MacGregorSailors.com

I keep one of these on board for just this type of challenge. The upward pull is incredible. The polypropylene rope has been stretched thin, and the hoop is now oval

Ray

It's not just you, actually for most of us our first or second trip out on a new boat is always the worst. That's very normal. There is nothing more frustrating to me than a shakedown cruise. I have been sailing on small sailboats out in the Ocean and on lakes for over 45 years and on my second trip with my 2013 MAC I got seasick and busted the goosneck and had to come in early from what should have been a routine cruise.

Pretty much every sailboat out there will kick your ass the first couple of times out. Don't let it bother you. (It's actually good luck when that happens).

Don't hesitate to cut off an anchor or throw away a dock line or throw a jib-sheet overboard if at any time you feel threatened - those are all things you can replace or fish out of the water later. If you have a small outboard sometimes it's a good idea to tie a line to it. (ALWAYS do that on a dingy).

One of the guys that sold a lot of us our boats: Captain Mike Inmon - has friends who sail every year at Havasu - Captain Mike says it's one of his most favorite sailing events and I plan on attending the event too - hopefully in 2016. He has pictures of sailboats next to the London Bridge. I had been to Havasu dozens of times as a kid to go water ski but never as an adult so I have never seen the bridge - I can't wait.

(PS, I normally use a lightweight trip-line on my anchor and float it with an empty milk carton. I just use the trip line to pull the anchor up backwards fashion from the shank so it slips out of the mud.)

With the high winds and currents, I am now thinking of the stuck anchor as a stroke of serendipity, rather than bad luck. I sleep well at night, enjoying the weather, not worrying about it holding.

I bought it used for around $30--well worth it for a solid mooring during my stay. If I come back when the water is warm, and if it is still here, I will retrieve it.

"Serendipity" is what I've decided to name my boat.

Just how far down is that sucker, anyway? Can you dive on it with just a mask, or mask and fins? I'd just hate to leave a perfectly good anchor and chain behind, especially one that holds as well as it does in the type of bottom conditions you have in your local sailing waters.

30 BUCKS - Yeah, that's a real cheeep mooring here in So Cal - I think they charge more than that to use the mooring buoys in Avalon!

Tomfoolery wrote:Just how far down is that sucker, anyway? Can you dive on it with just a mask, or mask and fins? I'd just hate to leave a perfectly good anchor and chain behind, especially one that holds as well as it does in the type of bottom conditions you have in your local sailing waters.

Most of the best moorings at Havasu are by the shore tied to a tree.

At this point, my curiosity would be killing me to know what is holding that anchor in so hard. It's either pulled 5' into the mud or snagged on something "interesting".

Put a ball on it with your name and now you have a solid mooring to claim.

BTW, are you sill hanging on that thing all this time?

--Russ

Better yet; contact the manufacturer. It could be great advertising for them, and $ for you.

“OUR ANCHORS HOLD.......:TOO WELL ”

Ray

It is 15' deep. I can free-dive to 30' or so in warm water.

The night before it was stuck, the wind kept blowing gently round and round (also snagging the rode around the keel). My hunch is that it just screwed its way down into the mud.

I'm probably breaking some federal law if I claim it as a mooring.

A group of sailboats are camping at Steamboat cove (Lake Havasu) tomorrow (Wed) night https://www.google.com/maps/place/Steam ... a1d3edc048

Your anchor may be cought on a snag underwater. There are also some fish "habitat" cages in some of the coves that an anchor could get caught on. Last night had some strong winds so it must have been good to have that anchor way stuck. The Macs are nice here for boat camping. I always drop an anchor off the beach, then come in and tie the back of the boat off to something on land so I can almost walk off the ladder to shore - but the boat is still completely floating.

Boat, the event that was held here permanently went away a couple years ago but a much smaller group still meets up here in Feb. A yahoo message board here https://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/sai ... ulite/info should have the dates and some of the details for 2016. Its much less organized than the old event which some will find bad, some will find good.

Oh, man! The Pocket Cruisers Convention got went? That was on my bucket list.

Without a trip line attached to the anchor they are really hard to get out of the mud - even if you dive on them. One time a guy died trying to pull an anchor out of the mud by the anchor line in only 20 feet of water because it was so stuck he lost consciousness trying to pull on it. If you pull on the "shank" end it's almost impossible to break them loose unless you can apply continuous pressure for over 5 minutes - sometimes ten minutes to "float" an anchor out of the mud 'frontwards' like that. You need to pull the anchor out 'backwards' - opposite to the way it got in there in the first place.

Most folks here know that I am no good at nautical terms (don't use em much cuz I was never the captain so I never barked orders much - I just knew what the words meant) but I will try to explain:

The 'fluke' can sink down several feet into the mud if constant pressure is on the 'shank' - like a shovel it will just keep digging deeper and deeper all night long while your at anchor.

If you can pull the anchor from the bottom side (the "crown" I think is what they call it) the anchor will slip through mud and sand - some anchors have a thing on the "crown" (bottom?) called a 'trip ring' (well that's what we called it) but if your anchor does not have a ring just drill a hole in the "crown" (it's butt) and tie a line there. Next time it's stuck just pull on that line to get the anchor out backwards.

Again, never risk the safety of the boat for a stupid anchor - if your in trouble and need to get free and can't pull out the anchor just cut it off - there are lots of anchors at the store.

Hey walt - I do remember with the ski boats we always dropped something over the bow and then tied the stern to a tree (with a ski boat it might be a cinder block or a pipe) but I was a lot younger back then - I guess the event at Havasu has been downsized? I missed it again I guess - February huh? what is the weather like then?

BOAT said:

I am no good at nautical terms (don't use em much cuz I was never the captain so I never barked orders much - I just knew what the words meant

The sign of intelligence in a person is not the words he/she uses, but rather the words they understand.

Ray

I guess the event at Havasu has been downsized? I missed it again I guess - February huh? what is the weather like then?

Down size is not such a bad thing.. this is the cove where we are camping tomorrow night. The picture is Feb 2012 and that cove was just packed with sailboats. As you know in S. Cal, this November is turning out to be a little colder and winder than normal, maybe also Feb? Feb typically has a lot of days 75 to 80F, cools off at night to 50 - 55F and a lot of good sailing days. Its a good thing that Havasu is so fricken hot in the summer as it would be over run otherwise. By march the power boat activity starts to pick up.. and time to head North.

very nice walt - yeah, we see the caravans of trucks hauling houseboats as soon as we cross the hoover dam every year in our normal travels in our little van motorhome but I was still hoping the water levels at Powell were going to recover by 2016 for some lake time this year but who knows. Heck, I remember when I was a kid and my dad would drive us through Glenn Canyon - so I guess it's normal for thing to change a lot when your inland. I guess that's why I'm always facing towards the ocean - it never changes. We certainly need a good guide for Havasu after all these years so I think I will look up that blog and see if I can make some plans for February!