I 've read in various places, of people that get stuck on a sandbank or rock with a falling tide, opting to kedge out an anchor from the top of the mast using a halyard - thereby leaning the boat over and shortening the draft of the boat and freeing her of captivity...

Does it work?

My masthead is 63ft above the water. Draft is 6 '6". Granted I 'd have a lot of leverage working, but if one estimated a need for a (minimal) 3 to 1 scope to provide sufficient traction, I 'd need to attach the halyard to a rode that is 150ft long (plus the 60ft available from the halyard). Of course, if the water is deeper where I 'm dropping the anchor, that rode length would have to go up more. I don 't have a (readily available) 150ft length of line to kedge off with - so by the time I dug it out of the secondary anchor locker, the tide would probably have dropped too far!

My other concern is that the maximum length of rode that can be used to set the kedge, is restricted by the length of the halyard... as soon as the shackle reaches the sheave, you 're done...


Your thoughts appreciated... Am I missing something? or perhaps mis-reading stories of kedging off using a halyard...

Why do I ask this? It occurs that if this is a useful ploy, that it would be helpful to have an extra long halyard going up the mast - and sure enough, the previous owner of our boat did indeed install a very long (double length) halyard. Was it for a possible kedging arrnagement - or was it to enable a 2:1 halyard arrangement? (Whatever, it 's a Royal PITA storing all that line at the mast!)

Bill Balme

Dick and All:

Thanks for the responses - I was missing the use of the snatch blocks - Duh!

I imagine that when setting the anchor it 's best to have the block on the end of the spinnaker halyard at about deck height - to facilitate a good set and then raise the block to take up tension and start the kedge.

When the boat starts to heel, I would think there will be quite a lot of twisting moment, tending to bring the bow out first, so am I right to think that as the kedge goes on, the helmsman will be using judicious amount of engine power to balance the boat? (Not even sure that works...)

Regarding the helpful rib... this proved to be our downfall last year in Lagavulin - a helpful rib turned up while I was making a second attempt at kedging us off the rocks... In the heat of the moment, I foolishly gave them a line to the bow and they successfully pulled us off forward - but in the process, the rudder sustained damage, bending the shaft just sufficiently to jam it hard against the hull. All completely my fault... We did however get to spend the following 5 weeks in Scotland cruising - albeit by car - while a new rudder was flown in!

Cheers!

Bill Balme