Cruising Upgrades - Oars, Dinghy, Anchor Storage

[jcrawf]

Hey, folks!

I'm planning a 200+nm trip in May 2025 along the Intracoastal waterway from Navarre, FL to Lake Pontchartrain in New Orleans, LA. I've spent many years small boat expeditioning in Drascombe Longboats and am looking to add some features I've used on those to my PocketShip Beija Flor.

I'd be excited and grateful to hear ideas you have or things you've done for any of the following:

1. Oars & rowing station - I prefer oars to a yuloh. I'm planning to use them to make slow progress in light wind to save on fuel
2. Bow anchor storage - I have a Rocna 4 (9lb) and would like to secure it on the foredeck. I'd love to see any setups others have done like this.
3. Stern anchor chock & cleat setup - I'll probably have a Danforth & rode in a bag in the cabin and just set it up if I'm planning to anchor to shore.
4. Dinghy type and storage - I'm considering getting a pack raft, but the durable ones are so expensive (https://gearjunkie.com/boats-water/packrafts)

Thanks!
-Jesi

[Creekboater]

Jesi,

I don’t have much expertise to offer here but I’m interested in what suggestions you get. I myself am located just off the intercoastal and hope to make a similar voyage in my Pocketship once built. I am off Perdido Bay and would be thrilled to meet you and check out your build if you happen to make a stop in this area during your trip.

martin

[dbeck]

Jesi,

I can just contribute ideas, not much experience.

1. The top of the seatbacks are quite high above the water. You'll need long oars. Where will you store them? At hull speed, our motor takes about half a litre per hour. A 5 litre jerry can lasts for about 10 hours or close to 50 nm; this is a quarter of the full distance of your planned trip! But I can understand it is rewarding to cover large distances without using the motor. Please share your experience with rowing Pocketship.

2. Storing the anchor on the foredeck has practical advantages. Sometimes anchor and chain come back on board very dirty. I don't want that mess in the cockpit.

3+4: no idea.

Dietrich

[jcrawf]

I am off Perdido Bay and would be thrilled to meet you and check out your build if you happen to make a stop in this area during your trip.

Hi, Martin!

Cool to know there's another PocketShip build along the way! I haven't fully figured out my itinerary, yet, but if a stop in Perdido Bay makes sense, then I'd be excited to meet up!

Jesi

[jcrawf]

Hi Dietrich,

Thanks for the input and sharing those thoughts. I haven't quite figured out oar length or storage, yet - I'm hoping to hear from anyone who's done it because it does seem tricky. I'm a sailing instructor and expedition skipper and my company is giving me a grant to modify the boat (I wasn't the original builder) and go on this trip. I DO want to save on fuel, but there's also a stipulation in the grant that the trip should be as wind or human-powered as possible. My outboard will mostly be for backup if my DR shows I won't get to an anchorage before dark without using it or other risk management situations. For reference, these are the little open cockpit oar-rigged yawls that we've modified over the decades for the sailing program I work in: https://www.nols.edu/en/coursefinder/courses/baja-coastal-sailing-BCS/. There are some ideas I can use from how we've modified the Drascombes, but the PocketShip is going to require pretty different systems.

I'd be open to hearing any other human-powered options other than canoe paddles!

Agreed that deck anchor storage is practical - I'd love to see any setups other people have for it that don't require me to install an enclosed anchor well. Doing that is my backup plan if needed.

This process will take a lot of thought and effort, but I'm so excited for it! Any more thoughts or ideas you or anyone else have are welcome!

Jesi

[dbeck]

Jesi,

check out pics of Pocketship 1. To me it looks as John Harris just drops his big (!) anchor and massive chain in the anchor well next to the bowsprit. But I think the floor of the anchor well of Pocketship 1 has a layer of seadek. There are also more recent pics of Pocketship 1 of a trip in Florida in the private facebook group. (To protect the nice paint of our new boat from dings, I just cut some leftovers of hardfoam, hold together with tape, hosting our 9lbs anchor, 4 meter chain and rode.) Anchor and chain in a bucket on the cabin floor, secured to bulkhead 2, might be an alternative.

If you decide to install oar locks, ask the original builder if he/she has added some blocking in the seatbacks. There should be at least some blocking for the spinnaker sheet blocks (see manual page 150). We had installed two of them, see photo below.

Cheers,

Dietrich

seatback_blocks.JPG (96.13 KiB) Viewed 2920 times

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check out pics of Pocketship 1. To me it looks as John Harris just drops his big (!) anchor and massive chain in the anchor well next to the bowsprit. But I think the floor of the anchor well of Pocketship 1 has a layer of seadek.

My boat has the SeaDek pieces that CLC sells, and I am very happy with them. Having SeaDek in the foredeck means that you can just throw an anchor and chain in that space. But you would want to
be sure they are secure when trailering!

[Tom G]

I have done 2 - 100 mile trips in my Pockectship (Salish 100 in Puget Sound) as well as other shorter 50 mile multi-day trips.
I carry two anchors and put them in the lazarette lockers. I like deploying them from the cockpit. Starboard side a Rocna 4 with chain and 200 feet of rode in a flexible bucket. It fits nicely in there with the bucket. I have plastic dri-deck mats in both lazarettes to protect inside of hull panels. The back up/ lunch hook is a danforth style with rode and chain in a modified plastic fuel can. It actually works well a and fists tight against the bulkhead.. When I plan to anchor, I have 20 feet of 1/2 double braid with an eye splice. I leave it attached to forward starboard cleat and lead it back to cockpit. It actually will reach the stern cleat and just lays on top of the rub rail during the day. It has a large SS snap on the end. I drop anchor over the side let boat drift back until desired rode is out. I put something like a prusik knot or rolling hitch on the rode and snap the bow line to it. Then when I let it out I am tied to bow with 20 more feet of road deployed. Cleat off the lose rode as a safety measure. Just start pulling it in and the snap will come right back to you. Unhook and feed the wet rode into the bucket on the floor. I often just leave the knot on the rode as I usually anchor in similar depth of water. I keep another chunk of the dry deck in aft end of foot well ahead of fuel can. The wet anchor and bucket full of wet rope sit on that until they are mostly dry, then back into Lazarette. Either the bucket or the gas can container do a good job of keeping the wet rope from being too much of a mess.
I used to have the danforth on a mounting bracket up in bow but prefer doing it all from cockpit .I tried strapping the rocna to the side of the bow sprit in the forward well. Was also in way so I just moved to the lazarette idea Also I go up there most mornings and snug up the Jib halyard and found the anchor and bucket of rode always in may way and a tripping hazard.

[Tom G]

Here is the fuel can version with Danforth

[jcrawf]

I carry two anchors and put them in the lazarette lockers. .

This is really helpful! Thanks, Tom! I like the idea of deploying from the cockpit and am going to try it out. The storage ideas are great - wouldn't have thought about a gas can. I'll let you know how it goes! I'm planning to do the trip late-spring 2025.