Frogwatch wrote:


Did not have time to read all the other answers, however, a 40' boat
by itself is a pretty good fulcrum pivoting about it's center of
buoyancy. So, get the chain vertical, heave till it is taught with
all persons ON THE BOW. Everybody goes aft which pulls the anchor
free. Repeat to slowly haul the anchor.

Got a picture of that? Don't make sense. Funny to visualize though if
you picture John Candy and Fatty Arbuckle as crew.
You want slow hauling? Let the tide pull the anchor up.
A buddy of mine had a 40' cat with +275' chain rode.
Was becalmed off an island in the South Pacific and decided to clean his
chain locker and untwist the chain. 500' water.
Unshackled the anchor first. Think it was a Bruce 44#.
Dropped the chain in the drink, cleaned the locker, then couldn't haul a
link of chain with the windlass and his full strength added.
Slowly powered the boat into 150' water before he could haul it in.
Lucky he had removed the anchor and didn't snag the chain.
So don't anchor with all chain rode in deep water unless you have the
hoisting gear for it.

Jim - There are six million stories in the South Pacific. This has been
one of them.