Last Tuesday we had a strong northerly blowing into the Burnett Heads small boat harbour which was 20 knots constant gusting up to 30 knots.

The holding there is not good with a metre or two of sloppy mud over bed rock. The high tide was just before 2 pm which covers the northern wall of the channel in the river so the fetch was all the way from Lady Musgrave Island about 60 miles north.

Second Wind has been anchored for a couple of months midway between the motor boat and the moored yacht on the right without any dramas in a wide range of wind directions and strengths until this northerly came in.




She dragged her pick right the way across the basin without hitting anything until she grounded at the shore wall.

Two of my mates who live at the marina raced out with a tinnie and nearly stopped her from grounding but a line fouled the prop and she went to the wall. They did manage to get a line from a mooring to my primary winch which stopped her from laying against the wall.

They could not start the engine because I had the main oil line off for repair. They phoned me and I said I would silver solder the oil line and be right down. I felt sick in the guts when I was driving down there but they had her secured with lines and anchors and she wasn't pounding.

We got ourselves organised and set ourselves up to get her off on the next high tide at 2:20 am. Tuesday was right on neaps and the high was 2.11 metres.





It was close but not close enough and we needed 150 to 200 mm more tide to float her so we resigned ourselves to getting her off on the Wednesday afternoon tide at 3:15 which had another 350 mm in it.

Inspection at the low at 9 am revealed that the keel was in a mud hole and the skeg and rudder as you can see was jammed in some rocks. What you can't see is the rock, the turn of the starboard bilge was half an inch off resting on.

I went down and tried to clear the rocks away from the skeg which I was able to do on the bank side but the one on the basin side was too big to budge.

The previous afternoon I fitted the new oil line so that when she came off we would have engine. We had planned to have a 4wd with a winch forward of her on the bank so we could drag her parallel to the bank to get the skeg out of the rocks.

Overnight the wind had changed from NNW to SSW which was very much in our favour.

I got back on board about an hour before the high with my tinnie with an 8 hp donk in case I needed it. We were about to set up the 4wd with winch when much to my relief and with a clap from the guys on the bank she floated off.

The anchor was already out and holding so I started her up and took her over to the marina.

Fortunately the only damages sustained are a couple of scratches from the tinnie on the topsides and the broken self tailer jaws from thrying to winch a knot through it (not by me).


The above story is only to set the scenario for the question about what is the best tackle set up for poor holding ground.

I want to continue using this anchorage as it is quite protected, is little influenced by tidal flows and I have very good friends there who keep a good eye on my yacht. Eventually I will have a mooring up river.

The yacht is a 30 footer with around a 4 tonne displacement and does not have excessive windage. The ground tackle is a 30 lb Manson Plough with 20 metres of 5/16" (8mm) short link chain and 30 metres of 20 mm Kinnears three strand rope.

At the time of the dragging I had 10 metres of chain out in 2 metres of water (5:1 scope) which should have held her in good ground but as I said it is quite sloppy mud in this basin.

First Question:- Should I or should I not have an oversize (say 1/2 inch) swivel between my anchor and chain????? There are arguments for and against. I am interested to hear both.

We have considered tandem anchors in line which can be very good in a blow if you are on board but due to the swinging in the basin and my not being aboard, we have ruled it out. For the same reasons and lack of room we have ruled out having two opposed anchors which will wind up, or fore and aft anchors.

I think the 30 lb Manson is just right for this yacht so I don't want to have a 45 or 60 lb anchor on it.

The next option is a catenery on the chain which could be:-
1. A sliding collar type.
2. A 27 lb plough shackled onto the chain when the main anchor hits the bottom. (Quite do-able but it alters the anchoring dynamic.)
3. Another length (say 5 metres) of heavier chain, shackled at each end and the middle with cable ties between the shackles onto the main anchor chain.

I am in favor of this last option.

Can anybody tell me if and why this would not work or suggest a better way of achieving the desired result of getting better holding in the sloppy bottom????