Looking for inspiration: what to do with the anchor locker

[preserved_killick]

Hi everyone,

In my Alberg 30, the area forward of the v-berth I call the anchor locker. In my non liner boat this area is just the insides of the hull as it tapers down to a tight little area just forward of the v-berth bulkhead. I store my anchor chain/rode in there, plus another anchor rode. The problem is that anything I put down there slides to the bottom of the hull like a funnel. It can't get past the bulkhead, but if I put anything else in there they all just get tangled.

I was thinking of building in some sort of shelf, or a partial shelf on one side, or something. Perhaps with a shelf My anchor rode could sit in a box, and a spare rode & anchor could hang on the opposite side?

Anyone have any suggestions? See anything clever? What works what does not.

Thanks!

[Hirilondë]

I don't see any issues with having a spare rode, or any lines for that matter, that are well hanked and hanging in there. But unless you cover it or something I see any anchor fowling the active rode and now you have a serious problem if you have to drop anchor quickly. Well, even slowly, but that wouldn't be an emergency, just a nuisance.

[preserved_killick]

I agree, but at this point I don't even have a way to hang anything.

I sailed on a 30 foot wooden boat that had a small floor in the locker below the foredeck. The anchor rode would pass through a chain pipe and land in a nice wooden bucket. Other stuff could be in there, but he anchor rode stacked itself in the bucket, then not get caught up when pulling back out.

-jeff

[Quetzalsailor]

Isn't the usual trick to add a partition arranged so that the rodes drop into their own side?

A similar idea to the bucket can be seen in multipurpose halls for Symphony Orchestras, Operas and other uses. Such halls have vertically movable ceilings over the stage and sometimes over the forward part of the audience seating area so that the acoustics can be changed for the use. These ceilings have all the necessary lighting, sound, and fire sprinklers and the various wires and hoses have to go somewhere. Ditto the large speaker clusters and their wires which are raised and lowered as needed in such a hall. What happens is that the wires, etc., coil themselves into huge tubs on top of the ceiling or speaker cluster.

I don't think that storing a spare anchor in the chain locker is a good idea, unless it can be accessed readily from deck. Somehow, grovelling up there and fetching it during an 'event' does not sound appealing.

[BALANCE]

I divided my anchor locker in half because my chain was getting stuck when deploying the anchor. I actually had too much room for the chain to drop into and it was falling over on itself. Dividing it in half took care of that. Now, the other side could be used for anything. In my case it's an all rope rode for the secondary anchor. I haven't had a problem since.

I couldn't imagine using that other half for anything other than rode because it would be the absolute farthest storagae space fromt the helm....inconvenient for a single handler.