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Professional tanker captains call it the "Poor Man's Tugboat." It's a technique more formally known as dredging-using an anchor to help maneuver large vessels in close quarters. It's also something you can use on your boat for getting in and out of tight spots.
According to Capt. Thomas Bushy, who runs the training ship at the Massachusetts Maritime Academy, dredging allows you to use your anchor to make a pivot point that you can spin around-usually at the bow. "It's a skill that's not as popular as it once was," says Bushy. "Because of tugboats, people aren't taught to do it."
Still, some ship captains use the age-old technique today as a means of making 90-degree turns in cramped turning basins or negotiating narrow channels. And even though twin engines and bow thrusters make the maneuver unnecessary most of the time, it's a neat trick to know and one that will separate you from the average Joe Boater.
When might you need to try it? Say you have a twin-engine boat and you lose one of your powerplants, which greatly reduces your maneuverability. Or you don't have bow thrusters and you can't work your way into a tight slip or crowded anchorage-especially when wind and current are working against you. Knowing how to dredge the anchor could mean the difference between controlling your boat and crashing it.
Here's how it works. The idea is to put down enough weight-your anchor-to hold the bow in place against external forces such as wind or current. This way, the bow, not the stern, becomes the boat's turning axis. All you do is lower the anchor until it's just sitting on the bottom, not hooked in solid. You should be able to feel it skipping or bouncing through the rode. It's best to try it in water that's no more than two to three times deeper than your draft. If the water is too deep, handling the long rode cuts into the quick placing and removing of the pivot point, which is a key element to the technique. Once you get the feel of it, though, you'll be able to spin on a dime.
One potential problem is that today's anchors, such as the Danforth, are designed to be lightweight with high holding power. You don't want the anchor to take a set, but you do want enough weight for a temporary hold on the bottom. One solution is to add a lot of chain to your rode.
