Drop port anchor!

HWAT?!

So theres alot types of anchor out there, the most common type now days on merchant

navy ships, especially large ships, are the stockless type.

And that's mainly because the design is flat and can be stored away easily.

Usually you'll see it tucked away just beneath the bow.

This one here is our spare anchor.

A typical stockless type will have its crown, the arms and the flukes in one piece, its

design to pivot on the shank. The shank is the term for the center piece.

Contraty to many believe... the anchor actually dont hold the ship, the anchor only digs into

the sea bed and holds the chain.

Its the length and weight of the chains that holds the ship.

Its all about horizontal force , later I will show you guys how it works.

Now At the forward station we've got two anchors , one on each side which can be lowered or

heave up control by the windlass.

The anchor chain leads up to the hawse pipe through the windlass, down the spurling pipe

into the chain locker where its stored.

Here is the chain locker, normally its kept closed but today I was following chief mate

for an visual inspection.

The big drum is called the Gypsy.

Some item of interest here are the guillotine bar, also known as bow stopper or pawl bar.

which traps and holds the chain in place, incase the brake fails.

The metal wire attached are the lashing holding it in place when not in use.

By putting the dog clutch into gear, we can either heave up or lower the anchor.

Windlass is the term for this whole system used to heave up or lower anchor and mooring

lines.

The anchor alone is about 9000kgs or 20,000 lbs, plus the chains thats quite heavy, which

is why using the windlass its still a slow process.

Heaving up is always going to be slow, But for lowering the anchor there is actaully

another way , a faster way which is to let the anchor fly out.

What that means is having the anchor chain disengaged from dog clutch and brakes, and

lowered by gravity.

The only way to stop it though is by engaging the brakes.

Here is what it looks like.

As you can see it is quite violent, lots of vibration, debris flying everywhere, and a

lot more risky then by motors.

If you aren't careful this might happen.

If we still have the anchor, well brakes on tight, bar down and pin in, securing the anchor

So how do the anchor, anchor chains hold the ship in place?

Well remember the keyword is horizontal forces.

Casey Nesitat time Let me show you from the begining

The ship should always be down wind or down current whichever is stronger, slightly drifting

backwards . so that when a anchor is lowered into the water, the crown catches and set

onto the sea bed. with the engine and or the current, walking the ship back to pay out

the chains.

A useful trick to figure out the current or tidal direction is simply just look at the

nearby anchored ships, all anchored ship will follow the heading of current.

A horizontal pull gives the anchor its holding power digging into the sea bed.

The weight of the chain, this curve section also known as the catenary, holds the ship.

So the more chain laid, the greater the holding power

A general rule of thumb is 1:5 ratio for good weather, 1:7 or more for bad weather.

It varies between ship size and type.

For deck officers, An anchor circle should be drawn with the radius being the length

of cables laid plus from bow to radar antenna so that you can monitor the ship on radar

and ecidis.

So we drop our anchor plus how many cables we laid out plus the ship's length

see this is the anchor circle on the outside, and this our track, past position swings back and forth because

the tidal wave is semi-durinal

Dont forget to show the anchor ball & signal ! Anchor light

During anchor watches, the crew have to check the weather and sea conditions

as well as status of the chain.

We want avoid dragging the anchor and drift somewhere or drift into another ship, that

would be bad...

The crew will look at the chain phsyically and report back.

The terms we use are.

up'n'down, short stay, medium stay or long stay. Long stay means there is a high chance

of dragging anchor because the chain is being pulled like this.

To heave up, just walk the ship over the anchor and pull up with the windlass because remember

it's not designed to hold vertical forces.

How do you count anchor chain?

Well, in the old days, every length of cable is marked between the shackles, one shackle

is about 27.5 meters.

Nowdays modern ships we have gauges that show how many chains are laid.

If you got any questions about anchoring, make sure to comment down below and join the

discussions.

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