What's an Anchor Buddy?

When anchoring the Stingray on the Columbia I always use my Anchor Buddy. The Anchor Buddy is a $25 thingy invented in Oregon (by the way) that works like a giant bungie cord to keep your boat out in deep water and keep it from being beached by tides, yacht and ship wakes and the wind. Here is a little tutorial on using an Anchor buddy.

First, throw away the instructions that come with it. Connect one end of the Anchor Buddy to your anchor chain ( you should have at least 3 feet of chain on your anchor). I like connecting two Anchor Buddies in "series" to keep the Stingray further out. Now attach 150 to 200 feet of 3/8" or 5/16" nylon rope to the other end of the Anchor Buddy, and finally buy a helix anchor, or some other form of ground anchor and attach that to the end of the rope.

Now, as you get within, say 50-100 feet from shore chuck your anchor into the drink. Slowly motor to shore, being sure that the Anchor Buddy and rope don't get sucked into the prop. When you get to shore, toss the rest of the rope and your ground anchor on the beach.

Now, grab the rope and start pulling on the part that goes out to the anchor, pull it in as tight as you can, then attach it to the bow cleat with several half hitches.

It should now look like this.

Note that in order to take this picture I had to have my foot firmly planted on the rope to the Stingray, 'cause the Anchor Buddies were pulling pretty hard.

Now just let go, the Anchor Buddy (or buddies) will pull the boat out into the deeper water.

The boat will try to go all the way out to where the anchor is.

Finally the boat will be way out there, tracking the current and not hardly even pulling on the anchor or the line to shore.

From a different perspective you can see how far out the Stingray actually is. It's in about 8 feet of water.

Here is a great shot I captured from space (last time I was up there), this is the Stingray anchored just South of Pier 1 on the Anchor Buddy.

Now if a ship wake comes in, or the tide changes, the boat will be out in deep water where nothing can hurt it. If the tide changes or the wind comes up, the boat will swing around the other way and everything will be fine. In this picture you can see what I am protecting the Stingray from, here are some large waves that came in from a passing yacht. These are nothing compared to what some of the ships put out, but it gives you an idea of what I'm up against.

Here the Stingray is bouncing around in some really big stuff from a passing tug pushing barges.

When you want the boat back (like to retrieve a beer from the cooler or something) just pull on the line going to the boat. The Anchor Buddy will resist, but the boat will come in. Once you have your beer, let go and the boat will take off again out to deep water.

Another great thing about using the Anchor Buddy, is that when it's time to leave, either for a quick waterskiing trip, or to go home for the day, the Anchor Buddy pulls you and your boat out into deep water so you don't get beached as you get the boat ready to go.

When I am just going out for a short buzz, I pull the Stingray in, jump in, and let the Anchor Buddy pull me out. Then I lower the outdrive, fire up the engine, and then uncleat the rope from the bow cleat. Since I use Nylon line, it sinks so the chance of sucking up the rope in the prop is lessened.

When it's time to go home, I unscrew my helix anchor, pull the Stingray to shore, jump in and as the Anchor Buddy is sucking me out into deep water, I pull in the part of the rope that was going to shore so the water can clean the sand off it before I stow it in the anchor locker. Then I lower the outdrive, fire up the engine and then retrive the anchor.

The only problems I have had with this system are: a) Sometimes I don't pay attention to the rope going out as I come in to shore and the rope or Anchor Buddy gets eaten by the prop. b) I drop the anchor too far out, and then I don't have a lot of line I can pull in so the boat ends up too close to shore. The cure for that is to go back out and move the anchor in some. c) The elastic element in the Anchor Buddy will age and break after a while. Guess what? It's just rubber surgical tubing! Buy some extra at the local hardware store and when yours breaks, use a fid to restring the new tubing. You'll need a Leatherman tool or something like it to open up the stainless steel clamps that hold the tubing in place.

One last thing, if you don't buy an Anchor Buddy, thank you. Every weekend I have so much fun watching people who just beach their boats, and then see them scramble like maniacs when a big ship wake washes their boat up on shore and fills it with sand and water. Or sometimes I get to watch campers wake up in the morning and realize that the tide went out and now two people have to try to move a 3000 pound boat over 10 feet of dry sand before they can leave.

You can have this...

and this...

and this...

and this...

and this...

or you can have this...

You have been warned.