When it comes time to retrieve the anchor I went forward and uncleated it at the bow. If the current is running like it did yesterday afternoon, I cleat it with a midship cleat that I got from Defender. http://www.defender.com/product.jsp?path=-1|10391|292249|312057&id=92875 I can pull the anchor from there in the cockpit. I fake it into the basket which easily holds 120'. I lay the chain on top and then put the whole thing in a plastic bin right sized for the basket. Then the whole thing goes down below under the cockpit floor. I leave it out for as long as possible to let the basket drain into the bin. If anything is nasty I clean it in the cockpit. Most everwhere I've anchored has been nothing but sand so there's usually no mess. When at anchor the excess rode stays in the basket at the back of the cockpit. It's going to get wet anyway when you stow the rode that got wet anchored. The mesh bag (for the second anchor) has one advantage and that it is easily pulled out of the port locker. It too sits in it's own plastic bin so that as it drains/drys the water is contained. I can pull either anchor pretty quickly and get it deployed. Hope this helps. This is an ongoing finetuning excersise that I will tweek as I go along. Joe SeaFrog M17 ----- Original Message ----- From: Karen Saville To: montgomery_boats@mailman.xmission.com Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2012 5:36 PM Subject: M_Boats: anchor I am curious, how do you retrive the anchor the chain the rod and get it all in the basket and stored in the locker. I cant picture that ? Go forward pull up anchor,hope its clean, lug anchor with chain dangling overboard back to the cockpit set anchor down, retrieve rode from somewhere and flake wet rod in basket,pick up anchor again,and place in the bottom of a full locker so the water can drain. Where dose the remaining rod store at anchor? In the cockpit all night? You cant put it in a locker at anchor or you might spring the hinge. I am not converted yet Its not about how quickly you can store your anchor, but how fast you can deploy it safely. I definetly need to improve my ground tackle. The boat came with a small fortress the smallest I think, I want to go bigger, a lot bigger.