How to keep your boat’s anchor secure

Securing an anchor might seem simple, but when left for long periods all sorts can go wrong. Jon Mendez gives his expert advice to help you keep your boat's anchor secure

Keeping your boat’s anchor secure and attached to your boat depends on the size of the boat and sometimes the designer’s whim. Most smaller craft, in which the anchor is relatively light and the warp is chain and rope, have a manual deployment method and keep it stowed in a bow locker to be brought out and used when needed.

Medium to larger craft, in which the anchor and chain has moved up in size and weight, tend to keep it stowed on a bow roller and use a manual or electric winch to raise and lower it. The clutch in the winch motor, which usually relies on the friction between two metal plates, is often all that is holding the anchor in place.

Unfortunately, lack of maintenance, wear and tear and insufficient tightening of the winch, means the clutch is prone to slipping under the constant pull of the anchor. Inevitably, this will happen on a rough day, when the last thing you want to be doing is scrambling around on the foredeck trying to sort the issue.

If the anchor does pull out, the best you can hope for is surface damage to the hull, at worst it could go right under the boat and cause havoc with your stern gear.

So how do you prevent that from happening? The simplest way is to put a line through the chain and secure it to a cleat. That’s all well and good but if left for a while the line can become difficult to untie and may be problematic if needed in a hurry.

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Some boat manufacturers are already wise to the danger and provide a secure locking mechanism in the shape of a metal brace or a sturdy clip that you can attach to the anchor or chain.

This boat had a lock to take the pressure off the chain when anchored but no clip to keep it securely stowed when underway, and a recent slippage of the winch had resulted in a deep scar on the blue gel coat. A securing clip was deemed to be the answer, with a strong point bolted to the deck and a short tether line so that if the winch slips, the anchor can’t move far and the action of it wobbling can be seen by the crew. The only downside is that someone now needs to go forward to release the clip before lowering the anchor – it can’t simply be done from the helm.

1 Tools required

To make your own anchor tether, you are likely to need a drill, a U-shaped deck-plate, through-hull bolts, a stainless-steel clip, some line and whipping, a hot knife, pencil and umbrella.

2 Temporary fix

After the winch had slipped causing the anchor to damage the hull, the owner had improvised with this short length of rope tied to the chain stopper. However, they now wanted a quicker, more secure arrangement.

3 Tool catcher

Before starting, I hung the opened umbrella from the bow anchor to catch anything I dropped. It helped ensure I didn’t need to make any unplanned trips to the chandlery later on!

4 Prep work

Work out where you want to place the U-bolt deck fitting and what length of line you need to hold the anchor in place. Use masking tape to mark the drill points and prevent the bit slipping.

5 Deck fitting

Start by drilling in reverse – this grinds the gel first to leave a small indentation, then switch to forward to drill through. Secure it with thru-hull bolts, not self-tapping screws which could pull out.

6 Finishing touch

Don’t forget to whip the open ends of the line together before you screw it down – much easier! I added a small black line to the pull clip to make it easier to release with cold, wet hands.

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