Deploying a Sea Anchor
Printed From: The Fishing Website
Category: General Forums
Forum Name: The Boat Shed
Forum Description: Discuss all things boating.
URL: https://www.fishing.net.nz/forum/forum_posts.asp?TID=6384
Printed Date: 03 Aug 2026 at 5:10am
Topic: Deploying a Sea Anchor
Posted By: Ab_Fab
Subject: Deploying a Sea Anchor
Date Posted: 12 Oct 2004 at 9:26pm
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Hi All, Sorry to be a pain, but another question for the knowledgable and experienced people here. I am wondering about the best way through experience of deploying a sea anchor for fishing. My current working assumption is that this should be deployed off the bow using the permantly attached boat bow line of about 5 meters, with a second line as the "deflating line". Is this how people use their sea anchors? Or would tieing it to the bow make fishing a bit of a pain (i.e. lines go under the boat etc)?? Cheers guys Ab |
Replies:
Posted By: Bender
Date Posted: 12 Oct 2004 at 9:35pm
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I tie mine to the stern. A sea anchor is deployed from the bow in survival conditions, but for fishing you want the boat facing downwind. The length of line varies - I have mates who trail it just behind the outboard, or vary the rope depending on how they want the boat to hang. I just use the bow launch rope which is about 6 or 7 metres long. ------------- Nobody has ever come up with a great idea after a second bottle of water. |
Posted By: Lethal
Date Posted: 13 Oct 2004 at 12:21am
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also a tag line to the back end of the Sea Anchor to help displace the contents when you have to retrieve it is handy, more so on a big boat...... ------------- Thanks for everything you did for us Eric. may you rest in peace, You were one of the real legends of NZ recreational fishing |
Posted By: 1000PA
Date Posted: 13 Oct 2004 at 5:25am
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Our deployment depends on the wind and tide. Sometimes we want the boat to face a certain direction or to travel a certain way (like when jigging) so we just set it up to help that. I must admit it's certainly easier to set the boat almost still when in deeper water and you don't want to let down a heap of anchor line. Especially when you just want to sit over a certain spot for 10 minutes. It also depends what size the sea anchor is and the weather conditions, there's plenty of times when you can only set it up over the bow for fear of taking a big wave over the side otherwise. We also use the launching rope, it lets the sea anchor out just far enough to ensure we don't get our tackle caught up in the thing. Ross ------------- Fishing-4-all-NZ |
Posted By: Ab_Fab
Date Posted: 13 Oct 2004 at 7:54am
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Great tips here guys, Sounds like using the launch rope and securing to the stern is a good place to start (with a "dump or tag" line). Cheers again guys Neil |
Posted By: KingfishSi
Date Posted: 13 Oct 2004 at 8:31am
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Don't forget to retrieve it before motoring off as this will a) affect the performance of your boat, b) probably tear the sea anchor. Have witnessed both of these first hand on a forum member's boat! ------------- Keep knockin', nobody's home. |
Posted By: Ab_Fab
Date Posted: 13 Oct 2004 at 4:04pm
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Good point Kingi, I am not uknown to trawl a berley bag from time to time so must remember this!!! Cheers Ab |
Posted By: Wefaknis
Date Posted: 14 Oct 2004 at 8:30am
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Si I don't remember that tale. do tell. Wefaknis |
Posted By: Matt B
Date Posted: 09 Nov 2004 at 2:10am
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I have been "planning" to rig ours so that it is fastened to the bollard on the bow and then run it along the side and tag it to a stern quarter cleat with a line i can release with a single pull and then we would be sea anchored by the bow rather than the stern. Reason being you don't want to be anchored by the stern if you are shipping any waves. should it happen you have a mjor problem that needs resolving a minute ago. You don't want to be hauling a sea anchor to solve it. The sea can get pretty nasty in a wind against tide situation, which is when i find the sea anchor most useful. Having said all this, I have not actually done it yet. ------------- Put your vote where your mouth is. |
Posted By: Bender
Date Posted: 09 Nov 2004 at 7:02am
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Matt, don't know if its the same on all boats but if I rig the sea anchor to the stern quarter cleat, the boat drifts sideways. I used to loop it around the outboard so it streamed from the centre, then I put a cleat on the transom right next to the outboard. I've also found that any weather you can drift in without the drogue, you can drift in with the drogue. The drogue doesn't seem to make the problem of shipping waves into the boat any worse - and if there's a likelihood of shipping waves into the boat, then I bail out anyway, because that's when its getting dangerous, in my view. I've never had to run it from the bow and hope the situation where it's necessary for survival never becomes an issue. ------------- Nobody has ever come up with a great idea after a second bottle of water. |
Posted By: R2D2
Date Posted: 15 Nov 2004 at 4:27pm
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I've had some success running it from a bridle between bow and stern, so by adjusting the length of the stern line I can change the angle of the boat to the waves. Sounds more difficult than it is, and with a slow drift it's easy to fish this way. I've not tried a trip line, I just motor up to the thing (carefully!) and lift it aboard.
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