New owner...I have a Rinker 270 Express.

mh331168

The anchor is not the original. Of the two offered from Rinker, which is suitable for this boat? The Lewmar 15lbs or the 38lbs?

Stodge

Welcome aboard.  Hope you enjoy your 270.

15 pound is the recommended for that size boat.  38 would work but kinda over-kill.

mh331168

Thank you

Dude_Himself

I'm not sure any anchor can ever be considered "overkill", but I sleep out regularly and want to know I'll wake up where I closed my eyes.

dalek

Old pic from local chainworks. Recently demolished to make way for another bloody supermarket. Big for a 270 I would suggest.

Handymans342

I use that on my 342 lol

GMSLITHO

Enjoy the boat I just bought one last year going on my first full season if the weather ever cooperates 

Handymans342

Dude_Himself said:

I'm not sure any anchor can ever be considered "overkill", but I sleep out regularly and want to know I'll wake up where I closed my eyes.

Do you have an anchor alarm?

Cableguy Greg

Handymans342 said:

Dude_Himself said:

I'm not sure any anchor can ever be considered "overkill", but I sleep out regularly and want to know I'll wake up where I closed my eyes.

Do you have an anchor alarm?

I have one on my GPS and I use it all the time.

reneechris14

Drag queen is an app on your phone. Works well and does not use up the battery.

Michael T

Steve, you should use that on your stinky diesel - maybe it would sink it ....as it sure couldn't make it go any slower! LOL.

Handymans342

Welcome home MT! Did you leave your medicine in the Turks?? JC!!

trip_n

@mh331168=congrats on your new float=we have a 270 and just love it=also on our 2nd year.==we have a lewmar 14lb no problems on table rock.

is that handy in the fancy hat..:)

@reneechris14 =what do you tell the guys or your wife when they find a drag queen app .... on your phone

Dude_Himself

I have an alarm on my chartplotter, and my phone, but a pound of prevention is worth an ounce of cure (yes, I intentionally reversed those). I catch the anchor dragging around here and there's just a few moments before I'm on the beach/bar/rocks/mud. I'd rather not be forced to skip my bilge blower time.

Handymans342

What app do you use on your phone?

Willhound

reneechris14 said:

Drag queen is an app on your phone. Works well and does not use up the battery.

I use my chartplotter anchor alarm and I like the idea of backup on the phone but with all due respect to @reneechris14 I've never seen a GPS based phone app that didn't eat battery.
Happy to be proven wrong though. 

Dude_Himself

There's a couple I've used over the years: Anchor Alarm by SailGrib, Anchor Alarm by x-droid, DragQueen by ActiveCaptain, and the latest is AnchorWatch by Peckish Sloth. AnchorWatch is my favorite - I can deploy and mark multiple anchors and it creates an alert polygon that matches the length of anchor rode and water depth, and it can send SMS/email messages when there's a problem (low battery on the device, GPS loss, dragging, etc.

On trips I'll drop the wife/kids on the dock, then anchor out and paddleboard in. We can be out exploring and I know if the boat moves I'll get an alert remotely.

I also have a child monitor app (Dormi) that I leave running - and if someone comes on the boat or the bilge alarm goes off I'll get an alert for that. We caught the dockmaster checking on our old boat once  - the drain plug had popped loose on the cooler and the bilge pump was cycling as the meltwater collected.

rasbury

Sweet, you have covered every scenario that would drive crazy leaving the boat at anchor. To darn early to absorb it so may have some questions!

J3ff

How does a child minitor app alert about someone coming on the boat, motion detection? 

Liberty44140

On the anchor weight question, I am pretty sure that the anchor on my 342 is 16 lb, came with the boat, although 22 lb also comes to mind. Either way, I’d go 15 lb or 16 lb on the 270.

Dude_Himself

@J3ff: it turns the mobile device into a sound and video motion detector. I have the tablet mounted in a RAM mount in a cup holder by the helm, with power, aimed at the stern.

If the anchor alarm goes off both the Dormi app and the AnchorWatch will send me messages. If any other alarm goes off the Dormi will detect the audio, and my phone will beep/vibrate, then immediately start streaming the live audio/video from the boat.

Same thing if someone comes up on the back of the boat (or the picture changes drastically in a short amount of time) - the motion detection alerts/streams it to my phone.

There's also a 2-way audio mode in Dormi so I can talk to whomever is on my boat - the dockmaster took a minute to realize I was talking to him through the tablet. He called our old boat Boato-Roboto after that.

We took the old boat to Secrets in Ocean City, MD. They have a big mooring field and a water taxi that picks you up and runs you in. The place itself is like a club at Jamaica - they bring in a few million in palm trees every year, put up decorative lighting, loud music, excessive drinking, etc. Great security team - anything is allowed right up until it's not, and they're great at handling the situations without too much attention. Cool place. Anyway, we had finished an afternoon of drinks and people-watching and were on the water taxi back to our boat with a few other couples. We pulled up to a boat to drop the owner and a naked guy jumped to his feet, threw his clothes over the side, and dove after them. A second later a girl stood up, wrapped in a towel, and jumped over the other side. They had snuck out to this couples boat for some privacy! We laughed our **** off at the time, but after that I always worried about leaving our boat there. That's when I came up with this solution - originally it was powered by a hotspot and a yagi antenna that I could hit from Secrets. When 4G data became a thing Verizon had an unlimited plan, and I used to stream 50GB a month just watching my boat under the cover in the storage unit.

My three babies:

Dude_Himself

Off-Topic Secrets Shot:

Msquared

Congrats and welcome to the group.  It is awesome. 

Stodge

Dude_Himself said:

I'm not sure any anchor can ever be considered "overkill", but I sleep out regularly and want to know I'll wake up where I closed my eyes.

We do the same.  We normally have anywhere from 2 to 10 boats rafted over night. And sometimes its just us.  The weight of the anchor is (IMO) less of a factor than it being correct for the type of bottom and how well it's set, amount of scope etc.  

Dream_Inn

Stodge said:

Dude_Himself said:

I'm not sure any anchor can ever be considered "overkill", but I sleep out regularly and want to know I'll wake up where I closed my eyes.

We do the same.  We normally have anywhere from 2 to 10 boats rafted over night. And sometimes its just us.  The weight of the anchor is (IMO) less of a factor than it being correct for the type of bottom and how well it's set, amount of scope etc.  

I completely agree with you Stodge!  We do the same and anchor out a lot & raft-up often. I always end up being the base anchor, so I make sure that I'm set well.  & when I use a stern, it's as large as my bow anchor with just as much rode.