Calculating your swinging circle, clearance from your neighbour at anchor

Calculating it is simple: the radius is the length of chain you have veered plus the boat's length,

and the diameter is twice that.

Boats swing in different ways: keelboats sit deep and lie to the current, while motor boats and catamarans are turned far more by the wind. In a mixed anchorage two neighbours can therefore lie in quite different directions once the wind shifts, and the clearance that looked right in the evening has gone by four in the morning.

If two boats do touch, liability follows fault. Whoever anchored too close, or whose anchor drags, is liable. If you were properly anchored and a boat that anchored later hits you, you have a liability claim against her owner, which is of little use if the party responsible carries no insurance.

That is exactly what cover for irrecoverable claims is for, where the policy includes it. It puts you in the position you would be in if the party responsible held a policy like your own, usually subject to a minimum amount of damage, an enforceable title and an unsuccessful attempt at enforcement. Check too whether lying at anchor unattended is covered, overnight and off an open coast.

Worked out for your type of boat

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