The Anchor Locker on the bow of your boat is a compartment that is designed to store and protect your anchor rode (line/rope) and chain.
When not in use, the locker keeps everything untangled and ready for instant use, when you arrive at your anchorage or for deploying in an emergency.
Anchor lockers get hot and wet with little or no ventilation causing hidden problems……..
On most boats, the drain isn’t at the lowest point (for some unexplainable reason), but rather above the lowest point, allowing water to accumulate.
With boating season just beginning, now is the perfect time to check your anchor line—it might be sitting in leftover water from your last trip, soaking up grime.
When you haul your anchor, you feed the dripping wet anchor rode and chain, that are quite often covered with guck and gunge from the anchorage, into the hot, wet, unventilated anchor locker creating a nasty shallow swamp!
Your anchor rode marinates in this wet, hot gucky swamp; until it becomes a gucky, slimy, slippery mess, expediting its demise—not what you want to find when you arrive at your next anchorage.
How do you drain the swamp?
Well, my friend Bob arrived the other day in his 24′ cruiser. He is an enthusiastic boater who is continually working on his boat to keep it in top-notch shape. As we sipped on a beer at the dock sharing boating stories and adventures, Bob explained his current issue with his boat. “There is a swamp in the bottom of my anchor locker” exclaimed Bob quite disturbed that somehow he had missed it. “How do I drain that swamp?” continued Bob. A long brain-storming session followed and resulted in a plan to solve the problem. “Let’s get at her” Bob explained as he sprang to his feet.
We started by emptying his anchor locker and scrubbing the gunge off the anchor rode and chain with a mild biodegradable boat soap. Then, we spread it out to dry. The next challenge was to clean the anchor locker itself. Again, using mild soap and a light bleach, we rid the locker of the yucky swamp and odour.
To prevent the rode from marinating again in the future, after another anchorage; we decided to install some deck tiles from the local hardware store.
They are 12″ square soft plastic grates designed for use around pools, decks, porches, garages, laundry rooms and cold cellars.
The antifungal design of the deck tile, prevents the growth of fungus and other nasties, leaving your anchor rode “high and able to dry”, so it is ready for use the next time.
We snapped them together and trimmed the soft plastic with scissors to fit the anchor locker floor.
This would keep his anchor rode above the water, because the deck tiles are filled with drain holes and have dozens of tiny legs creating a dry deck well above the anchor locker drain hole. The water could drain out of the rode and run between the plastic legs of the deck tile.
The squares were around $3.50 each, which is a small price to pay to prolong the use of your valuable anchor rode and eliminate or greatly reduce cleaning time.
Bob cruised off the next day wearing a huge smile, knowing that his anchor locker and contents were clean and protected.
He was confident that his anchor and rode would be dry and ready, when he arrived at his planned anchorage.
A neglected anchor locker can lead to moldy, smelly, and weakened gear–something no boater wants to deal with, when dropping anchor at their next favourite spot. By taking a little time to clean, dry, and ventilate your locker and anchor rode, you can avoid unnecessary hassle and extend the life of your equipment.
Bob’s simple fix of using plastic deck tiles proved to be an easy and effective way to keep the locker dry and the rode ready for action. So, before the season gets underway, take a moment to check your anchor locker–you never know what swampy surprise might be lurking inside.
To learn more about caring for your anchor locker, see “The Oft Forgotten Anchor Locker” article.
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