[AugustH]

I guess it's the difference between someone who cruises for tens of thousands of miles at a time, anchoring for weeks at a time between marina visits and someone who sits behind a desk and dreams of sailing.

With such a busy schedule, how do you find time to insult people you've never met?

3:1 is, at best, the very minimum amount to use for an overnight anchorage. It's not good enough. In any real situation, almost everyone uses 5:1 or greater. I've been anchored for the last 5 days in 22 feet of water off Cumberland Island in Georgia. My 10 foot bow adds a significant amount to the scope. I have 200' of chain out giving a scope at high tide of better than 6:1. Through the week, about 6 other boats have dragged at one time or another but I haven't moved.

So you eat up a circle 260 feet in diameter (more at low tide) anchored that way. Enough room for two more boats. Tell me, is this in the middle of the anchorage? Most anchorage hogs are right smack in the middle, making life hard for other boaters.

3:1 is a dangerous amount unless you're in an incredibly protected anchorage. It's probably what the other 6 boats were using.

Without knowing their anchors, the amount of rode, the bottom, etc., making ANY assumptions or conclusions is erroneous. If that many boats were dragging, I'd go help them and figure out what was going on. Then I'd know for sure and not have to guess. But I would still go with 3:1 as the acknowledged experts in this area agree with that number. It worked for me for 3 days in a gale while anchored in Port Neville, British Columbia.

I always wondered why so many boats drag around in anchorages. I guess I'm getting a glimpse into why.

No, you're just assuming you know.