Anchor Tie Down Location

[Zamboni]

Lew's insane boaters thread has me thinking-a few times in past few years I've had cruiser wakes come over our boats bow. I tie the anchor to boat by simply wrapping rope around cleat that's about 1' in from very front of boat-cleats convenient as right in front of trap door for anchor & rope storage.

 

This seems to hold down the bow when riding over waves/wakes-I generally put out plenty of rope to get good angle -not necessarily 7-1 but plenty so anchor doesn't drag. Our boat is one of those mid 90's 'soap dish' style jet boats-lots of freeboard. When not at anchor it handles rough weather, whitecaps well compared to other boats around its size-16.5'.

 

Does anyone lean over the bow to tie anchor rope to the eyelet used to winch boat to trailer? Hooking there would allow a boat to 'ride' wave action more naturally and not pull bow down between crests exposing it to the rogue wakes. On my boat the eyelet is 20 inches lower than top of bow-it would be dificult to hook to eyelet but maybe worth the trouble at some locations?

[Roy]

Can you not tie it when you launch and remove it when you take the boat out of the water?

[Zamboni]

That would work Roy- I know from rope twist I generally tie around same length on Scugog and longer off shoals/islands on Simcoe. Curious if others are going to trouble to hook to that eyelet-if small boats do 'ride' wake & waves better than anchor tied over top of bow.

[bigfish1965]

I take a 2 to 3 foot section of rope with a clevis on both ends. I clip one to the front tow hook and clip the other over the anchor rope after it is let out. Then I can just tie off the anchor anywhere and I will always be nose to the wind/waves. If you want some shock absorption, use a heavy duty bungee rather than rope for the short section.

The anchor rope goes out and the clevis guides it to the front and it all comes in when I retrieve the main line.