How to keep an easy-to-release anchor secure and prevent it from jiggling free

Trevor Martin

Trevor Martin shares his simple solution to keep his anchor secure when not in use

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Having gifted my old Moody 36 Joanna with a new Rocna anchor I bought an ideal IFAM padlock on a wire to keep it secure at the berth.

I re-tasked a drop-nose pin having substituted two of the deck plate countersunk machine screws for eye bolts.

I was very happy with the set up.

A secure anchor on a boat

The padlock secures the anchor when the boat is berthed in the marina, making it secure from mild to moderate theft attempts. The drop-nose pin is also attached to the padlock wire so it is to hand. Credit: Trevor Martin

Secure in harbour and easily deployable in a hurry if the need arose at sea.

I put the key on the same bunch as the liferaft padlock key so that it added to my unlocking regime before leaving the berth.

What could go wrong? Well, nothing for long enough for me to become complacent.

Six months later I was motorsailing a choppy west run against wind and wave out of the Solent bound for Weymouth when I heard a rather nasty clunk sound.

Did I hit a lump of floating wood?

Then it did it again. A really heavy and worrying sound.

Had I caught something around my keel or skeg? CLUNK/BANG.

I surveyed the deck and saw that my anchor was missing!

An R clip on a boat

Simple R-clip keeps the pin in place. Credit: Trevor Martin

The boat was pitching, so with two safety strops, I made my way forward and hauled it back on board from its mission to randomly dig chunks of gelcoat out of my starboard hull where it had been swinging with a vengeance.

The drop-nose pin had somehow extracted itself, allowing the anchor to make its way overboard on half a metre of loose chain.

On my return to Weymouth, I realised that I needed to do no more than add an R-clip to the pin. Sorted.

To release (especially in an emergency) the R-clip is pulled out and can’t be lost due to the tether.

Then the drop nose pin can be withdrawn for immediate anchor release.

This article was updated as it was originally published incomplete.

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