Anchor Bag

[Toxophilite]

I'm making an anchor bag for my 12' clinker dinghy.
Primarilly to contain the anchor and keep it from mangling the boat.
The material is somewhat watrproofed but it seems like it might be prudent to have a couple of small grommets in the bottom edge to allow any remaining water on the anchor to drain off once it's stowed.
Any anchor bag makers out there have any design insights?

Mine is just a rectangular heavy duty double sewn bag with a rope drawstring on top

[Canoeyawl]

I use a stolen plastic milk crate, some are only half height, very desirable!

[pez_leon]

I have a similar homemade bag. I like it for all the reasons you say, and for the way it contains a muddy mess. I wish I had made mine a bit longer- I can't quite fit the whole shank comfortably under the drawstring. Maybe the fabric shrank, or maybe the 3d shape of the anchor, chain, and rode required a bit more height than I expected.
Grommets on the bottom drain well and can also save you the ghastly embarrassment of losing an unsecured anchor overboard. Leave the bitter end of the rode sticking out of a grommet. Next time you deploy the anchor, fix that rode to the boat before you even take the anchor out of the bag. No surprises. Or at least fewer surprises.

Keep us posted!

- James

[Toxophilite]

I have a similar homemade bag. I like it for all the reasons you say, and for the way it contains a muddy mess. I wish I had made mine a bit longer- I can't quite fit the whole shank comfortably under the drawstring. Maybe the fabric shrank, or maybe the 3d shape of the anchor, chain, and rode required a bit more height than I expected.
Grommets on the bottom drain well and can also save you the ghastly embarrassment of losing an unsecured anchor overboard. Leave the bitter end of the rode sticking out of the a. Next time you deploy the anchor, affix that tail to the boat before you even take the anchor out of the bag. No surprises. Or at least fewer surprises.

Keep us posted!

- James

Milk crates are great. I use them for all sorts of storage, sadly they are largely too large to fit comfortably anywhere in my boat.
I wasn't going to affix a line to the grommet. It would be primarily as a drainage hole. I actually leave my rode attached to the anchor. The chain in the bag with the rode in a little bucket.

I made my bag out of a double layer of heavy canvas that I had and I saturated the inside and outside with paraffin. Upon reflection I thought whilst this protects the canvas some from moisture, it also contains any surplus water so I thought a couple drainage holes wouldn't be amiss.

[timber_cruiser]

I made an anchor bag using heavy cotton canvas. I added some grommets along the opening to allow me to close and secure the bag to bottom of my boat. I clip the bag to the base of my main mast.

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[stromborg]

My ground tackle is an anchor with boat-length of chain attached to 200' of nylon line. The problem I've had with storing the rode in a bag is that it never dries out, the end result being a funky smelling mess. There is a reason any boat big enough to have one has an anchor locker to keep all that mess relatively contained. The bag also need to be stiff enough to stand up on it's own as you flake the rode in, one reason the plastic milk crate works so well.

[Boatsbgood]

I made a bag for a spare rode on a bigger rode/boat, 5/8 line about 200' and 50' chain. I ended up with a flat piece of heavy reinforced vinyl, grommets along all edges, 2" webbing handles with long loops. Unlace, open, (in my case shackle up anchor at this point) deploy. Recovery is coiling rode onto flat fabric, unshackle anchor, lace up. Doesnt The coil doesnt need to be stopped (secured with small stuff) if ends are attached to handles. Drains and dries pretty quick on deck, (though its warm here) and easily lugged to its storage. Dunno if/how that might scale down, but having it 'open' but laced on three sides works for mine. Just a different idea for the mix...

[Yeadon]

I once sewed up a canvas duck bag to the same dimensions of a milk crate. Hot waxed it with a can of paste wax. Worked great. I added a grommet drain hole at the bottom. These days I use the bag for my clothesline loop anchoring system. There's about 400' of floating line in there, plus all the necessary other stuff for a clothesline system. Soft bags are great because it's one less hard thing to fall on.

[Toxophilite]

I just made a flat bag and impregnated it with paraffin, did my sou'wester at the same time. After the paraffin the bag was like a board and my sou'wester was a helmet.
I made it to fit my little Danforth and chain. Have a small bucket/extra bailer for the rode.

I really like the more box-like bag ideas I'm seeing. Or a large low bucket shaped bag.
Then I can put the whole setup altogether.
Time to sew up another

[Ben Fuller]

Drywall buckets fit better than milk crates, but replace the metal bail with rope, and some of the small claw style anchor's fit neatly in them. If anchor is used at the end of the trip a fresh water wash down and dry keeps the rode from not getting funky and the chain shackles etc happy.

For a Danforth the long rod bits can chew up a nice boat. I made up kind of a flat bag into which the danforth can go bottom down on top of the rode which provides some protection. A couple of wiffle balls or something similar fitted on those evil rods keeps lots of dings from happening.

[Bobcat]

I keep my lunch hook and rode in a square plastic bucket. I got it from a local restaurant. I think it held tartar sauce.

[timber_cruiser]

I made another gear bag using 24 oz canvas. I like using this canvas since it is strong and holds its shape, but also lends itself to being stuffed into corners and out of the way.

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[Autonomous]

My anchor bag is some sort of coated fabric with gromets for drainage and accommodating the bitter end of the rode so it can be hitched to the boat.
One time I tried spraying a scrap of canvas with Fluid Film, which is lanolin based, to see if it would mimic waxed cotton. Nope, it stayed gooey.

[Canoeyawl]

these work pretty well...

available locally

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