Trawler School Charters Blog

My Boston Vacation

It’s been a long time since I’ve been home to visit friends and family. If you are reading this, then you are one of those special persons in my life. I’d like to thank you for your friendship and hospitality.

I would also like to share a story of two of my very good friends: first, Larry Hittinger, who we all know and love. Mr. Nice Guy, would you not agree? This story starts two weeks after the Boston Marathon bombing. Through the grape vine, I received an article about Larry from a friend. A bomb went off right next to Larry at the Marathon. As most people fled for their lives, one of my best friends (Larry) went running into harms way and picked up an 11 year old boy with his leg severely wounded. Larry ran through the crowd to an ambulance and tied a tourniquet on the boy’s leg. The boy survived and his leg was saved due to Larry, but here is where the story turns strange: Larry never called me but someone else let me know what Larry did that sad day in Boston history.

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This is an example of a true hero, even to this day he does not talk about it . He became Mr. Bostonian of the Year (2013), and after being interviewed he was asked why he did this courageous act. Our friend’s answer was “I just had to do it.”  Thank you Larry this is one of the reasons your national slogan is Boston Strong.

Mr Bostonian…My second story is about USMC Captain Harry Hinkle marine corps recruiter 1973 (my mentor). He took me off the streets and turned me from a street punk to Marine. I found Harry, 67 years young, down the Cape. It’s been more than 40 years since we were together. I saw something on his wall and read it. I would like to share this letter with you that I scanned. So, here it is…

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The Captain, who shared so many stories with me, just happened to forget about mentioning what you just read. I felt like he did not confide in me the most important story of his career. Harry, he is a humble man, and a true hero that kept this amazing Bronze Star story to himself. He was always my hero and after uncovering this letter I’m sure he is yours. Thank you, Captain Hinkle. Nowadays, the slogan for the Marines is “We’re looking for a few good men.” Back when I went in it was, “We don’t promise you a rose garden”. Everyday Harry would remind me of that before I left for boot camp. Trust me, boot camp was no Rose Garden! I’d like to take a moment to thank Larry & Harry for being good friends. I cannot give you their email, but if you would like to send a comment I will pass it along to them.

This article is just a quick view on anchoring and anchors, this should point you in the right direction and what questions you may want to ask anchor manufacturers before you buy.

I would highly recommend you always buy an anchor larger than the footage requires. I own a 40′ trawler sundeck and it takes on a lot of windage, so I like to use an anchor required for a 45′ boat. I sleep much better at night. I use all chain and use snubbers (bridles) to absorb the shock, it’s two pieces of 12′ long three strand nylon rode secured to my front cleats, and on the other end there is a hook that secures to my anchor chain. It goes down into the water till there is tension, this will greatly reduce shock loads on your boat and your anchoring system as well as your windless due to the bridles elasticity. If your using all rode make sure you put a long piece of chain on the end of your anchor to prevent chafing of your rode on the seabed, it also gives your anchor a better angle while setting.

There are many different anchors on the market, here are some of the more popular ones:

CQR

The CQR anchor is one of the more popular selections amongst Skippers. Later on they added a swivelling head which will slowly reset itself on a 360 degree turn on a soft bottom seabed. It is inexpensive and effective, this is why it has earned the trust of many skippers. The holding power works best on seabeds, sand, mud, gravel, and clay. It does not do as well in weed, and it is bad in coral and rocks.

The Bruce is also a very good selection it has a signal pedal shaped fluke, when deployed it will settle down and reset itself on a 360 degree turn in any soft bottom seabed without breaking out. The holding power works best on the following, sea beds, sand, mud, gravel, and clay, but not well in weed and is bad in coral and rocks.

Danford

The Danford comes in many different styles, the flukes could have wide inner ends, longer and sharper flukes, a 90 degree swivel or even a roll bar. It has immediate holding power, it digs down deep and is difficult to brake out of the seabed. Holding power is better gripping in mud, sand, clay, weeds, not good on rocky bottoms.

The Fortress is a newer model of the Danford. It looks like the Danford,  but the big difference is it is made of light-weight aluminum. One of the employees of the Danford company left and just about copy-catted their anchor. It purposefully works much better, lighter and stronger.  Effect: immediate  holding power. It digs down deep, and difficult to break out of the seabed. Holding power is better gripping in mud, sand, clay, weeds, not good on rocky bottoms.

The Grappling anchor, this is your anchor for coral and rocky bottoms it can be used to for dragging the bottom to retrieve a lost item.

Fortress

Scope is the length of your anchor line you wish to let out. It is the distance from your boats deck to the sea bottom. Recommended scope is 5’x1′ so 10 ‘ to the bottom, you would need 50′  (10′ x 5′ = 50’). The more scope the better holding power, 3 to 1 is very weak.

Holding Power settings guide:

2×1 = 10% holding power 3×1 = 40%  5×1 = 70%  7×1 = 85% 10×1 = 100%

Power setting and retrieving an anchor:

Setting your anchor, make sure your anchor is set. Back down very slowly, then when the anchor begins to set increase your engine load​,​ when you feel it ​ is dug in stop.

 ​Make sure you did not pull your anchor out by backing down to fast or to long.

Anchor retrieval: ​Retrieve you​r​  rode so you​’​re positioned right over you anchor, snub your line on a cleat​,​  power down backwards slowly to break the anchor off the bottom. Do not break the anchor while​ in forward​,​ it will require more energy.

Grappling

Soft muddy bottoms offer as little as 15% of holding power​, try a Fortress with mud palms (wide flukes) and you can adjust your normal 32 degree angle to 45 degrees in order to change your holding power as much as 400%.

​We hope you learned a thing or two about anchor​s from this blog​.

Attend Trawler ​school​, we teach everything​ from boat handling to “rules of the road.” ​Educated boaters are safe boaters. Approximately 80% of all boating fatalities occur on boats w​here an operator ha​s never taken a boating course. We have trained hundreds of boaters interested in safety, running and learning about​ the right trawler for your specific needs​.

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