Yet again Wilbur you have shown that you need to take a chill
pill !!

Iv'e been reading rec.boats.cruising for years now, but I felt quite
strongly about this comment so this is my first post.

Marcs question was what should you connect the relay to in order to
trigger a device to wake you up. Perhaps an electric car horn would
be a good idea?

You said "Yours is an inadequate solution to safe and secure
anchoring. This is how it MUST be done in order to never drag
anchor ...."

Firstly, you can't say you will NEVER drag anchor.. that's just silly.

A single anchor is not nesissarily inadequate, I have been sailing
for 20 years and have never dragged anchor. We have sailed all over
the UK especially the West coast of Scotland, where you have to anchor
all the time. No marinas about (thank god!)

We use a 70 pound CQR with All chain (10mm) rode. This is to hold a
20 ton full-length keel 43ft Ketch. If we are worried about the
anchor dragging, we stay on the boat. On the cathead stowed next to
the big CQR is a 45 pound CQR just incase we need a second anchor.

It would be an enornous hassle having to deploy 2 anchors all the
time. Infact, it it probably a bit dangerous since if you got them
tangled up, you could end up in an even bigger mess than just a
dragged anchor. The vast majority of the time a single anchor (all
chain rode, is there any other ?? ) will suffice. If you know
that bad weather is on the way then it would be prudent to deploy a
second anchor before the bad weather arrived.

This happened to us a few years ago when we were anchored in Ardminish
Bay on the island of Gigha, Scotland. There is a tough sandy bottom
here. We sat out a full week of Force 9 gusting 10 in our last boat,
a 32ft 5Ton sloop with a 35lb CQR and a 25lb CQR.

The big anchor was deployed when all was calm. The bad weather came
very quickly which meant it was too dangerous to row the secondry
anchor out for a "text book" setup. Instead we motored forward as
much as we could, dropped the 25lb CQR . In the end the 25lb CQR did
most of the holding. We didn't drag an inch.

Wilbur, you do make some valid points - like diving on your anchor if
you can, However to call the majority of good sailors who deploy
single anchors "idiots who
undoubtedly attended the Skip Grundlacks school of sailing" - That's
just plain offensive!!

Fair Winds,

Iain