I'm sure this is obvious to those of you that have done it but coming from a small boat and having never been on a megayacht I am curious. Most big yachts have 2 anchors, one on each side of the bow. How are the usually deployed? Only one at a time or Bahamian style? Either way how do you avoid fouling the hull or rode in tide swings or wind shifts? Are there rubber bumpers for the anchors to seat against or is it metal to metal? It just seems those big shiny metal plates that are usually on the bow behind the anchor would be very noisy at anchor and underway.
I do not run a mega yacht but usually I see them anchored with one anchor, unless med mooring like in Nantucket where they will set both about 30 / 40 degrees apart. I m guessing th second anchor is pretty much a back up. On smaller boat we usually store our back up anchor and rode in the locker but considering th size of these boats anchors, they couldn't easily getl them out...
Other than Med mooring, in most cases I just deploy one anchor. The times that I have used both it's not in a Bahamian Moor style. But with the two anchors spread apart off the bow at about a 30 - 40 degree angle or so. The anchors wedge into the pockets and there is no need for rubber stops or bummers. When designed properly the anchors do not move around in the pockets while underway. At anchor I use snubbers so the chain will not bang around as the boat moves/swings/sails at anchor. And yes, when two are deployed their chains can foul each other. And that is other reason you normally only see one anchor out in most cases. There are a couple of tricks you can use to try and minimize that from happening.
Hi, As mentioned abpve the two anchors are often deployed together when going stern too or often called Med Mooring. This allows some tension to be taken on the stern lines, stops you contacting against your neighbours for the most part, stops the boat moving back and hitting the dock and stops the bow from wandering all over the place. When going into a berth where the wind could be problematic for either forcing you onto the dock or making getting off difficult it is also a practice to drop the one on the weather side as approaching the dock and using this to hold the bow off and to pull it off when leaving. There was a bit of a surge in stern anchors a few years ago on mega yachts, these are pretty useless unless they are sized similar to the ones at the front. Working out where the chain leads when deployed and being recovered is often very difficult with these installations.
Like the others have said, most of the time if just out in an anchorage you use one anchor. If docking med style, drop one, swing over and drop the other, then back into the slip.