I 've read in various places, of people that get stuck on a sandbank or rock with a falling tide, opting to kedge out an anchor from the top of the mast using a halyard - thereby leaning the boat over and shortening the draft of the boat and freeing her of captivity...

Does it work?

My masthead is 63ft above the water. Draft is 6 '6". Granted I 'd have a lot of leverage working, but if one estimated a need for a (minimal) 3 to 1 scope to provide sufficient traction, I 'd need to attach the halyard to a rode that is 150ft long (plus the 60ft available from the halyard). Of course, if the water is deeper where I 'm dropping the anchor, that rode length would have to go up more. I don 't have a (readily available) 150ft length of line to kedge off with - so by the time I dug it out of the secondary anchor locker, the tide would probably have dropped too far!

My other concern is that the maximum length of rode that can be used to set the kedge, is restricted by the length of the halyard... as soon as the shackle reaches the sheave, you 're done...


Your thoughts appreciated... Am I missing something? or perhaps mis-reading stories of kedging off using a halyard...

Why do I ask this? It occurs that if this is a useful ploy, that it would be helpful to have an extra long halyard going up the mast - and sure enough, the previous owner of our boat did indeed install a very long (double length) halyard. Was it for a possible kedging arrnagement - or was it to enable a 2:1 halyard arrangement? (Whatever, it 's a Royal PITA storing all that line at the mast!)

Bill Balme

Yes, it works. We have used this method on I Wanda atleast a couple of time, successfully. I Wanda is a 40 ft Camper Nicholson and the mast height is 51 ft above water. I had a halyard who was about 60 ft from the top down (though, by splicing an other line you may use any length of rope which is longer) and we used a 3/8 nylon rode (about 200ft if I remember right) hooked up to a fortress FX 17. The water was not very deep, but with the dinghy i deployed the halyard/rode/anchor as far as possible and as tight as possible. I went in the water and was able to set the anchor by hand. The fortrss hooked up right away and it did not take many turns of the winch before the boat was on its side gliding over the bottom to deeper water.