All at Sea - The Navigator Issue 38
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Know the difference
It is important to differentiate between dropping anchor in normal, routine operations (which is covered in the rest of this magazine!) and in emergencies.
In normal operations, it is usually better to walk the anchor back rather than let go, especially for large ships and in deep waters. The holding capacity will remain the same, as it depends more on the chain and anchor weight then on the way the anchor is dropped.
In an emergency, there are many factors to be considered, including the depth, nature of seabed (are there coral reefs, cables or pipe lines?), the size of the ship and speed. If you can still steer, that means you still have significant speed. Wait till you lose steering, and that will lead to less speed. Only then can you let go.
In a critical situation, where you have no choice but to make an emergency stop: letting go is the only option! Rely on the fact that the winch-breaking capacity is less than the minimum breaking load of the chain and let the winch drum slip so that both anchors can be used simultaneously. It’s a critical decision for true emergencies, but it has saved many ships from grounding.
Captain Aly Elsayed AFNI
Senior Technical Advisor, The Nautical Institute
You can read this post, as well as many other valuable contributions and insights on LinkedIn by signing up to ‘The Nautical Institute (Technical Group)’ here.
Further reading
There’s a lot of good information about safe anchoring out there; here are a few links with more reading. Want to get to them directly? Open the Navigator app or visit the pdf on The Nautical Institute’s website and you can click right through.
Good anchoring practice
Mooring and anchoring
Gard AS Case study Anchor Awareness
Estimating The Environmental Loads On Anchoring Systems
News anchor
Anchoring is an endeavour that encompasses several different skills and types of knowledge. Read on for some useful links, tips and resources to help you learn more about this essential shipping task.
If you spot any broken links, or would like to suggest resources that we have not included here, please do get in touch!
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