Dragging anchor at sea.
Documented dragging anchor incidents from the Logbook — 6 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.
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.