Anchor chain wrapping around keel

[Anthony]

Has anyone else suffered this hideous experience? We anchored for a couple of days in an area with strong currents and often wind against tide. Somehow the 2001 Bav40 snarled the anchor chain around the keel so it was impossible to lift the anchor. Major dilemma! We managed to get help from a large power cruiser who firstly dragged for our anchor chain, pulled it up and worked their way to the anchor and with a bit of grunt pulled it up, a Manson Supreme plough type. Then the anchor and remaining chain was carefully placed on the side deck. Both ends of the offending chain pulled up tight to avoid damage to the prop and away we went back to the marina where I will get our diver to see what's wrong. My concern with sharing this is that possibly the torpedo bulb at the bottom of a 1.95m keel exacerbates this problem. I can imagine winged keels being even worse. Any thoughts or avoidance tips?

[Kibo]

Thankfully not happened to me with an anchor chain but it did happen with a mooring ball pennant in very light air once. That was a lot easier to fix by simply taking the pennant off the bow cleat.

Avoidance? I would use a bahamian moor in these circumstances with two anchors set 180 degrees apart 

[Ricd]

Yes about 10years ago chain got wrapped around keel bulb while it was being set.  Result was with anchor partially set but dragging and we were being driven towards a very rocky lee shore.  All attempts to retrieve anchor failed and we were now quite close to rocks so decided to cut the bitter end in attempt to loose the lot but, the chain remained around keel now with all chain and warp overboard.  Engine was now on full power trying to stop boat going towards shore/rocks. Could not see how this was going to get any better and could see it getting worse quite quickly so....MAYDAY MAYDAY MAYDAY.  Lifeboat now on way, engine still driving full just to hold the boat off rocks. A dive boat that picked up the Mayday came rushing into our bay to help.  Just as he arrived, with a surge the boat freed itself.  Diver boat kept an eye on us until lifeboat arrived and escorted us back to marina. 

[Impavidus]

Has anyone else suffered this hideous experience? We anchored for a couple of days in an area with strong currents and often wind against tide. Somehow the 2001 Bav40 snarled the anchor chain around the keel so it was impossible to lift the anchor. Major dilemma! We managed to get help from a large power cruiser who firstly dragged for our anchor chain, pulled it up and worked their way to the anchor and with a bit of grunt pulled it up, a Manson Supreme plough type. Then the anchor and remaining chain was carefully placed on the side deck. Both ends of the offending chain pulled up tight to avoid damage to the prop and away we went back to the marina where I will get our diver to see what's wrong. My concern with sharing this is that possibly the torpedo bulb at the bottom of a 1.95m keel exacerbates this problem. I can imagine winged keels being even worse. Any thoughts or avoidance tips?

Anthony a good way to stop this thing happening is to do the following;

Set your anchor as usual, secure a large weight such as a stage weight or similar, say 25Kgs to a large shackel put the Shackel over your chain on a length of line and allow the weight to slide down the chain say 5 mts or so. Then fit your snubber as usual.

This stops the chain going slack and keeps the chain vertical when it does, well below your keel.

Its based on a principal of physics which for the moment escapes me but I seem to remember that a line between two fixed points cannot be straight if there is a line load, it can get pretty near if the load is light, the line taught, but never perfectly straight. It helps to keep the anchor under less load too.

Hope this helps


Ant.