Our fishing culture is quite different from the western countries. Fly fishing is popular in the west while we do lure fishing in rivers and lakes. When out at sea, the westerners like trolling while we are more into baiting and jigging. Trolling is almost non existence in Singapore.
Basically the only reason for outriggers to be installed on yacht over here is for aesthetics.
Anchors and rods are configured differently too. Generally US boats come with smaller anchors as they do not need to anchor in deep waters and they often use full length anchor chains without anchor ropes.
Singapore waters are littered with wrecks and anchoring the boat is crucial to fishing the wrecks effectively. Many wrecks are located at seabed depths of 30 meters or more, that means we will need at least 100 meters of rode to safely anchor the boat. A larger anchor will also be required to deal with the strong currents and winds in deep waters.
Other than being impractical and uneconomical to install 100 meters of chains, it is also dangerous to do so. Singapore port is well known to be one of the busiest ports in the world. If a tanker strays off its route and travels towards you. And it so happens that you have a fouled anchor due to the many reefs and submerged pipelines/ cables in this area, your boat will instantly become immobilized in front of the path of a few thousand tonnes of oil load.
The only thing you can do is to free your boat by cutting the anchor rope, but this will be impossible if the rode is all metal chains.
I did two modifications to my anchor and rode to suit the fishing conditions here.
I cut the original 30 meter metal chains into half and that will leave me with 15 meters of chain rode.
After that I connect it with 150 meters of rope by splicing. Splicing sounds complicated to me at first but after watching a couple of YouTube videos and reading the downloaded instructions from the internet, it is actually quite easy.
The next task is bit more tedious.
I use a cardboard to make the profile of the anchor retriever.
After that I pass the anchor and the retriever to a stainless steel fabricator for them to machine the retriever in stainless steel.
And this is the end product.
The purpose of this retriever is to enable the anchor to be pulled out of a fouled condition as illustrated by the diagram below.
When the anchor is wedged in between rocks or corals, it is very difficult to pull it out regardless of what direction you pull. But if we can apply the pulling force at the crown, the direction of the force will be able to dislodge the fluke.
A rope is used to secured the retriever and anchor together. When the anchored is fouled, the force of the boat will be able to break the rope, thus shifting the pulling force to the crown and release the anchor from the fouled situation.
I feel that this retriever device is a must for fishing boats that often anchor at spots with corals and wrecks. It not only save you money on buying a new anchor, it also enables you to break free your fouled anchor easier in an emergency.
Basically the only reason for outriggers to be installed on yacht over here is for aesthetics.
Anchors and rods are configured differently too. Generally US boats come with smaller anchors as they do not need to anchor in deep waters and they often use full length anchor chains without anchor ropes.
Singapore waters are littered with wrecks and anchoring the boat is crucial to fishing the wrecks effectively. Many wrecks are located at seabed depths of 30 meters or more, that means we will need at least 100 meters of rode to safely anchor the boat. A larger anchor will also be required to deal with the strong currents and winds in deep waters.
Other than being impractical and uneconomical to install 100 meters of chains, it is also dangerous to do so. Singapore port is well known to be one of the busiest ports in the world. If a tanker strays off its route and travels towards you. And it so happens that you have a fouled anchor due to the many reefs and submerged pipelines/ cables in this area, your boat will instantly become immobilized in front of the path of a few thousand tonnes of oil load.
The only thing you can do is to free your boat by cutting the anchor rope, but this will be impossible if the rode is all metal chains.
I did two modifications to my anchor and rode to suit the fishing conditions here.
The next task is bit more tedious.
The purpose of this retriever is to enable the anchor to be pulled out of a fouled condition as illustrated by the diagram below.
I feel that this retriever device is a must for fishing boats that often anchor at spots with corals and wrecks. It not only save you money on buying a new anchor, it also enables you to break free your fouled anchor easier in an emergency.
