Guide to Smooth Anchoring Part 4

Choosing the right location is another vital aspect of safe and effective anchoring. You don’t want to be in a high traffic lane and you need to be protected from the wind as well as the current. Finding maximum shelter is essential to safe anchoring. You’ll also need to ensure that your boat can swing around the anchor point without running into other boats or obstacles like sandbars or beach heads. The current and the wind will inevitably affect your boat no matter how much shelter you find causing your boat to swing bow to the wind or current, whichever is stronger.

If there are other boaters nearby then ask them what scope they’re working with and plan your own location and scope around that. This will help ensure that you don’t collide with neighboring vessels. When you do anchor be sure to use the same method used by the nearby boat or boats. If they are anchored bow and stern then you should too. If they’re only anchored at the bow then don’t anchor from your stern. One thing you never want to do, however, is to anchor from the stern alone. This can cause the vessel to swamp or capsize, endangering the lives of everyone on board.

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