www.iFourWinns.com

Hey guys...as we drool over getting a cruiser (projecting end of next season), some things have come to mind, mainly from my wife. Tell me how it felt the first time you spent the night on your boat out on the hook. Not in the slip...out in the water. Did you sleep well? Worry about yourt anchor dragging, tides, etc... Do you notice the waves much? Do you hear water slapping the hull?

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Current Boat:
2004 Sea Ray 320 Sundancer "Nauti Luvin'"

Previous Boats:
1999 298 Vista "Seas The Day"
2008 H200SS "Nauti Luv"
2006 Tahoe Q4

I'll bite.. (not suprising )
Since we have owned "cabin boats" for 16 years, we have done our fair share of overnites on the hook. At first we did not sleep well, the water lapping against the hull kept us awake. Then fishermen heading out in the morning from 4:30 a.m. would wake us up.
Waves when on the hook are always noticeable. Never worried about the anchoring, set two anchors always, and the boat never moved. Having said all that, the more time you have on the hook, the more you just get adjusted to these things, and they no longer bother you. We have learned to sleep right through most of them.
The novelity of sleeping away from the marina, just because we can, has worn off. We much prefer the friendship, quiet, calm waters and atmosphere at the marina for overnites.

Some people liken the experience of being on the hook to camping. We have never been much for camping, unless you are isolated from the masses. And that situation rarely occurs on our busy lakes and coves.

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

My 15 years of boat camping, we have never stayed in a marina/slip, have talked about trying someday.

As capt. mentioned, lapping water against hull bothers some, drove me nuts for a couple years!!!

Current boat with huge anchor and 20' of chain, never worry about it budging, old boat would set 2 anchors and stress all night about breaking free. Finally have realized, don't stress, whatever happens will happen and enjoy the experience. Use to stress about scratching boat, bought current boat used with scratches, now I can enjoy boating!!!!

Here is what I woke up to this last Sunday!


Three weeks ago in the same location, had a hard time trying to sleep, beavers swimming around boat, slapping tail on water trying to scare us off.

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2000 248 5.7L DP
'92, '94 SXI 750, '08 STX 15F, '12 Ultra LX 300
Videos

We have slept on the boat in the marina. I got use to the water slapping quickly. It's not bad on a Texas summer night (usually no wind).

I have not slept on the hook yet. I am working myself up to that. My concern is the same as yours. A couple of posters have suggested 2 anchors.

My experience anchoring out during the day, all day, is that I have never broken loose. I only have 6 foot of chain on the anchor ... I think the main reason I haven't broken, even on windy, holiday weekends where the water was very rough and 20-30 mph wind gusts, is because I let out more than 10' of rode per foot of depth. Most folks will tell you anywhere between 7' and 10'. I average about 12' of rode per foot of depth. My target is always 10', but tend to let a little extra out at the end.

So, the cove I typically anchor off in is 16'-17' deep. I let out about 200' of rode.

Assuming your thinking about anchoring at Lewisville Lake, your water conditions will be similar to mine (Grapevine Lake). Here in good ole Texas, the summer nights are usually wind-less and HOT. I would say that the chances of an anchor breaking loose is fairly slim, especially if you anchor on the windward side of the lake (if there is wind). Wind will blow over the top of you (water not as stirred up) depending on the land geography.

Craig C.

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2003 Vista 248, VP 5.0 GXi-C, DP

Wow! I'd be worried someone would never expect that much rode out and would clip it or worse. You must have some strong currents.

We generally sleep on the hook at least one night a weekend if not both Friday and Saturday. I get stir crazy in the marina and all of my slip neighbors tend to head out once we all get there. I see no reason to go back in and deal with tying back up, reconnecting shore cords etc.

I love the sound of the water lapping on the hull. One thing I hate about our marina is that it is so quiet. I grew up hearing those squeaky pilings. We do tend to come in if there is a bad storm headed our way. I probably wouldn't sleep well if I knew I was swinging around like crazy but we never have an issue at night of breaking loose in our cove.

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Former owner of:
1996 Four Winns Horizon 200 5.8L VP
2006 Four Winns Horizon 260 8.1L VP
2007 Sea Ray 290 Sundancer

Current boat
2004 Sea Ray 290 Sun Sport Twin 350 Mags

I love sleeping on the hook. It is so peaceful and quiet.

Our first night was on our 225, and it was pretty good. I was rafted up with cattailspa, and we slept well.

The first night alone on our 225 here in Indiana there were some pretty bad thunderstorms. My anchor broke loose twice. After that, I added 15' of chain to it. I have 30' of chain on my 268, and do not have any worries of the anchor breaking loose.

We spent two nights in a slip over Memorial Day weekend, and I didn't care for it. It was nice not having to run the genset, but its not the same waking up in a slip vs. a cove.

We've had an issue with the fisherman making noise first thing in the morning, but we just picked a different cove and so far we've been alright. I'd consider it to be like camping if you didn't have a generator onboard.

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2007 358 T-5.7GXi IB
Previous Boats
'08 H240, '08 V318, '04 268, '04 225

I worried about all those things when we first stayed out on the hook. It is still one of our favorite things to do. On our lake I can usually find a cove where we are the only boat in there. We have changed up a bit in that we like to be in the marina if it is going to be really hot and humid during the night. I don't like running the gen during the night for air conditioning and my wife does not tolerate heat well. There is a real good group in my marina and there is always a pot luck, fish fry, ribs, or something cooking and everyone brings a dish and is welcome. We run the air conditioner and get down in the cabin and can get a really good nights sleep without worrying about some of the things you mentioned.

Last week my wife and I tired of the marina and headed out about 7 PM to find a cove to sleep in. I carry a GPS that has weather radar on it and I had been watching the line of storms move through the Midwest. The radar really started lighting up and we made the decision to head back in around 11 PM. I felt that knowing that storm was out there I wouldn't get a very good nights sleep. The storm moved around us but we had a pretty good blow during the night. I never even heard it or worried about it once we were safely in the marina.

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2008 Vista 278 Volvo Penta 8.1 Gi 375 hp
1999 Horizon 220 5.7 GSi

My wife would rather sleep on the hook. There is a woman at the dock that's like Gladys Cravits from Bewitched. She watches every move and NEVER STOPS TALKING. She is against having a few beers at the end of the night and lets her feelings be known. So we head to a nice quiet cove and have a great time. I will stay at the dock when a storm is brewing up.

Our first night on the hook we were with another couple and tied the boats together. I would never do that again as the boats were banging against the bumpers all night long. Drove me crazy. Also we learned to place several frozen water bottles in the refridgerator and turn it's setting to low. If not it will run the house battery down and the carbon monoxide detectors will chirp. My hair stood up when that happened because I didn't know what was going on.

In my opinion there is nothing better than sleeping in a quiet cove.

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2003 268 Four Winns Vista
F-350 King Ranch Diesel (Tow)
1990 Four Winns Fredom 180

First night on the hook was also the first time we took her out. We figure if the ride went well, we would stay the night. The night came with few unexpected experiences. Waves slapping the hull was one of them, the generator being extremely loud was another. Needless to say that first night was pretty much sleepless.

Second night out we got used to the hull slap and the generator turned out to be running full throttle on one cylinder making it unnecessarily loud. Got the genny fixed, now it just hums, and have been sleeping better on the boat than home ever since.

Only time we really worried about the anchor was last Thursday 45 minutes till sundown when it went from calm to very rough in about 2 minutes due to an approaching heavy thunderstorm. Since we didn't want to end up on the rocks we crossed the bay and headed home.

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2006 Four Winns 278 Vista.
Volvo Penta 8.1L, Duo Prop,
Kohler 5E Generator.

The only time wave noise bothers us is if the wind is up and causes the waves to slap under the chines at the bow. That and with a single line straight off the anchor pulpit the boat tends to 'dance' a bit from side to side. The motion isn't an issue for sleeping, just a bit bothersome. A work-around for it is to tie a line to the anchor rode where it meets the water and then to an amidships cleat. This creates a triangle pulling the boat slightly off the anchor angle. This stops the dancing action.

Hull slap, however, is still an issue. I've heard you can minimize this somewhat by pulling a couple of those 'noodle' floats against the bow. Run a line through a pair of noodles with a knot holding them in place. Then drape them such that one is on each side of the bow and then tie the line off back at the stern cleats. Yes, this would take a pretty long line. The effect here is to cause the waves to break on the noodle not directly on the hull and, in theory, minimize the slapping noise. I've not yet tried it. I found it was easier to just drink more tequila and sleep through the noise.

Oh, be aware your onboard Carbon Monoxide sensors will sound an alarm when the batteries drop too low. Oh just SUCH fun discovering this at 4am after the aforementioned extra tequila. Not fun, bare-assed and half-gassed trying to read the eff'ing manual trying to figure out how to shut the g'damned thing up... Since then I really don't like the idea of leaving the genset running all night.

We've never had the anchor slip while we were aboard (once while on shore at a restaurant). If you worry about it you can always have your chartplotter or (so I've heard) use a blackberry to maintain an anchor position watch. Set the current location in GPS and then have it raise an alarm if the position goes beyond a set amount. Most common rode length is calculated by a ratio, referred to as scope. It's typical to use a 7 to 1 ratio for overnight scope. Bear in mind that the length of your rode also determines how widely your boat will swing around on the anchor should the tide or winds change. It would be a problem if you put out an excessive length of rode in a crowded anchorage. If you know you're definitely going to be the only vessel anchored there then maybe. But I was surprised to wake up one morning to discover three other boats nearby that weren't there when we went to bed at 1am the night before. That and we were all spun around 180 degrees from where we'd been the night before, due to tide and wind changes.

To a certain extent we've gotten out of the habit of overnighting on the hook. Instead preferring to get a slip at a marina and take advantage of shore power and other amenities instead. A lot of times there are several friends also going to the same town so have a party at that marina too.

We don't have one but if you've got a dog you have to figure out how to get it ashore (assuming there's an appropriate public place) to walk it. We have a dinghy but having used it over the course of three days for a friend and his dogs I'm here to say it's a hassle I will not subject myself to again anytime soon. As if scooping wasn't bad enough, you're then stuck bringing it back onboard? Homer Simpson summed it up right.

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-Bill Kearney, 2005 348 Vista

Just do it early or late in the season when it is not too hot because it can get uncomfortable down in the cabin. We have a generator and AC but never liked to run it at night due to the CO2. We no longer sleep on the hook due to 4 kids but I do miss the mornings of waking up in a secluded cove and seeing deer on the shoreline and other wildlife that I never saw during the day. We cooked many a breakfast on our Magnum stove and took many a bath in the lake. Good times.

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Current Boat: 2000 Four Winns 298 Vista
Previous Boat: 2000 Carver 406MY

I often say that being in the marina is no different than living in a trailer park. My wife and I laugh about living on 6 secluded acres next to a woodlands in a large home then going to the lake where we are 6 ft from the next boat and in a cabin that isn't as large as her walk in closet.

Waking up on the hook is great if the conditions are right.

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2008 Vista 278 Volvo Penta 8.1 Gi 375 hp
1999 Horizon 220 5.7 GSi

So true. I like the way you put that. Cabin boat owners are a different breed for sure. Spending close to $300K for a new 35 ft. Four Winns that is gorgeous, but not even as much room in the cabin as a $10,000 5th wheel camper. But, trailers don't float very good.

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One of 4 Previous (Sold) Boats:
2000 Four Winns 268 Vista

Current Boat: 2004 Chaparral 235 ssi cuddy

Awesome.

We have a Nutria that swims around in the marina. We'll see a beaver occasionally. What we see the most of in the marina is snakes. Aggressive little bastards too. I've seen them chase people on the dock.

The big scare here in North Texas lakes right now is a huge increase alligators. I have new "tool" on the boat now. 12 gauge and a box of slugs.

Craig C.

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2003 Vista 248, VP 5.0 GXi-C, DP

The waves on the boat really never bothered me. I started out with a 35 ft motoryacht with a flybrideg so the wind would often sway the boat. I second everyones opinion on the 2nd anchor for insurance, how ever, I am on a much larger and deeper lake then most of you. W
one thing that I have found helpful with the swaying is rocker stoppers. I find being on the hook more peacful then at the dock because I have a few sailboats next to me so when I am at the dock all I would hear is their mast and lines clanging. Also has the annoying sound of the floating dock creaking. I always let out a bit more line then required whether it's day or night. There are the often bothersome fishermen that are up early but I am an early riser anyways. My 298 does not have a genny and ac so I don't go out if it's too hot.

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1999 298 Vista [color=#FF0000]Sold!!!
twin Volvo 5.7GXI

Woody: Pour you a beer, Mr. Peterson?
Norm: Alright, but stop me at one...make that one-thirty