As I have mentioned before, my boat behaves like a weather vane facing the wind wrong way. The reason is a fancy looking hull design with high bow with deep concave walls that act like well trimmed sails ready for close hauled action. Another side effect of this design is that the boat does not stay put on anchor in light to moderate wind conditions. It constantly swings 40 degrees to either side, like a pendulum … and drags the anchor as a result.

Here is the solution … from the work titled "Stay Put" by unknown (to me) author:

"Yawing at anchor is a function of 3 factors. The amount that the wind is veering by. The windage of the boat. The underwater configuration of the boat - a flat bottom boat will yaw more than a deep keel boat.

Setting up a bridle on a 24' boat will have little effect on the amount of yaw. The forward cleats are just too close together! Anyone remember the study of vectors and forces at school?

...

But here is a great way to hold your boat almost rock steady to the wind. It is a trick I learned a long time ago (not sure from where) but I used it many times on my sailboat. Like all things it is really simple to do but hard to explain in words but here goes:

1. Set your anchor as usual.
2. Now tie a long (say about 15m length) line - a 6mm diameter line should do - with a rolling hitch to your anchor rode just in front of the bow (ie between the bow and the anchor).
3. Let out some more anchor rode - keeping slight tension on your secondary line- until the rolling hitch is about 1-2m under the water. Tie off your anchor rode.
4. Now take the loose end of your secondary line and loop it round one of your stern cleats.
5. Now for the final adjustment. Simply tighten this stern line, bringing the stern towards the wind until the boat no longer yaws and tie it off.
6. More adjustment can be made by tightening or loosening the stern line as well as by adjusting the distance of the rolling hitch along the anchor line. The greater the degree of wind shift, the more you will need to pull the stern towards the wind.
7. If you don't want to let out more anchor rode (as in step 3), then after setting your anchor and tying off you can just pull the boat forward by the anchor rode and tie the rolling hitch to some point and the letting the boost drift back while applying slight tension to the stern line (to stop the hitch from slipping initially).

The net result is that your boat will lie perfectly still at a slight angle to the wind. The wind will not be coming over the bow directly but over your forward quarter.

Hope my instructions are clear enough but it's worth trying it out. You will be pleasantly surprised."

This is how this configuration looks like … anchor bridle is marked in red ...



Other way to minimize anchor dragging is the use of kellets ...



I am using my old chain in a similar way. Instead of a ball of chain lowered on the rode, I shackle it to the bitter end of chain section as I lower the rode and let it go to the bottom. There is one more step required when anchoring with kellet, and when raising an anchor in a hurry or at night that you must not forget to remove it as you pull the rode or you might damage the windlass and/or boat.

Here is an ultimate method to anchor a boat …