Anchoring Safely

Description

Safe anchoring is one of the most critical skills of good seamanship. It is also one of the most basic. Worldwide though, the past twenty years have witnessed over a thousand sometimes fatal, always costly anchor related incidents at sea. In particular, this relates to large vessels and VLCCs.

Anchors have been let go in the wrong place, at the wrong time and in the wrong way. Windlasses have been shattered. Anchors and cable have been lost. Vessels have been stranded, beached and run aground. Lives have been lost. These examples raise the question of whether the design limits, and the proper maintenance and use of both windlass and associated anchoring equipment, are sometimes misunderstood by those responsible for their ship's safety.

In this video archive images dramatically illustrate the consequences of such misunderstandings. Against this background, the package highlights and explains in turn the proper function and design limits of windlass, anchor and cable aboard vessels of all sizes as well as demonstrating their correct use and maintenance.

Further sections of particular importance cover the identification of a dragging anchor and how to cope with it, the importance of close anchor watches and oversights to avoid when weighing anchor.

The bulk of the video is taken up by a step-by-step study of the careful onboard preparations for, and textbook execution of, two anchoring operations. The first by the most commonly practised 'fore and aft' method and, the second, by the less common 'sideways' alternative - aboard a bulk carrier on route between Holland and Canada.