Anchor lines and other helpful knots?

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Marina Bum said:
Where are you guys tying these hitch knots to? Anchors or cleats? For anchors I like a good Bowline and I tie off to my cleats. Yes I trust my cleats in a storm, but only of the lines are taught and if you tie them off properly, underhanded on the last loop. To me though tight lines are the key to staying in the beach and in a rising lake it's going to take vigilance. Still, a better problem than the lake going down! No right or wrong, Im open to new ideas. Anyone out there use a 5th a anchor at the bow?
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Always the 5th line at the bow otherwise when the boat starts to float some it keeps it from turning sideways to the beach. Peter
 
Does anyone use their motors to tighten lines? I like staying dry unless I want to swim and it's so easy to tighten my rear cleats, I dangle my lines in the water for lubrication and then pull like a tug of war through the cleats and re-tie them. Then if you start your motors and turn away at idle from one side to the other(say Starboard to Port)you can stretch you starboard line, run back and tighten your port line again (your slack side) and run back and shut offyou motors. You'll pop back to center and the lines will be very taught, Thats how I was taught to do it anyway, that's my winch, it's built in. I like keeping it simple. Besides, I feel officious starting the motors and doing Manly things. Plus I think it's a good idea to lift your hatches at least once a day and run the motors incase you are taking on water and don't know it or if your batteries are weak Etc. It's nice to know they will start if you need them, I run mine in gear to hold myself to the beach in a storm. You definitely need them to start in a hurry if you get blown off the beach. "If it's gonna happen it's gonna happen out there" Captain Ron
 
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Marina Bum said:
Where are you guys tying these hitch knots to? Anchors or cleats? For anchors I like a good Bowline and I tie off to my cleats. Yes I trust my cleats in a storm, but only of the lines are taught and if you tie them off properly, underhanded on the last loop. To me though tight lines are the key to staying in the beach and in a rising lake it's going to take vigilance. Still, a better problem than the lake going down! No right or wrong, Im open to new ideas. Anyone out there use a 5th a anchor at the bow?
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we always tied them off the anchor.
 
Excellent advice and examples. There are a few new options to try. Thank you all.

We find ourselves in many different situations where we often have boulders to tie around but sometimes have sand to pound a stake into. Sometimes, it's a stake wedged between rocks, and rarely does it seem like we use the actual anchors.

We typically do two up front and then one on each side coming from the mid to rear section of the houseboat.
 
It's been said here, but worth repeating, keeping the lines tight is one of your biggest helpers to avoid problems. When the wind picks up, and the lines are loose, the boat sliding sideway and then yanking on the anchor easily can pop it. We are fans of the 20,000lb ratchet straps with the rope acting as a backup- meaning we run the entire line with the rope, tie it off similar to the video above and use the loop in the rope to attach the ratchet to the anchor. If the ratchet broke, the rope is there to "hopefully" hold it. the sand can really muck up the ratchets though, I started with plastic bags around them but now just keep them well greased.
 
If you are going to use straps/ratchets, they need to be the marine industrial grade and not Home Depot grade. We use marine cargo straps around large boulders and will put them high to accommodate the lake rise. We then connect our lines to the straps using shackles. Very quick connection and no loss of tensile strength from knotting. Fortunately we have two windlasses on each side of the top deck at the, so keeping the ropes tight is just a matter of using the windlasses to tighten the ropes and then tieing them off on the cleats attached to the windlass poles, which run from the top deck through the main deck and into the hold. Even without using windlasses, it is good to use straps around BIG ROCKS to hold the boat as opposed to having to retrieve anchors that are several feet underwater by the end of a week.
 
We also buy our lines spliced at one end with metal thimbles to facilitate quick anchoring. Also ,I see from reading my prior post that I did not say that our Windlasses are at the stern of the top deck, but I am sure you all would know that.
 
Tracy Speer said:
Back to Powell Brides asking how can you do it on the boat side in the middle of the night,
We have done the trucker hitch deal for years but always up on shore, not sure how you could do it on the boat side as the loop would have to be 15 feet out over the water,
So back to that one comment about Just Cleat It, would be easy to do at the boat side and forget about truckers hitch and having more leverage. Just pull the rope at the boat side as hard as you can and cleat it would be fast and easy for constant retightening.
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4 anchors... 2 aft and 2 mid to the cleats. Then 2 stakes at the front, just off the bow a few feet help to keep the boat from swinging (far) if we're not up to speed on tightening anchor lines.

Tightening those four on the cleats, we too dip in the water and pull as hard as possible then back to a cleat and locking hitch.
 
We have used four heavy duty 5 ton come alongs to winch the houseboat lines for years. Make a loop in the anchor line 30-40 feet from the anchor. Put a clevis on the loop. Attach the crank end of the come along to the anchor chain , the other end to the clevis. Pump the handle to take up slack. Always remember to tie off the anchor line to the anchor chain in case the come along slips (never slipped for us) The loop knot comes out easy if you make it 4-6 inches long. 5 ton come alongs cost $75-$100; Clevis is about $10. Saves your hands and back. Just a few cranks on each line as needed. Tightens the lines up to banjo strings. We tried two on one side. Works well if water isn not rising too fast. If fast rising water you have to reset the one side then use the cranks. Not a big deal but easier to use four.
 
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