The 2012 summer was the first season with Iris. Anchoring was all but pleasant as she swung like a carousel. Maybe one of the disadvantages of the swing keel she sport. So quite a few nights were spend moored to shore. She draws only 1.1m of water – of the many advantages of the swing keel 😉 – so we get close to shore.
Preparing for the 2013 summer I did a bit of research on how to stabilise the vessel at anchor. We ended up with a delta wing rider sail. It made the world of difference and swinging is now highly limited – leading to most nights being spent at anchor – sleeping.
Iris is 43ft, wights 16MT loaded. The sail maker recommended a size 4, but we ended with size 3, which works nicely. I think the sail is surprisingly large and draws a lots of wind. Hence it is important to secure it well and very tight.
Fell free to check the friendly sail maker http://www.lundhsails.se/produkter/ankarplog
I prefer to anchor with large cope; preferably minimum 5:1. That may be a bit more than most sailors. Iris was the first vessel into this lovely an
chorage along the south coast of Norway. In the evening we wanted to head over to Denmark and when retrieving the anchor if found that the vessel in the middle had dropped their anchor over my anchor chain. Not ideal! With a lot of luck we managed to glide passed the middle vessel and get our hook up without any damage.