Sailing at Anchor

There was a recent article in Cruising Helmsman magazine about that. Giving your yacht a 'wedgie' was the articles name. The author of the article was cruising in the Hebrides and met an old salt who had cruised extensively throughout the North Sea and Scotland where windy anchorages are common. He showed them how to stop their yacht yawing from side to side in gusty conditions by hoisting a wedge shaped sail near the stern. If I recall they used a storm gib folded to create a wedge shape and hoisted so that the apex of the fold is forward with the clew and tack (now creating 2 clews) secured aft. They had to add extra cringles at each end of the fold (new head and tack) to secure the sail to a halyard and the new tack to a suitable deck or cockpit fitting. This sail kept the yacht stable within a point to port or starboard.

Though you are adding more windage the wedge shape of the sail means that if the boat veers, lets say to port, then the starboard side of the sail backs more than the port side. This pushes the stern around opposing the yaw and centres the boat to the anchor. I hope that makes sense.

Yes HGO2 that is exactly what I was referring to, maybe a little less colourful though.
From what I understand there are two types, being the flat sail and the wedge type. I was wondering if anyone had any experience with them or any other methods that could be used to slow the movement down at anchor. Particularly in crowded anchorages. TKNick the one you describe is a little different but closer to the wedge design. It sounds interesting and I may investigate that further.

what a great topic !!!!!! keep em coming !!!!

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manitulak said..
Thanks Nick, will try.

cool , please give a report on effectiveness

very interesting stuff ............

Yes the bridal is off centre, in the pic you can see that there are two leads for the bridal, unfortunately the second was chafed and it wasn’t used at the time. If I use a single straight bridal over the second anchor roller I lose access to my anchor locker.
It is my intention to have a new bridal made which will come through both the Port and Starboard fairleads to the deck cleats, this should balance it up. That said I don’t know if this is the root cause of my problem. From what I understand if the centre of effort is forward of the Pivot point (Fin Keel) then the bow lifting and falling away can be a problem.
From what I have read, if I can move the point of effort aft by the use of the riding sail then my problem may be greatly reduced. Now I just have to decide between the wedge and the flat riding sail.

Have a look at the photo of the boat with the triangle thingi.
Looks like it is sailing with the anchor rode approx 45 deg off the port side.

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RiffRaff said..
Frant,
I had considered the effective sail area forward, there is also an effective sail area aft i.e. Bimini etc. It seems that there is slightly more forward which in effect causes a swinging effect and snatching when on anchor in gusty conditions.
I have only just got the boat to Perth and I am pre-empting those gusty SW breezes in summer. I am still not 100% convinced about the Riding Sail but it seems like a reasonably small cost to find out.
It seems from reading on the internet that this is a common problem.
I have also read about other options using a drogue or bucket on the anchor rode just below water level, stern anchors etc etc.

I think that sailing at anchor is simply an unavoidable side effect of an efficient fin keel hull and aerodynamically efficient rig. The use of a mizzen on the H28 is not required as the boat wont sail to windward and they sit at anchor quite nicely as it is.

Its not much use having a boat pointing into the wind at anchor if the boats anchored near by are zapping all over the place. Best to do what the others are doing.

also, if you are snatching at anchor in 25 knots you increase the chance of dragging.

+1 I've been tempted to do the same thing a few times. When it's 28deg c at 5 in the morning and nary a puff of wind I figured we'd get more relief ass around. Only hassle is centering a stern line. And our open transom with big wakes.

As I tried to explain, if you have a sail or other vertical area at the aft part of the vessel, it only corrects a swing once the boat has actually moved out of alignment with the wind. This is better than nothing, but is not as good as the wedgie. The wedgie creates drag when it is lined up with the wind, and a side force +drag when it moves out of line. The drag works with anchor tension to keep the boat straight.

There is another factor, and that is hull shape. Most hulls are designed to be directionally stable when moving forward. Move astern, and the underwater profile tends to induce a sideways movement, paticularly with a long keel. As an example, my long keel T/S is much more steady at anchor if I lift the rudder out of the water. On the air side, tilting the bimini forward to act as an air brake at the back of the boat, also reduces the shearing movement.

Anchoring by the stern is fine, if that is the only way to move the boat windage away from the anchor connection, plus the underwater shape is now more directionally stable. However, on some boats a flat stern can cause wave slap, making it more noisy, particularly if you are in an aft cabin. (Go the Manitou double ender!)

so does lashing the rudder in any position help solve the problem ? ............... or drogue cleated aft ,will that help ??? ...

In the example above there was a strong tide too. The boat was moving that fast that one bloke in an inflatable could not get alongside, it was quite a violent movement side to side. The mooring was the type with a large buoy and a rope toggle about 10 feet long. Bit of rudder blade down and a lashed tiller would have been a smart move. Still would have zapped about but the oscillations would have been slower. I wish I had a video camera there that day. I should add that I had some difficulty getting alongside my vessel the same day, dog got knocked off the tender and I had to rescue him first!

I lash my tiller centered on the mooring. In fresh winds the yacht sails up the mooring with just the mainsail cover. My solar panels are mounted vertically one each side of the pushpit, almost parallel. These I think aid in keeping the boat stable at anchor/mooring. Some yachts here sail right around their moorings in fresh conditions.
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samsturdy said..


Well I've learned something here. When I bought my boat I noticed that on the swing mooring the tiller was lashed centre.
I thought this was just to make the cockpit look 'tidy', but I realise now that the previous owner new what he was doing.
BTW, I always leave the tiller lashed when I leave the boat (swing mooring) because it looks tidy....Oh dear.

Most wear on boat rudder bearings occurs at moorings. The rudder lashed is going to prevent most of it.