how hard is it to use a lead line?

[The Creamy Pint]

Has anybody ever used a lead line? I'm wondering what size weight I need on the end.

Is it as simple as putting a knot or mark every fathom and just lowering it until it gets slack?

 

[u079721]

Are we talking about using it while cruising, to scope out anchorages? Where you only really care about 5 to 20 feet?

Or are we talking about using in open water with a hundred fathom line while underway? Where you have tallow in a recess in the weight so you can sample the bottom as being sand, gravel, or mud?

If the latter, you're on your own. As for while cruising, it's pretty simple. I used to carry a couple of them aboard, one with a 12' line in the dinghy, and another with a 30' line for the mother ship. Rather than knots I used strips of tyvek marked with a sharpie inserted through the three strand every foot up to 10', and every two feet after that. Using it was as simple as dropping it overboard until the line went slack, and noting what mark was close to the surface. BUT, doing it while underway, even at just a couple of knots, takes some practice. Be sure to have a loop in the end of the line wrapped around your wrist to avoid losing the line altogether (you can imagine how I know this last part).

I think it's actually a very useful thing to have aboard. In particular, we were frequently anchoring close to shore where there was a steep drop off. If the boat swung to shore, the depth reading at the transducer did not reflect the depth at the rudder. If I were worried I would drop my lead line off the stern to see how much I had.

And I used to use the one in the dinghy all the time when scoping out new anchorages. That is until my wife bought me one of those depth mate hand held depth sounder units, which are GREAT fun to own.

 

[The Creamy Pint]

Thanks Steve. I'm going to get a hand held depth finder, but it's not on the priority list. Yes, I'm just talking about measuring the depth of anchorages. I don't know how those guys were able to measure 60 fathoms when their clippers were going ten knots in moderate seas.

 

[Rob Hessenius]

Creamy~

Why dont you just get a cheapy fishfinder, like a Hummingbird Pirana? Very accurate for your needs and no fussing around.

 

[steven]

useful to have one or two aboard in case your electrics fail or in case you want to find out what the water is like around the boat (run it through the end of your wisker pole or boat hook). I use a plastic bottle filled with fishing weights. Have some holes cut in the bottle so I can drag it a couple of feet and bring up some bottom - see if it's sand or mud.

Also, more than once I've grounded but don't know which way to go to find deep water (if I knew, why would I be aground in the first place). So row around in the dinghy taking soundings with the lead line.

 

[Loren Beach]

More non-electric ideas

Random thought:
I wonder if we should all consider just marking off our boat hook pole with tape or paint, in one foot increments?
Around our yacht club we have done this with most of our aluminum pike poles -- we have shoaling problems every season toward the late fall and use these to augment our portable depth sounder to determine where to operate our dredge each winter.

If you did not mind the odd appearance, you could do that to your spinnaker or whisker poles, also.
(although sticking the pole-end with its latching piston mechanism into the mud would be a bad idea as a routine practice.)

Another .01 worth,
LB

 

[u079721]

Random thought:
I wonder if we should all consider just marking off our boat hook pole with tape or paint, in one foot increments?
Around our yacht club we have done this with most of our aluminum pike poles -- we have shoaling problems every season toward the late fall and use these to augment our portable depth sounder to determine where to operate our dredge each winter.

If you did not mind the odd appearance, you could do that to your spinnaker or whisker poles, also.
(although sticking the pole-end with its latching piston mechanism into the mud would be a bad idea as a routine practice.)

Another .01 worth,
LB

I kept a 10 foot PVC pipe at my slip at the yacht club, marked off at one foot intervals, to keep track of the water depth around the slip and piles and seawall. But that would be pretty impractical on board when you consider 5 foot draft and 4 feet of freeboard to deal with. Also remember that the pole is surprisingly difficult to submerge vertically when it is full of air, as (at least for awhile) it wants to float away.

I'm surprised more cruisers don't carry lead lines. I remember using mine at one anchorage to scope out the clearance between my rudder and a rock, when a nearby boater asked about what I was doing. When I described the lead line concept he too thought it was a great idea, and where could he buy one (duh!).

My first line was an impromptu affair put together while cruising up in Canada. I didn't have a suitable weight aboard, so I just bought a plumbing pipe elbow in the hardware store in town, and tied some line to it marked with knots.

Being in between sailboats just now I haven't had much use for my lead lines, but they are among the few things I kept when I sold off the boat. You never know when you might need to measure something!