Box Anchor for a Houseboat

[ajholt7]

I am trying to convince someone with a houseboat that the box anchor is the best anchor. Who has used one with a houseboat? Did it hold well in all conditions? This is a fiberglass bottom houseboat and a lake with a rocky shore so it is not possible to just tie it to the shore.

[bforsythe]

I dont have a houseboat but... Ii can tell you this. Im in a 24v and my box anchor is 12x12. If the wind blows hard enough it jerks the boat if the anchor is set. It has huge holding power. It works so well it gets to be a pain to retrive it. I would say it holds extremly well.

[ajholt7]

I know how well it works with my 20V but, I am having a hard time convincing them to get one for their houseboat.

[Paublo]

I have a box anchor for my boat and I love it- it does better than anything else that I've seen.

But I also spend a week every year on a 55' houseboat on Lake Powell and I would never trust a box anchor to hold it- or 2 box anchors. With a good strong wind against the side of a houseboat, I hardly even trust a single rope tied to a rock- I use two ropes. We have 4 ropes, 2 for each side with one attached at the rear corner and the other about 2/3 back- each side. Each rope is 5/8" and has a large traditional style Danforth anchor on the end. The best way to use the anchor is to dig a hole and bury the anchor and pour water over the sand as it is back filled. I've seen a frayed line break but the anchor never budge in a strong wind using this technique. If it is all rock, no sand, then we add rope lengths until we can find something to wrap it around. Or else we find another spot.

[Timmy!]

When I went to Powell, we had 4 anchors for the houseboat I was on and the owner said that if the wind picked up he would still be worried. 2 were tied off to giant boulders off the front and 2 in the water in the back. A box anchor for a houseboat would need to be pretty big!

[talltigeguy]

I am trying to convince someone with a houseboat that the box anchor is the best anchor. Who has used one with a houseboat? Did it hold well in all conditions? This is a fiberglass bottom houseboat and a lake with a rocky shore so it is not possible to just tie it to the shore.

How big is this houseboat? I am not sure I have seen any that are of any size with fiberglass bottoms.

[Micah]

I have experienced a couple wicked storms out on Powell and there is no way I would trust a box anchor to hold a houseboat. With good weather you would probably be fine but if a storm picked up with big winds you would have a giant sail on your hands. Like Timmy and Paublo we always use 4 big danforth anchors angled out and burried on shore.

[Moki]

I try to tie off onto large boulders. One tricke that my friend taught me that worked well in 80 mph gusts, was to place the anchor (not a box) in wet sand near the shore and then drive 2 stakes in front of each anchor. The boat didn't budge during a pretty fierce storm.

[ajholt7]

Thanks for all the input. It is an old 38' Gibson. Wish I had a picture of it. Lots of fun to take the Tige out during the day and then hangout on the houseboat at night.