Dragging anchor at sea.
Documented dragging anchor incidents from the Logbook — 9 records, each with sources, lessons, and the SeaWise procedures that address it.
← Search & filter the full LogbookA dragging anchor turns a night at rest into a grounding or a collision, usually in the dark and rising wind when everyone hoped to sleep. The incidents here repeat the same lessons: enough scope and the right bottom, a bearing or an alarm to catch the drag early, and an engine ready to power up before the boat is on the rocks or across a neighbour's bow. Dragging is a weather problem you set an anchor watch for.
Late on 27 June 2026, a couple moored to a buoy off Langholz in the Baltic's Eckernförde Bay went below in a thunderstorm; their sailboat broke loose and drifted. As DGzRS rescuers towed it in, a gust to force 10 capsized the boat and threw both into the water. The crew pulled the pair from the dark sea unhurt.
Eight German tourists swimming off a chartered sailboat near Symi watched it drift away after its anchor slipped on 2 August 2026, leaving them stranded in the water overnight. A Greek Coast Guard and Air Force search recovered all eight alive by the morning of 3 August.
Before dawn on 14 October 2026 a sailboat anchored in Xero cove, on Peristera near Alonissos, lost her anchor in a north-east gale and was driven onto rocks. The British couple aboard climbed into a cave. Coast Guard officers on a private boat took them off. They had hypothermia but recovered.
Late on 21 July 2026, the crew of a 15-metre yacht anchored in Loch Spelve, Isle of Mull, called a mayday after their anchor chain fouled the propeller and rudder, fearing they'd drag ashore. Oban RNLI's lifeboat found the anchor holding, took the crew off as a precaution, and brought them back to Oban overnight. No one was hurt.
Anchor dragged during a sleeping watch with no alarm set; the boat grounded gently on a sandy beach overnight and was recovered undamaged at high water.
A Moody 54 dragged anchor at 03:00 during a Maltemi wind shift, slipping toward a moored Greek caïque before the anchor alarm woke the skipper.
Two charter yachts tied alongside dragged a combined anchor in a 40 kt bora gust, drifting 200 m before the inside boat fendered off a rock outcrop.
Charter yacht dragged at 02:00 in a downburst and contacted a moored wooden trader; bow roller damage, caïque holed, both insured.
While anchored in the Comber River near Strangford Lough, Northern Ireland, the 7.9 m yacht Pinocchio dragged her anchor until her masthead touched overhead 11,000-volt power cables on 3 June 2004. The owner received an electric shock with burns to his right hand and arm, and the yacht caught fire and was completely destroyed.