If you have any interest in ships, you know that these huge piles of mass floating on the water must be anchored in order to stay stable. Whether it’s a boat or a ship, there is always a chain anchor with an anchor at the end. This anchor ensures that the boat or ship remains stable by being thrown to the bottom of the sea.
At this point, we had the question: If the ship is in the open sea and has to anchor there, will the chain be sufficient? We know that both seas and oceans reach depths of thousands of meters. For example, is it possible for the ship to anchor while at a depth of 3000 meters?
How many meters can a ship anchor?
First of all, when you want to anchor a ship, you cannot drop the anchor directly. The ship must be moored at a certain slope. This ratio is considered to be a minimum of 1 in 2. For example, if you want to anchor at 100 meters, you need about 200 meters of chain.
This rate can be up to 6 times depending on the wind and current. In fact, it is not the anchor that keeps the ship stable. The weight of the chain you throw keeps you stable where you are.
Especially large ships sailing to the ocean cannot anchor in waters deeper than 100 meters.
Large ships sailing into deep waters do not need anchorage outside the port areas. These ships prefer to drift according to their position.
This gliding process will be slow as they are already very large and heavy ships. But, of course, there are methods used by sailors in such cases.
There are special dynamic locators that can maintain their location with the data they receive from GPS.
Computer-aided positioning systems, especially on large ships, are systems that maintain a ship’s position and direction by using its propellers and thrusters. With the data it receives from GPS, it intervenes in the opposite direction to the movement against the wind and current.
Some ships can stay in position by drawing small circles.
Especially in the navies, a method such as drawing large circles at an angle of 3 degrees at low speeds such as 3 knots is also used. According to this method, ships draw large circles in open seas where there is no obstacle around. If the waves are larger, this speed is also increased by the same rate so that they stay in the same place.