[Public-List] No Anchors

[Gordon Laco]

Hello Rod - 

I don’t think anyone secures at the dock with their anchors overhanging… and if they did, as you say it is much easier to deal with that on an individual basis than addressing only those who race…and probably not ‘getting’ those who don’t know how to tie up their boats.

I’m sure the reason for the no anchors when racing rule mentioned earlier is the issue of anchors up forward potentially increasing the damage should boats collide.   If the anchor hooks onto rigging what might have been a simple bang and bounce off can become a dismasting… much more dangerous with regard to the likelihood of people getting hurt.

A similar rule exists in most dinghy racing classes but instead of anchors up there, the rule prohibits fixed towing eyes such as many light boats have for hauling them up onto trailers.   Funny thing is that there was a collision between a pair of 5.5Mtr class yachts at the North American’s hosted by our club this summer.   For obscure reasons one of the 5.5s had a fixed towing eye bolted through her stem… and she collided with another boat, hitting her from leeward about level with the helmsman’s cockpit.    Google 5.5 Meter Class Yachts to get an idea of the long noses those boats can have.

Two things happened, both related to the towing eye.  Number one; the attacker drove over the boat she hit…  the towing eye cut into the boat being hit and ripped her open like a can opener, tearing through planking, shear clamp and about two feet of deck.  The the second thing is that the bow stopped in the helmsman’s lap when the towing eye halted in it’s merry progress by a teak cockpit coaming it couldn’t break through..

So the towing eye made the damage much much worse… but if it hadn’t been there, there would have been no energy absorbing braking force to slow the attacker down, and the helmsman of the boat being hit might have been crushed under the bow of the boat driving over his.

Hmmm… 

Well the best thing is of course NOT to hit other boats…

Gordon Laco
www.gordonlaco.com




> On Aug 27, 2018, at 8:31 PM, Rod Symmes via Public-List <public-list at lists.alberg30.org> wrote:
> 
> I have been thinking about the NO  ANCHOR ON THE BOW.
> 
> I can't help wonder if there is more to the rule than   “All anchors shall be removed from the bow and stored below”.
> 
> I wouldn't be surprised if the concern isn't members tied up at the club with their anchors hanging over the dock and constituting a hazard to people walking the docks.  Liability may be the real issue.   If this is the case, it would seem to me to be more useful to require boats to either tie up  further back in the slip or stern to.  This would be more effective than removing the anchor - some of those roller / mounts would still be obstructing the dock.
> 
> Does that sound too sensible ?   (-:
> 
> My two cents
> 
> Cheers,     Rod
> 
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