Does anyone ever drop an anchor off a houseboat in a shallow bay

[Gem Morris]

and stay anchored that way overnight?

I think there was discussion about this on the old board.

Can't remember what was said?

Is this crazy? Too dangerous? Okay under certain circumstances?

Thoughts?

 

[birdsnest]

What if the anchor breaks loose? Not worth the risk to me. Woke up once to our boat adrift. Very unsettling. I always do sand anchors or tie to big boulders.

 

[ROSCOELAB]

ditto Bird, been to many nights going to sleep under cloudless skys and beautiful nights to wake to a 30mph storm front. Unsettling is an understatement.

 

[Goblin]

I can relate only a single experience dropping anchor at Lake Powell. On our first trip in a houseboat at water level 3697' near the confluence of the San Juan & Colorado I thought I would just find an area where I could hit bottom with the anchor so we could stop and play for awhile. It worked great right up until the time I tried to pull in the anchor. It had apparently become wedged into the rocky bottom and was not coming up. After an hour or so of dancing around the line with the houseboat it finally hit the right angle and came loose. I pulled it straight up and proceeded on my way thankful for not losing the anchor.

That along with certain other Powell happenings, borne of ignorance mostly, like not respecting the tour boat wake kind of make you feel like a cat fighting a skunk, "It's not long before you have had enough of that stinking SOB!"

FWIW

 

[GregC]

Gem, Even without the storms, the math usually doesn't work. If you use 5 to 7 times the depth on your anchor line (common practice) plus 20 ft. of chain to make the anchor drag flat if the wind changes, plus the length of the houseboat (say 40 ft.) at 20 ft. of water times 5x "scope" equals 100 ft. plus 20 ft of chain equals 120 ft. plus 40 ft. of boat equals 160 ft. of radius or a 320 ft. circle if the wind changes. Takes a lot of room, plus the amount of "drag" before the anchor sets if the wind is blowing in the opposite direction!

GregC

 

[Regal95]

Knowing me, I'd probably try it with the right equipment. If I owned a houseboat (and I don't), I'd have 4 Box Anchors. One for each corner. Find the cove you want and plop one off each corner. with only a 2:1 scope, you need minimal line, and those box anchors set man. I mean they set!!!. Set it, and forget it is what they say with those. I can have my 24ft deck boat on one, and it can blow 30 and the thing won't even budge an inch. Best anchor ever made.

 

[Endurance]

Interesting you should raise this now. Last week, I saw a 65 or 70 foot houseboat anchored in about 15 feet of water near the end of Bullfrog Bay with what looked like a single anchor out the front of the boat. It was there for about 3 days, then left. The wind shifted back and forth from several directions over the course of the three days. I never saw them in any distress even though they spun like a weather vane as the wind shifted. It didn't look that fun to me.

 

[Tim Fortier]

Years ago I was driving from Bullfrog to Page with my HB it got very late, I tied off to a bouy marker in the middle of the channel. I felt very safe but I herd later that was very Illegal oh well I got away with one.

 

[Bailer]

I've anchored 35-50' sailboats plenty of times. 2 anchors off the bow with the lines about 30-40 degrees apart. Never had a problem.

 

[birdsnest]

I just can't sleep with the boat moving. Keep peeking out the window to see how long before we hit a cliff wall. Not for me.

 

[Outside]

What birdsnest says...I can't sleep on a rocking boat, creaking, splashing. Laid awake on halls buoy one night during the wind,,,never again, though the waves in the moonlight was surreal....swore we broke loose a few times.

 

[David Tyng]

To me the issue is whether there is enough "sandy bottom" for the anchors to take hold. Depth, rode, etc. all come into play, but unless an anchor can take hold nothing matters.

 

[Pegasus]

We stay "on the hook" relatively often in a larger cruiser.

One thing to remember on the positive side of anchoring out is that the wind is always hitting you from the front of the boat (assuming that is where your anchor is attached to the boat), so the wind load on the boat is much less than it is when you are beached and taking a full blow broadside.

We use a minimum 3:1 scope of anchor rode to depth, preferably 5:1. Example - if you are in 20' of water, you must use at least 60 ft of anchor rode, preferably 100 ft. Using two anchors at an angle as mentioned is great and limits your swing. Over the years I've seen a handful of houseboats anchor out in the back of Warm Creek, in Friendship Cove, and even in Padre Bay. With no major wind/storm events it is a really nice way to anchor. Adding in big wind and darkness ups the stress level a lot if you are too close to shore.