On Yachts and Yacht Handling

by Thomas Fleming Day

In a strong blow, such as yachtsmen generally describe as a gale, the wind pressure is only about five pounds to the square foot, while in an ordinary breeze, such as usually blows in summer, the pressure is scant of a pound. So that a boat with a hundred square feet of windage would, in a yachtsman's gale, only be forced back by a pressure of 500 pounds. Some day, just for your own enlightenment, take a spring scale and put it on your hawse when the yacht is riding to a wind with no sea on.

One day my boat was lying in a tide running at a rate of one mile. The bottom was a medium hard gravel and the water perfectly clear. In turning tides she had capsized the anchor and it was lying stock up and flukes flat. This anchor, weighing thirty pounds, by its weight and friction of the stock end on the bottom kept the boat stationary. Her displacement was just over four tons. The anchor was simply resisting the friction of the tide on the immersed hull. Reverse this and it shows how small is the power necessary to drive a vessel one mile an hour.

The direct strain on anchors is of no consequence except in very high winds; it is the sea that causes them to leave their hold. Go back to our pick for an explanation. When given sufficient scope the anchor, like the pick, is resisting a pull at right angles, and stands fast, but the minute the sea begins to move the vessel up and down the handle of the anchor is worked up and down; the shorter the scope the more surely is this motion transmitted, and the more effective is it in breaking-out the arm. To prevent this in a heavy sea we resort to a practice called backing.

The object of backing an anchor is to prevent this up and down motion from passing from the vessel to the anchor. In order to do this it is necessary to weight the cable, so as to prevent its lifting from the bottom, some distance inside of the anchor. This is done either by leading the cable through another anchor or by weighting the cable with ballast. The last is the better method, as it can be done from the vessel without disturbing the hawse.

I find that few yachtsmen make a study of anchoring; mostly because they anchor in places where there is little to be feared either from wind or sea. It is only when they get into harbors where both are to be dreaded that they learn this part of the trade. To show how universally careless we are in this respect it is only necessary to recall the disastrous effects an unexpected summer gale has upon a fleet of our yachts. In August, 1893, a storm of this character swept the Eastern seaboard, and some eighty yachts were driven ashore and many of them totally wrecked. In the summer of 1897 a moderate gale came on the coast, and out of a fleet of some thirty yachts anchored and moored about the boat I was in, twelve went adrift. The same day, in and around Boston, the storm played havoc with the pleasure fleet.

Another time we were caught off the Thimbles in Long Island Sound in company with a small fleet. Everything dragged and several were only saved by a lucky shift of wind from going on the rocks. Many of these boats had no spare anchors; some had the anchors and not sufficient cable; others had ground tackle much too light for their bulk. Few of the crews knew how to properly use what they did have. I was in a 30-foot sloop of the old flat type, an exceedingly bad sea boat. We rode it out with two anchors and 300 pounds of ballast down ahead, but it was only by judicious management, and the addition of a new mainsheet to our scanty length of cable.

Every boat should carry two anchors, and every boat that cannot readily make fast to a dock, three. The weight of anchors to be carried can only be approximated, as it depends largely upon the build of the vessel, the extent and prevailing conditions of her sailing waters and the service engaged in. A boat that is only used for day-sailing that finds shelter at night in a safe harbor and moors or makes fast, needs but light ground tackle. She can get along with an anchor weighing a half-pound to each foot of over-all length, and need never to resort to her spare hook except on extraordinary occasions.

Narrow deep boats with sharp entrances are very light on their ground tackle and do not need nearly as heavy anchors as do broad shoal boats. Our modern full-bowed boats are very hard on all kinds of gear, and need especially heavy anchors and cables. Flat-bottomed craft, like sharpies and scow houseboats, are the hardest of all, and your hooks and hawsers can't be too heavy to make sure of holding them. High-sided and high-housed yachts are also hard riders, the windage having a tendency to keep them worrying at their hawse. All these things must be taken into consideration when selecting a weight of anchor and a size of cable or chain, but, as it is always best to err on the safe side, be less afraid of getting too heavy gear than of getting too light. A 20-foot boat will hold to a ten-pound anchor, if the hook is well proportioned and takes a good hold in good ground, but I should not feel comfortable in turning in on a rough night with only that weight of iron out ahead of me. An old fellow, who is a bit of a crank on the subject, once took me to task for carrying such heavy anchors and cables. To his mind they were totally unnecessary; ones half the weight and size would do as well. He used a twelve-thread line and an anchor about vest-pocket size on his boat.