Bristolfashion

On our yacht I use a modern design, Manson Supreme - an excellent anchor for any sea / river bed. I use 30m chain & then anchorplait, but if you're only in rivers, I'd have thought that you could have less chain as there's less chance of abrasion. The standard rode length is a minimum of 3x water depth and, for extreme conditions, a maximum of 10x. I would have thought that, for non tidal rivers, a rode of 5x the maximum possible depth would be fine, but I'd be interested in others comments. I reckon it's always worth having 1. a float / fender to attach to an anchor rode - if the anchor gets stuck and you need to cut it free, you can attach the float and come back for the anchor later. You can also use it (on suitable anchor types) to create a tripping line to pull a stuck anchor free. Tripping lines & floats can also be good to mark the position of an anchor, so no-one else drops an anchor on top of yours and, 2. some form of spare / backup anchor in case you lose the primary.

Um, this question of licences relates to something I've been pondering - and, I'm probably being really dense, but I'm not really clear yet. We're planning a "do the whole system" cruise. Obviously, the bulk will be on a continuous basis - with no problems with the distance/ frequency requirements. Q1. If we break the journey for, say, a month & put the boat in a marina/on a mooring, can we / do we change our licence mid-term to a home mooring basis? Q2. If we can't/don't change our licence basis, could we get "pinged" for not achieving the movement requirements, even though we're in a marina - and paying the higher "continuous" basis? Thanks in advance.

I do a lot of yachting on a relatively small boat - if a rope can't be pulled / winched as appropriate, there's probably something wrong. Of course, electric & mechanical aids are brilliant for people that need them, but I suppose they should really have some mechanism to prevent the application of damaging force - rather like a torque wrench.

CO alarms are truly brilliant - we came on board a boat (not our own) & lit the fire. All looked good - until the CO alarm went off - the baffle plate (I think it's called) was completely heaped up with detritus from the chimney - if it wasn't for the alarm ..........

Reading this thread is fascinating - it turns out that there are so many intricate ways of calculating that I should pay less and you should pay more!😀