Pontoon Boat & Deck Boat Forum

So on the morning of the 4th, we were out to watch the cardboard boat races. This was the second year for it. Last year only about 5 boats watched from the water. This year we had 15-20 boats trying to set anchor to get a good look.

We were there early I set two anchors so that we were facing the action. There was a slight breeze, I'd say 5 mph. We had one other pontoon rafted up with us. Then the idiots came out. Four or five different boats tried to anchor upwind of me, only about 50-100'. Every single one of them drifted into me before they could even tie their anchor off. I had my dock hook out pushing them away. After the first couple I was getting pissed Finally after I yelled at them that it wasn't gonna work there, each of them finally went somewhere else.

One guy was off to the side of us kept drifting around, I watched him drop the anchor and let out about 3' of extra scope in 20' of water. Yea buddy, that's gonna hold ya

Ok, RANT OVER!

Yep, happens ALL the time.

I wasn't one of those guys, but being new to boating I am having trouble mastering anchoring. I'd appreciate advice on what should have been done, wind, distance, length of rope, etc. Thanks.

same here, I can never get my boat to anchor, we are always over sand, have a pretty good size anchor, 6' of chain, approx 20' of line and almost always in under 6' of water. i usually have to jump in and manually set the anchor in the sand. these pontoons are like parachutes in the wind, before you know it you have drifted 100yrds.

Check out "digger" brand anchors and box anchors, about a 5 to 1 ratio of rope to the depth you are in.
I have one of both and this works for me.

Anchor tips:

Put a length of chain between the anchor and rope. This gets a lower pulling angle on the anchor and keeps some weight there to keep small waves from breaking the anchor loose.

Scope = how much line to put out. Depends on conditions. 5:1, 7:1
So in 10' of water you would want at least 50' of line out.

So if trying to anchor upwind of someone in 10' of water, you would need way more than 100' of distance. By the time you get the anchor to set, get out 50-70' of scope plus the length of your boat you will almost hit the boat that's downwind.

If you want to keep from swinging around - set your big anchor from your bow, let out more than desired scope, then throw a small anchor from the stern. Pull yourself towards your big anchor to set the small anchor. This helps if you want to face a certain direction. Not recommended to anchor sideways in real windy conditions though. You always want the bow towards the wind in rough and windy conditions.

I hear your rant, Kryptonite. I see this all the time in Party Cove, Lake Tenkiller, OK. I think most people don't do it intentionally, they just don't know, but I know it still makes me mad to have them drift down to my boat , and then I , not them, have to fend them off.

Anyway, the mistakes I see most of these offenders make are :

(A) Not having a big enough anchor. Don't throw over some little small thing in a huge wind with a pontoon and expect it to catch and hold. Maybe you will get lucky, but probably not.
Get the proper size anchor and also the correct type for where you anchor. I use the largest danforth type anchor Walmart carries ( for a 22 foot pontoon). A mushroom anchor for my
lake is worthless , IMHO, but may be okay if your lake has a mud bottom. Not sure what to throw out for a sandy bottom.

(B) Put out a lot of anchor line with about 6 feet or so of chain between the anchor and the anchor line. It helps it to set better, plus it helps your anchor lline ( actual rope part) not get
worn on the rocks and stuff on the bottom. Don't just throw the anchor over. wait until it hits the bottom, and then give it another 5 feet of line, it won't catch and hold. Like Kryptonite
says , Scope is everything. You will need to go way upwind of where you want the boat to end up, throw the anchor over, start feeding out line and backing up. Hold onto anchor line , so
you can feel when anchor does grab onto something. Then back way on downwind, and follow Kryptonite's advice on putting out an anchor in the back, if you don't want to swing from side
to side on the single anchor line. Even with all this , there are some places that are just poor anchorages and no matter what you do, nothing grabs, the bottom is made of teflon.


I don't raft up much with other boats, but one holiday last year, the wind was really blowing , everybody was dragging anchor except me ( just luck that day). I ended up with 5 boats rafted up with me, with only my anchor line holding us all. I just got sick of all of them dragging anchor back to my boat, and finally I just started telling them to tie up to me , and ended up with the 5.
Anchoring is a bit of a learned art, and I am by no means great at it, sometimes you just get lucky, like putting your boat on the trailer. Hope this helps somebody, just remember, big anchor of the right type, and lots of anchor line out.
Charlie

I will say that we are spoiled on our lake, we have many sand beaches. So most times everyone beaches to party and hang out, so there is no need to even anchor. So when some event pops up like this one, there is no experience thus leading to the problems.

Hell watching the fireworks the night of the 3rd, we watched 6 boats in a raft-up float from one side of the lake to the other. You'd think that at least one person could throw an anchor.

I find the problem is usually the anchor. As stated before get a GOOD anchor. Them may look the same but they are not. The Danforth type in Walmart with the slip ring IMHO are garbage, and a mushroom is ok if no real wind or current. That's what came with my boat, and even with two of them I could not hold anchor in any wind.

Went to BOW and got two 10 lb real Danforth type anchors, and what a difference.

I anchor in mostly sand/seaweed-muck bottoms, and once they grab, they don't let loose. Even in strong side winds they have always held. I went from hating/worrying about anchoring to not even giving a thought. They hold so well that the 5:1 scope rule hasn't been necessary.

Paid about 40 bucks per anchor

I anchor in mud with a 15lb mushroom. I use it in two areas. one is 30ft & the other is 10-17ft. I have used it in some pretty good wind and it hasn't pulled out.
As stated before...Scope is the key and getting a good grip with the right anchor. The Danforth that came with my toon sucked. It never held and would drag no matter what I did. After some research on anchors I went with the mushroom.
But lets face it, A lot of people just throw out their anchor and get busy hanging out without checking to see if they're drifting.
It happened twice today while I was out. Two different boats anchored up by me and slowly drifted right past me.

Some great advice here. I lost my first anchor on Thursday night after watching the fireworks on our lake. We were in 25' of water with fairly nasty winds (10 gusting to 20). I got a good set with about 100' of rope out and stayed in place well. We generally wait 30 minutes or so after it is all over to let the idiots clear out. When we went to pull up, it would not budge. I got the boat turned around so we could try from the opposite direction but was completely unsuccessful. It was dark, I was tired and none of the other guys volunteered to try to swim down 25" in the dark, with rough waves tossing the boat. I cut the rope and at least saved 75' of the 1/2" line. My guess is I wedged it under a tough tree root. I'm not a diver and our lake is not very clear so I did not mark the spot on our gps to go back later.

Can anybody offer any feedback on the Richter anchor. Cabelas has them, but they are pricey.

Drago wrote: We generally wait 30 minutes or so after it is all over to let the idiots clear out.

+1

I give two thumbs up to my small box anchor....it holds well!

I actually have it attached to an "anchor buddy" attached because I like to swing around as the wind changes. My 25 foot barge swinging in large circles also acts as a force field to encourage others to anchor away from me!

I have a small box that I got this spring and the more I use it the better I like it.