Anchoring Offshore PII

[bazz]

Has anybody ever had an anchor rope break? As I posted before, I have only been fishing offshore for a relatively short time and find anchoring over a small reef patch a difficult thing to do, especially if there is any sort of current running. I have got a lead filled anchor tube, but getting positioned so the boat hangs off the anchor in the right place can generally take several attempts. I use an anchor retrieve system similar to the one sketched by Webby and that was when I managed to break the anchor rope.

I have an electric anchor winch with a spool of nylon anchor rope. Nylon is what was recommended to use with the electric winch. Before this I used 12mm silver rope with the anchor buoy retrieve system with no problem. The very first attempt with the nylon rope in about 70 metres resulted in a loud bang and a broken anchor rope. Luckily I was able to get the anchor back thanks to the anchor buoy.

I am not any younger and I like to use the anchor winch especially when fishing around the bay. I also find the rope twists after a few retrieves with the anchor winch. This makes it almost impossible to lower the anchor without a bit of effort.

Has anyone got any ideas on how to solve this problem with the Nylon Rope?

[Volvo]

Bazz, welcome to the many lost anchors club lol.
Mate more ya fish offshore the more anchors here n there ya liable ta get picked up ta point they break off or sometimes ya just chop em off at the rope as ya drive away, happens to the best of us lol.
Have found best ta shackle your chain to front of anchor and then couple of strong cable ties wrapped twice around through chain and eye of anchor(rear end) that way if your anchor fouls up , as ya drive away the cable ties mostly strip and retrieve anchor head first.
mainly two types of anchors i use are the Mooloolaba picks and the plow anchors which i mostly use about wrecks as have mostly found the ground around the wrecks is hard sand ta a hard muddier type of bottom and reef anchos are no good unless ya drop your pick in the bowels of the wreck which mostly end up seeing the end of your anchor.
Also let out the plow with heaps of rope if storm heading my way whilst at anchor otherwise its the Mooloolaba pick.
No way going back to the conventional prong type pick as forever rebending straightened out prongs ey.
Recently lost two picks, one i run over the rope and the only other pick onboard was a sand anchor and it got caught under ??? and wouldnt let go so give it the knife treatment and bought couple extra Mooloolaba picks ta be on the safe side lol.
And yep!! use the retriever method too.
Cheers

[bazz]

Thanks Volvo for your reply,just one thing mate what is a Mooloolaba pick ??? You are right when you say you get tired of bending a reef anchor during a days fishing.Cheers.

[Jewmaster]

Also be careful on the change of a tide, if the anchor is down and the boat swings, you tend to rap the chain around the structure and there isn't much you can do after that, we have given up over 6 picks to the mouth of the adelaide river in darwin, but it has always been when we are lazy and don't pull the anchor on the urn of the tide and the chain raps up. Nealry always gets the knife treatment.

My old man has stopped using a chain and hasn;t lost a anchor in months, i still like the chain for saftery reasons, but tis working for him.

[Volvo]

Bazz will try dig up some photos and post em on the board for ya and anyone else may be interested.
Used ta get em made up via the use of stainlesss but just buy em from the chandlery now and much easier n quicker.
I have a 6 meter tinny and bought me a couple of ten pounders, maybe a little bigger than need be but a little more peace of mind when on the pick ey and also use six meters of chain ta go with the anchor.
Cheers

[Volvo]

Okay see how this goes :)

[Volvo]

Shite, come out bit big but you can get the idea ey:). Thats the stainless version though if you go to a chandlery you can buy the galvo model with shank a little longer than the attached pic and presume one would work as well as the other except for rusting over a period of time lol.
Far as im concerned no other anchor comes near this one for reef areas ey and they dont cause no destruction either.
Cheers

[bazz]

Thanks fellas for the reply and thanks Volvo for the effort ,now I know what a Mooloolaba pick is like.I will see if I can get hold of one at one of the chandlery places.I had a look in Leisure Marine today they never had anything.I have the contacts to get one made though.