Report securite, US VHF to call for assistance request from locals or other sailors, then kedge the boat with dingy or others boats best you can. Just get the anchor out any way you can and continue to work steady alone or with others. Communicate clearly with others. Damn this is your calling. James your method of teaching is outstanding. Please more. Jim Rodgers
Minor suggestion. If you are going to walk 😮 the anchor out, tie a light line with a buoy attached. When you come up for air you will be able to locate the anchor on the bottom.
James, knowledge is the coin of the realm! The problem I see is the individual walking the anchor & chain out. You did say disconnect the chain and use lines attached to the anchor - reducing the weight! Better & SAFER - use the dinghy to set the anchor!!! I have seen some cruisers with a reel of line attached to the aft area of the boat - used to attach to rocks or trees on land and used with the anchor - like Med. docking James, do not stop these tutorial videos. You will earn a reputation of being one of the smart sailors to listen to & learn. Best, :¬) Webhead USA
It happened to me. Terrible situation with ten foot waves smashing side. I could have walked anchor out 200 feet. 14,000 $ and two tow boats. My heart is still pounding!
Very well done, thanks for sharing your insights. You already addressed this point indirectly but because there seems to be confusion about using chain versus line with an anchor. (If you don't use chain your anchor won't hold) If you have lots of strong line and can get a favorable scope, the anchor will do all that it can do and switching to chain is not going to improve the holding. If you already have chain on your anchor as most do and can handle it then as stated here time is critical so get that anchor out there and start pulling. For your secondary rode (if needed) if you have a choice, nylon is a lot easier to handle than chain and there is significant energy storage in nylon that you won't get from chain. In other words if you get a big lift from a wave and have a nylon line well stretched you could more further on that wave than with chain which stores very little energy. With chain you get to the point where you cannot pull in more chain since the chain does not stretch suddenly as the wave lifts you move a tiny amount and the chain goes slack. With the nylon the tension slowly increases as you pull in a lot of line (up to 40% for 3 strand, or 40' for each 100' of line) and that line will want to return to it's orginal length. That energy storage can however be dangerous so be careful. If a cleat pulls out the nylon can accelerate it to a speed far greater than what chain would under the same tension. I recently added a depthsounder that reads down to more than 1000' which especially with an alarm should give us a bit more warning than a more limited common depthsouder that something isn't right. I In general, If you see the depth decreasing in a way that is not consistent with the charted or expected depths, make a full 180 degree turn and retrace you GPS track until you are back in deep water and then figure out what is wrong before proceeding. Most groundings can be avoided. Best.
I watched that happen as well multiple boats in the lagoon every year. The hull of a nice ketch is still there more than a year later but the masts broke within days of grounding on the sandbar. It irritates me every day on my way to work, couple hours and some effort could have saved her. Mahalo bruddah 🤙
James, We hard grounded on the same reef system as the 90 ft Alden four months later. Unfortunaely or fortunately, in the late evening the ocean swell was less than a half meter and the tide was ebbing. We faught it with horsepower and halyard heel until 1:00 AM. Starting at 9:00 AM setting up a two anchor kedge with 400 feet on the primary anchor. At high King tide, the windlass operator could not feel the catenary and was mashing the retrieve button. Finally, the solenoid blew and we were on manual retrieve and you could feel the catenary. We survived 20 hours on the reef with rudder, skeg and a few pounds of lead missing.
Your lesson is very informative and extremely accurate in terms of catenary forces. BUT, as accurate as your presentation is, I don't know how the describe the absolute terror of hearing 15 tons crashing down on rock, even if the movement is only about 8"!!! It surely is a PTSD event.
Hey Brother! I hadn't heard this term used in years! Thanks for the re-training! Hope you weren't just sitting on your boat. There's some loose plastic overhead. I hope your new friend fixed his cosmetics😊. Tell Anna and Luna, Love Love! I miss seeing them and I hope Anna is all healed up!! SEE YA SOON!!! ✝️🙏❤❤❤🇺🇸⛵👣👣👣☘🍍🤗😎🥰🎶🎶🎶🎶
I was anchored in Port Ligat, Cadaques, Spain in 1978 outside Salvador Dali's house. Dinghy and the windsurfer were tied up to the stern. An unexpected Gale blew up during the night and unfortunately a rope got round the prop. we ended up in two feet of water with a 4 foot 6 draught sailboat. It took four days to get off, I took an anchor from the head of the mast. and used the main anchor out of the bow to winch her off the sand bank, fortunately with no damage. There was no decent weather forecasting in those days.
3 Have done all this stuff, but had no windlass. I walked the anchor on the bottom, but when surfaced I had about 3+ knot current going away from boat, much trouble getting back and wait 15 minutes on ladder to regain breath. ( solution float a fender on line to where anchoring) also if not on a lee shore (not possible this example) put up all sails, 170 Genoa sheet all the way in tilting boat to lessen draft.
Aloha James, I am one minute into your video and I am ready to stick my neck out. I know exactly where this happened and I first saw it on the local news. As soon as I saw it i knew the boat was lost. What would I do?? I would not be there in the first place. What happened? A new captain, unfamiliar with the waters and sailing in Hawaii in general. He is approaching the entrance channel to the Ala Wai, too close, too shallow. Every time a wave goes beneath them the boat lifts up and goes ten feet sideways, closer and closer to the shallow water. The crew are scurrying around getting the tourist guests another cocktail and pupus, nobody looking forwards, no one on watch.. The new captain knows no better and then they are amongst the surfers and then hitting the reef. Too late, each wave lifts you up and pushes you yet further up the reef and still swallower waters. Tragic. Kedging off of this? I don't think so. The crews on these boats are there to serve the guests, most of them do not know the pointy end from the blunt end, not sailors at all, they could not spell kedge let alone identify one. Kedging can work, I have done it in shallow tidal estuaries in England with great success. In amongst the surfers in Hawaii....not so much.... OK, on to the rest of your video. Aloha from Honokahau, you've been there! David.
I bought a 44ft boat 7 years ago and usually i bump the rudder on things in reverse, but that's in the med. I still haven't got the boat stuck on anything, so I guess I will soon😂
Holly (Another Adventure) has documented a worthwhile rescue operation of a completely beached boat, where all the familiar tricks are used. Of course I got stuck in the lagoons a few times, but once I didn't get the right entrance into a river in rough seas. Reversing just about freed the boat from the bang-bang impact. My view is never to try to get forward out of grounding (on sandbanks etc.). Very instructive post, James.
Anchor are still used by salvage ships to pull boats of a beach. Obviously one anchor is not enough as some boat have only one. Pulling the mast down with a line is good help. Have small radios to communicate with others. Now hear this swimming / walking underwater is BS only good for the super well trained person with a humongous long 🫁. But to make things easy grab a couple of fenders and float that anchor. Even with longer lines Obviously you must float the chain too. But 250 feet of chain is not always available. Your secondary anchor may have a line and 30 feet of cain what is easier to handel. That secondary anchor you can float out too. Cut the line and it drops to be pulled to hold. Even a dingy anchor can be used to haul out the bigger anchor. Those guys that have 100 meter of chain on a 40 foot boat are totally nuts It’s only weight at the nose of the boat and no good for any thing. An anchor with 40 foot chain and then a line does the same thing.
Best general explanation of kedging that I’ve seen.
Report securite, US VHF to call for assistance request from locals or other sailors, then kedge the boat with dingy or others boats best you can. Just get the anchor out any way you can and continue to work steady alone or with others. Communicate clearly with others. Damn this is your calling. James your method of teaching is outstanding. Please more. Jim Rodgers
Thank you :)
Minor suggestion. If you are going to walk 😮 the anchor out, tie a light line with a buoy attached. When you come up for air you will be able to locate the anchor on the bottom.
Really digging these episodes, your a great conveyor of knowledge. Thanks James
James, knowledge is the coin of the realm! The problem I see is the individual walking the anchor & chain out. You did say disconnect the chain and use lines attached to the anchor - reducing the weight! Better & SAFER - use the dinghy to set the anchor!!! I have seen some cruisers with a reel of line attached to the aft area of the boat - used to attach to rocks or trees on land and used with the anchor - like Med. docking James, do not stop these tutorial videos. You will earn a reputation of being one of the smart sailors to listen to & learn. Best, :¬) Webhead USA
Love these videos. Awesome watching you grow into an amazing human over the years. Thank you for giving back to the community.
It happened to me. Terrible situation with ten foot waves smashing side. I could have walked anchor out 200 feet. 14,000 $ and two tow boats. My heart is still pounding!
Smart men, smart actions and a great video overall.
Extraordinary explanation. Congrats
Very well done, thanks for sharing your insights. You already addressed this point indirectly but because there seems to be confusion about using chain versus line with an anchor. (If you don't use chain your anchor won't hold) If you have lots of strong line and can get a favorable scope, the anchor will do all that it can do and switching to chain is not going to improve the holding. If you already have chain on your anchor as most do and can handle it then as stated here time is critical so get that anchor out there and start pulling. For your secondary rode (if needed) if you have a choice, nylon is a lot easier to handle than chain and there is significant energy storage in nylon that you won't get from chain. In other words if you get a big lift from a wave and have a nylon line well stretched you could more further on that wave than with chain which stores very little energy. With chain you get to the point where you cannot pull in more chain since the chain does not stretch suddenly as the wave lifts you move a tiny amount and the chain goes slack. With the nylon the tension slowly increases as you pull in a lot of line (up to 40% for 3 strand, or 40' for each 100' of line) and that line will want to return to it's orginal length. That energy storage can however be dangerous so be careful. If a cleat pulls out the nylon can accelerate it to a speed far greater than what chain would under the same tension. I recently added a depthsounder that reads down to more than 1000' which especially with an alarm should give us a bit more warning than a more limited common depthsouder that something isn't right. I In general, If you see the depth decreasing in a way that is not consistent with the charted or expected depths, make a full 180 degree turn and retrace you GPS track until you are back in deep water and then figure out what is wrong before proceeding. Most groundings can be avoided. Best.
I watched that happen as well multiple boats in the lagoon every year. The hull of a nice ketch is still there more than a year later but the masts broke within days of grounding on the sandbar. It irritates me every day on my way to work, couple hours and some effort could have saved her. Mahalo bruddah 🤙
James, We hard grounded on the same reef system as the 90 ft Alden four months later. Unfortunaely or fortunately, in the late evening the ocean swell was less than a half meter and the tide was ebbing. We faught it with horsepower and halyard heel until 1:00 AM. Starting at 9:00 AM setting up a two anchor kedge with 400 feet on the primary anchor. At high King tide, the windlass operator could not feel the catenary and was mashing the retrieve button. Finally, the solenoid blew and we were on manual retrieve and you could feel the catenary. We survived 20 hours on the reef with rudder, skeg and a few pounds of lead missing.
Your lesson is very informative and extremely accurate in terms of catenary forces. BUT, as accurate as your presentation is, I don't know how the describe the absolute terror of hearing 15 tons crashing down on rock, even if the movement is only about 8"!!! It surely is a PTSD event.
Hey Brother! I hadn't heard this term used in years! Thanks for the re-training! Hope you weren't just sitting on your boat. There's some loose plastic overhead. I hope your new friend fixed his cosmetics😊. Tell Anna and Luna, Love Love! I miss seeing them and I hope Anna is all healed up!! SEE YA SOON!!! ✝️🙏❤❤❤🇺🇸⛵👣👣👣☘🍍🤗😎🥰🎶🎶🎶🎶
I was anchored in Port Ligat, Cadaques, Spain in 1978 outside Salvador Dali's house. Dinghy and the windsurfer were tied up to the stern. An unexpected Gale blew up during the night and unfortunately a rope got round the prop. we ended up in two feet of water with a 4 foot 6 draught sailboat. It took four days to get off, I took an anchor from the head of the mast. and used the main anchor out of the bow to winch her off the sand bank, fortunately with no damage. There was no decent weather forecasting in those days.
Awesome dramatic presentation. I'll be following your advice to practice this skill. Swing into action immediately.
great vid, never seen a video on this topic in all the Crusier stuff I watch. Keep it up
really great video James. Such important information, Thanks so much
Your knowledge is priceless, thank you very much.
Thanks James, great insights with clear explanation.
3 Have done all this stuff, but had no windlass. I walked the anchor on the bottom, but when surfaced I had about 3+ knot current going away from boat, much trouble getting back and wait 15 minutes on ladder to regain breath. ( solution float a fender on line to where anchoring) also if not on a lee shore (not possible this example) put up all sails, 170 Genoa sheet all the way in tilting boat to lessen draft.
Note to self: I should get that scuba diving certification. Heck of a lot easier to walk underwater with an air tank on your back.
Hey Zingaro do you know catamarans are shallow draft, that's why only dummies sail on mono hulls?
Simply said, thank you James!
Super interesting. Thx for sharing.
Great vid, thanks James!
Awesome as always
James overestimates the lung capacity of 95% of boat owners.
Great tips maybe I’ll need a video how to swim that deep
Excellent advice, thank you very much 🙏🏼⛵⚓🏴☠️🦜❤️
Good advice thank you
Appreciate the video James thank you ❤
Aloha James, I am one minute into your video and I am ready to stick my neck out. I know exactly where this happened and I first saw it on the local news. As soon as I saw it i knew the boat was lost. What would I do?? I would not be there in the first place. What happened? A new captain, unfamiliar with the waters and sailing in Hawaii in general. He is approaching the entrance channel to the Ala Wai, too close, too shallow. Every time a wave goes beneath them the boat lifts up and goes ten feet sideways, closer and closer to the shallow water. The crew are scurrying around getting the tourist guests another cocktail and pupus, nobody looking forwards, no one on watch.. The new captain knows no better and then they are amongst the surfers and then hitting the reef. Too late, each wave lifts you up and pushes you yet further up the reef and still swallower waters. Tragic. Kedging off of this? I don't think so. The crews on these boats are there to serve the guests, most of them do not know the pointy end from the blunt end, not sailors at all, they could not spell kedge let alone identify one. Kedging can work, I have done it in shallow tidal estuaries in England with great success. In amongst the surfers in Hawaii....not so much.... OK, on to the rest of your video. Aloha from Honokahau, you've been there! David.
? Scuba might help lay out the anchor?
Thanks James!
While the anker is out and you are Bussy with kedging and somebody else can remove your drinkwater will help.
THANK YOU!!!!!
I bought a 44ft boat 7 years ago and usually i bump the rudder on things in reverse, but that's in the med. I still haven't got the boat stuck on anything, so I guess I will soon😂
Holly (Another Adventure) has documented a worthwhile rescue operation of a completely beached boat, where all the familiar tricks are used.
Of course I got stuck in the lagoons a few times, but once I didn't get the right entrance into a river in rough seas. Reversing just about freed the boat from the bang-bang impact.
My view is never to try to get forward out of grounding (on sandbanks etc.).
Very instructive post, James.
Thanks, Albert :) Much love, hermano.
deploy rafts, drop sails, call pan pan..anchor...kedge ..keep the chief stewardess down below and make out before help arrives
set the anchor out beyond the breakers using tender and drag the nose into the seas.
What if you have a big bowsprit? Would the force damage the rig?
Wow! First on line.
Awesome video. I hope I never have to use the technique. 😊
Thought you were a landlubber! 😂
3 of course
Grab a cold beer and drink it fast then another one 😂
Ensure safety of passengers but definitely try and kedge off
Def 3
Option 3 and as the ship breaks option 4.
Anchor are still used by salvage ships to pull boats of a beach.
Obviously one anchor is not enough as some boat have only one.
Pulling the mast down with a line is good help.
Have small radios to communicate with others.
Now hear this swimming / walking underwater is BS only good for the super well trained person with a humongous long 🫁.
But to make things easy grab a couple of fenders and float that anchor. Even with longer lines
Obviously you must float the chain too. But 250 feet of chain is not always available. Your secondary anchor may have a line and 30 feet of cain what is easier to handel.
That secondary anchor you can float out too. Cut the line and it drops to be pulled to hold.
Even a dingy anchor can be used to haul out the bigger anchor.
Those guys that have 100 meter of chain on a 40 foot boat are totally nuts
It’s only weight at the nose of the boat and no good for any thing.
An anchor with 40 foot chain and then a line does the same thing.
Drop the anchor and pan pan
Get off the boat as fast as you can then buy an RV 😂
2 and 4. 2 incase 4 doesn't work for this Captain 😊😊.
I’m gonna say 3
Water leak
Pump out
3and4