A bright idea means Jeremy White’s anchor ball is never forgotten

We keep our Bénéteau Océanis 28 yacht in Greece’s beautiful Ionian, and in the summer months we often anchor for free in the many secluded bays.

One problem is remembering to hoist the black ball once the hook is set and subsequently remembering to stow it away when we leave. So, we’ve come up with a simple and cost-effective idea that deals with both of these problems.

We now store the black ball on the inside lid of the anchor locker. This means that when deploying the anchor, not only is the ball easily accessed, but seeing it in place is a great reminder to put it up. At the point of departing, the locker lid minus the black ball reminds us to take it down.

How I did it
I glassfibred three square blocks of scrap plywood to the inside of the locker lid with tissue mat and resin, spacing each one evenly using the black ball dimensions as the template. After painting the blocks and the inside of the lid, we then used two fairleads, a hook and shock cord to secure the ball.

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The scrap wood was free, while glass mat and resin, a couple of stainless steel deck eyes and a lacing hook, a metre of shock cord and some paint came to around £6.

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Jeremy White

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