N. Your anchor and chain better be prepared for that. And mind you, this is without wind. If the wind would be in the same direction as the current you could easily end up in a situation where you won't have enough anchor and chain available.

[WillNGo]

Good basic video. I've done this many times, but still consider myself a beginner at anchoring.. Probably just set your anchor alarm app to the length of chain that you have out. Even though a lot of that chain is dropping vertically from the boat.
Marking your chain. I've seen anchor chains marked with faded paint, deteriorating plastic cable ties, but not the inserts (apparently these just fall out.) Anchor counters are good but expensive. By far the best method is to get some cheap poly rope and weave about a meter (3 feet) of it at the intervals you choose. On the Dutch boat I just sailed on it was every 10m (33'), on my American boat when I get around to it will be 25'. A longer Red length right at the anchor so I can slow down the windlass when near the end (so the anchor doesn't just pull through the front of the boat.) I've decided 25' Yellow 50' Green, 75' Blue 100' Red(again), repeat. (I've got 200' of chain). I'll also mark the rope rode after this same scheme. What doesn't work is Red then White then Green then White for 10m and 5m intervals. If you look up to reassure the captain that you are checking the length of the scope, that every other white will screw you up. It did us. There are no rules for weaving the poly, anything works and it doesn't fall out. (Someone complained that they'd seen a lot of poly rope fragments floating in the ocean. It's not anchor chain marking. It's the most commonly used rope by commercial fishermen.)
I've sailed with guys who boast about their years of sailing who say, "You've got a power windlass, just dump all your chain It's easy to pull it all back up." This guy also never wanted to back up to set the anchor. That clump of anchor chain can cause a lot of problems. Try getting a tangle undone that is being pulled down by 100' of chain. This is just bad practice. Anchoring is an essential sailing skill.
The instruction, "Head your boat into the strongest element" means into the current or the wind which ever is stronger. (A 2 knot current is stronger than an 8 knot wind. )
Use an anchor alarm. The ones that are really good work off your boat's navionics and GPS and will send you a message about dragging when you're off the boat. The ones on your phone move around with you. If you get off the boat they can no longer tell if your boat is drifting. Phone apps also only tell you the distance from where you dropped the anchor to where you are now. (So if you set it at the bow and then go to sleep in the aft cabin of a 45' (13m) boat, you've just moved your location about 10m or at least 30' this can cause trouble. It took me quite a while to hit 'set' on the Anchor Alarm app when I was standing next to the anchor being dropped into the water. That's where the anchor is. If you wait, to set it, a boat with an anchor scope of 60m might 'set your anchor alarm' to a point 40m from where the anchor is. In one direction if the boat moves 20m the alarm will go off, in the other direction it'll be 100 m before it alerts you.
I've tried the two points on land, taking a photo, etc... and I'm really good at this sort of thing. It's never worked. When you're worried about your anchoring the only true eassurance will be when you raise it in morning and your keel isn't stuck.
And don't hesitate to get up in the middle of the night to check your anchor and position. When I have that 3 am need to pee, I'll go out and check the anchor. I had one night where nothing seemed right, I'd set the alarm too short. I finally just slept in the cockpit. My sleep wasn't as important as not dragging, hitting another boat or ending on the beach. I did sleep better in the cockpit because I didn't have to go all the way topside to check, I just raised my head.
Another time I hooked another anchor that was almost exactly the same as mine. They locked together. Tight. I was screwed. I hauled them both up, lifted them out of the water with the spinnaker halyard, tied a rope to the top one and eventually worked them apart. BoatsUS was on its way with an angle grinder.

[CheersWarren]

Thanks for correctly using the water depth alone as the starting point to determine the ratio for the chosen scoop (3:1, 5:1 etc)
Sadly most American guide books have misinterpreted the badly written latest Coast guard guide to include the hieght of the bow roller above the waters surface as the starting point length. This leads to excess rode being deployed. This will cause havoc in a shallow tidal anchorage with boats of varying sizes .
Are you basing your instruction on the RYA guide?
Cheers Warren

[whatsupshittafabraans]

Shackle security is a must, safety lock Wie is best but coat hanger wire is crude but better than nothing, be careful on crane hosted loads if the loads been wiggling back n forward, they do work themselves undone, nigh impossible to work up a thread tight, they 99.94% undone, and whammy, injury damage or death will happen

[HughDenbigh]

I’m assuming this is fresh water!! Or a short stay! If not, before setting your anchor, check your charts and tide tables!☝️

[kashfiqbal]

How can you tell how much line you’ve let out?

[brycemitchell]

4-6x depth? If we did that in a bay with other boats we would have a mess of boats together. Especially when Cats, monos and motor yachts swing differently.

[rykehuss]

Basic video, not enough information. How much rode you need depends on the conditions. Calm, no wind no current? 3 to 1 on rode to depth is fine. Ride out a storm? 10 to 1 preferable, or more. 10 meters of chain is not enough for a boat that size in the animation. Rule of thumb is take as much chain as your boat/winch allows. Chain is always better than rope, as long as your boat can handle it safely. Another rule of thumb is chain meters = boat meters. The chain is what keeps the anchor secure, its what lays it down.

So you have to look at where youre anchoring, what kind of weather youre expecting (or not expecting), and go from there. You are in trouble if youre trying to anchor with only 5 to 1 ratio and the wind and waves are strong enough to push you towards shore.

[djyfftk]

Thank you for that video, . 4-6times Too much.