In my experience, boats that do this have excess windage forward. My old Nonsuch would
"dance" at anchor, and I've seen Freedoms tack back and forth frantically. I've also seen
boats that carried the jib in a bag at the bow, or had the roller furling pulled out a few
inches dance around.

My solution in heavier air was to rig a small riding sail at the stern. In light air, a
small anchor dropped off the bow on very short scope - you want it to drag right under the
bow - would dampen the oscillations. This is called a hammerlock anchor.

-jeff



"Bobsprit" wrote in message
...
Your fast bottom has nothing to do with being busy at anchor. It's hull =
configuration and displacement that makes you squirm about at anchor. =
Are you locking down your wheel?

To be honest, we only had the problem on one short, but windy night at anchor.
The boat was sailing at anchor, practically tacking back and forth. She never
did it again, so it may have been a unique combo of wind and current.

RB