deck Mounted Anchor Locker Hatch

[colobear]

Amanda,

I see that Vail is not too far from Tucson. There is a US Coast Guard Auxiliary flotilla in Tucson. They teach boating safety classes and I would strongly encourage you to take one. There is a class called "About Boating Safely", it is a one-day class and includes a lot of information and a good take-home book. You will learn about anchoring, boating safely, "rules of the road" for boats, a little bit about knowing where you are on the water and how to navigate plus information about boating emergencies, etc. The class usually costs between $25 and $50 and is well worth the money and time. The flotilla has a website you can find by searching for USCG AUXiliary Tucson. The flotilla commander is Nellie Doran and her e-mail is: aafurnrescue@theriver.com, the person in charge of their safety classes is Mike Devine and his E-Mail is: mike62@q.com. I teach that class for our flotilla here in Anacortes, WA. and will be glad to help you in any way I can PM me if I can be of assistance.

[jacuthbert]

Jim
Thank you so much for the information, especially the part about slowly motoring toward the anchor instead of using the windlass to pull the boat to the anchor, and also the part about anchoring at Lake Powell. As soon as I get a keel guard, I will try running the bow up onto the shore.

I will look into getting a depth sounder. I really have no idea how to wire up something like that. I am a little leary of letting my local mechanics and stereo type people fiddle with the wiring as I am not seeing CDorys around here and if anybody's going to screw up my boat it's going to have to be me!

Thanks again.
Amanda

[Captains Cat]

Amanda, go ahead and buy a depth sounder now. Look for sales and get recommendations from folks here on the Brats. Take it to Lake Powell with you, look at how all the others have installed theirs and then do what they did. Bet you can do it! The hardest part is drilling holes in the boat. The hardest hole is the first one, the next ones are easier!!

While at the launch ramp, look particularly at how they mounted their transducers (the thing that goes back on the stern).

Glad you kept the boat? We are!

Charlie

[jacuthbert]

Dear Charlie
I shall take your advice! What kind of depth sounder do you have?
Amanda

[Captains Cat]

Amanda I have two. One is built into a Garmin 545 chartplotter I'd have to dig up the info on it and I will as soon as I get the boat in the water. The other is built into a Raymarine E-80 Multifunction display (Radar, chartplotter, etc).

I'm of the old school where you can't have too many of anything. Cars, garages, computers, depth sounders, boats, women (no wait, one of those is enough). I see you've created another thread to find the "best" depth sounder. You need to tell us what electronics you have now, you may be able to combine a depth sounder with that. Have not read it yet though.

Charlie

[thataway]

Amanda,
Go to Amazon and buy Chapman's Piloting and Seamanship. It is full of wisdom--and if you can make it all of the way thru it, you will have a store house of knowledge.

See my post about the depth sounder thread. We can walk you thru the installation.

Until you have the depth sounder, you should mark your anchor line. I just use electrical ties, and put one thru the line at specific distances. You can buy bundles which have different color ties, or put one tie at 25 feet, second tie at 50 feet etc--and then space them differently. That way you can guess the depth when you drop the anchor. It was not that long ago that some of us were boating before there were no depth sounders available--and we used "lead lines" This was a weight on the bottom of a thin line, which had markings every 6 feet (or fathom). We would count the knots in the line as it paid out to the bottom and could tell in the dark how deep (approximately) the bottom was. You can use you anchor rode as a sort of sounding line. Wow--you were lucky that no wind came up etc. You need a lot of line anchoring in deep water. Powell is nice, because there are some places with sloping shores. But some have deep drop offs, so you need a depth sounder there. The type of bottom is important--you don't want to get your anchor caught in a boulder and loose it.

[jacuthbert]

I love the fathom line with the knots in it...old fashioned, fun and cheap (mark, twain). Sounds good to me. Isn't there some way to figure your speed with some kind of line dragging too?
I guess I am very lucky because both times I have anchored I have had to deal with strong wind, and the first time it was an outright storm (cold too!). Could it be that I have a good eye and natural talent? Doubtful...probably just the luck of the ignorant.
Amanda

[hardee]

Dr Bob has some great suggestions.

One -- Chapmans, It is big, thick and daunting, but it is a whole university of boating knowledge all in one place. It is currently into the 66th, (I think) version and worth all the time it takes to get through it.

Two -- the lead line and marking the anchor lines. Multiple ways, devices and distances. I used a color coded system and then put the code into my log book, also the depth and length for each of 3:1, 5:1, 7;1 scopes.

Three -- the lead line, which I used on our sail boat for years. A stainless weight with a cord and knots every 3 feet the first 30 feet and then every 5 feet after that. It worked well for finding the depth for anchoring, and for knowing it was OK for diving over the side without having to worry about running into the bottom.

Lots of good info on this site, as always,

Harvey
SleepyC

[Captains Cat]

West Marine (among others) makes a set of vinyl colored pieces that you can insert in your anchor line by untwisting it a little and putting them in. They are marked in different colors and have depth numbers on them. You can see these from the helm as they run out, they will not interfere with the windlass.

Amanda, you're thinking of one of two things to measure speed. Either this, which is known as a "patent log", or "taffrail log". You clamp the indicator to the rail (or "taffrail") and lower the propeller into the water. It indicates speed and with gears, can measure distance traveled.

In addition, old sailing ships used to lower a piece of wood into the water and let it drag a light line through their hand. If knots, at a known distance apart went through their hand in a set amount of time, it indicated the speed of the vessel. Hence the term "knots", also known as nautical miles per hour. (A nautical mile is 6000 feet, 2000 yards, instead of a land mile 5280 feet).

Hence endeth the lesson!

[jennykatz]

Amanda do yourself a favor buy the Chartplotter /Depth sounder combo and be done with it about $400 - 500 We use a 498 garmin you can go to Defender.com or West marine etc and buy through there Im sure if you google chartplotter a whole bunch of marine wholsalers will come up .

besides depth , there is temp, tides, currents ,and charts that eventually you will need Good luck with your quest Jim

[lloyds]

Matt-Unique on this site can also set you up.