I was on the Hoh recently and dropped anchor in a deep tailout that was going to shallow water. Well it quickly brought the boat to a stop and I pulled for 30 seconds and decided to cut the rope. Boat was off balance a bit and I was a BIT scared.

Buddy who is experienced boater made statement that made me feel better. "your not the first guy that's lost an anchor on this river."

I believe my mistake was dropping in deep water assuming I would just bounce till shallow water and eventually stop.
Anyway's I think I dropped over a log and it quickly got stuck. My question is why did the back end not submerge and sink my boat. Only one other person in boat. Not much gear. Buddy said it has to do with scope of line out too. Anyway's just asking.

I was on the Hoh recently and dropped anchor in a deep tailout that was going to shallow water. Well it quickly brought the boat to a stop and I pulled for 30 seconds and decided to cut the rope. Boat was off balance a bit and I was a BIT scared.

Buddy who is experienced boater made statement that made me feel better. "your not the first guy that's lost an anchor on this river."

I believe my mistake was dropping in deep water assuming I would just bounce till shallow water and eventually stop.
Anyway's I think I dropped over a log and it quickly got stuck. My question is why did the back end not submerge and sink my boat. Only one other person in boat. Not much gear. Buddy said it has to do with scope of line out too. Anyway's just asking.

I've been part of two anchor donations on that river.

Thank the good lord this is not a "fatality" post...everyone made it out safe. Often, our experience with boats makes us brush off this fact. Stay vigilant, you never know when you will be in their shoes!!

Amazing as it sounds, years ago(20+) saw two dudes on one of those Seyvlor blow up kayaks with a bunch of gear , try and make it from the island (no idea how they made it over there) to the launch . As they were swept past the launch, they turned and began to paddle like hell for the launch. Just a few moments and they were into the trees and turned over. I can remember yelling with all I had and getting the attention of a sled who was back behind the island. He Plucked one out of river and one off of bank. Two lucky mofo's.

I lost an anchor in the very same spot. Tough day on Cow with no anchor. I did have my kicker and can recall that I got a Springer on a blue metallic hotshot. Right were all of the trailers are.

When the upstream end (stern) of the boat goes under water, it fills the entire boat up within seconds.

The stern gets underwater when the weight in the back, current, and angle of the rope add up to more downward force than there is floatation force pushing upwards.

The shorter your anchor rope, the more the force pulls straight down, as the "downward force" is coming directly at the angle of the anchor rope.

The faster the current, the more force that is being exerted down the anchor rope angle.

The more weight in the back of the boat, the less force that is required to pull the stern under.

Can't really math it out, per se, as there are a lot of variables within those three main ones...but the moral is to not overweight your boat, don't anchor in heavy water, and more anchor rope will lead to less downward force on your boat.

Your anchor does not have to be stuck for any of this to happen, but if it is stuck you are in a much worse position...you can actually pull yourself underwater by pulling up on the anchor rope...anchor doesn't move, but boat gets pulled down.

Fish on...

Todd

good info Todd.

that story makes your hair crawl just reading it.
glad it had a happy ending.

Sometimes Stupid Tax includes equipment loss or worse.
Glad they made it out.

I too have ALMOST lost an anchor in that area. In much lower flows, I used to enjoy anchor fishing herring in that area. I had to let out all my anchor rope and row to shore to try and get a different angle on the stuck anchor. got it back but almost swamped myself trying to pull it up.

The relationship between load and angle/direction of force applied fits under the umbrella of vector force analysis, something that comes into play in the climbing/rescue world all of the time. Mathing it out is definitely possible, but to do that you would need to collect a lot of super boring information such as forward speed of the boat, current speed, weight of the boat and occupants, coefficient of friction between anchor and substrate, angle that water impacts the stern, on and on. The common sense method is a lot easier and more practical.

As has been stated, a steeper angle is achieved with less scope, or anchor rope in service. The steeper the angle, the more the force is applied in a downward direction. The amount of force is a significant factor, as is the direction in which it is being applied. Take the same load or force factor and apply it at two drastically different vector angles, and you will get very different force values in the critical area, in this case the stern of the boat. The same amount of force exists in each equation, but it is dissipated and shared between the components very differently based on the vector angle.

So, as Todd said, consider your force factors or force potential. Weight of the boat, speed of the current, weight of the anchor and manner in which is dropped, etc. The perfect storm is a heavy load in the boat, poor job of weighting and balancing (favoring the rear), heavy flow, and a heavy anchor that is dropped quickly to the bottom and hangs up immediately. If all of these things happened to combine in one event, well, we have all seen how that can go.

So, how do you mitigate? One, don’t overload the boat. Two pay attention to weight and balance issues. Be very cautious about dropping the rock in heavy flows where there is the potential for the anchor to stick before an appropriate amount of anchor line is out. I anchor in heavy water all of the time and have never had an issue, due in large part to paying attention to what has been described above. Additionally, rather than drop the rock immediately to the bottom at full speed, I will often grab a few hard oar strokes to slow my forward speed, slowly lower the anchor to the bottom, and then pay out line slowly until an effective scope/angle has been achieved, sometimes dragging the anchor on the bottom gradually and/or gradually transferring load to the anchor while paying out line should the rock stick immediately.

Sounds like they got lucky.Thank god the sledder was on it.Good luck,
SZ

In a DB in small rivers, I like to avoid dropping the hook in heavy water.
Safety, anchor recovery and I don't want to tie up the passage or the meat of the run.

I look for easier water, that gives me access to prime water to drop hook into.
Also helps to eyeball the structure of the adjacent bank.....often the river bottom is the same. I try to avoid craggy stuff and look for freestone.
Still have my original, lead bodied Ramsey (Animal) anchor....crap, I hope I didn't just put the jinx on

I've seen 18" round bumpers completely submerged while anchoring power boats below Bonneville at the old deadline.
Bare minimum 350' anchor rope and big tined, break away anchors. Some carry 600'.
Rooster tail trying to form off the stern once you get a hold....might take a few tries.
Different class of anchoring, but the basic principles remain the same.

Drift boats should be outlawed.

Yop!

Sound to me like they didnt have the boat set up right to run 4 guys out of, maybe they should have moved the front seat forward, and the rower seat forward to lift the back end up. Plus theres alot of snags, stumps ect in the area there trying to anchor in, cuz in my early years of rowing I have lost an anchor in that same area. Not sure if I would have anchored in that area, with the flows over 8k, I also like having over 60ft of anchor rope. so I can change the pitch/ angle when anchored. I remember one thing Bob told me when in heavy water try and find some soft water before anchoring, so you dont suck the back down. Driftboats outlawed? why cant you row!!!!!!

People don't kill people.................Drift boats kill people.

not all of us have the luxury of owning a big fancy fish rite sled. I kid, I kid. Haha.

Well, that's one way for a bank maggot to troll.

This doesn't count as a bite.

Drift boats are great..............if you have a shuttle and can fish during the week.
Unfortunatly mine sits in the barn 362 days a year.

Then there would be lotz more room for sledz on the Cowlitz.