Two Cool Solutions for Shoreline Anchoring

It's always a good idea to have two regular anchors in your boat anyway--for those situations where you want to anchor your boat with extra security and precision. Some places may require something a little different...especially if you do a lot of anchoring along sandy shorelines. While you can actually haul your boat up onto a sandy beach, it's not really recommended--and in the long run, it's hard on your hull. The best solution is to secure the boat a few feet into the water, where you can just wade out and hop onboard.

Here are two of the best solutions we've seen for beach and shallow-water anchoring. The first is the well-known Slide Anchor Shore Spike. The Shore Spike® provides a shore tie anywhere you might want to beach your boat, offering a tremendous amount of driving power to break through tough ground conditions -- and enough holding power to secure your boat in soft sands or strong winds. To use the Shore Spike, you simply drive the tubular handle downward to pound the spike blade into the sand. Once the Spike is secure, you tie it off to the lower ring. Retrieval is easy, too: tapping the tubular handle upward will free the Spike from the shoreline.

Available in 3 sizes, the Shore Spikes are priced from $69.95 to $89.95, and are available from Slideanchor.com

The Sand Spike Beach Anchor is a slightly simpler, yet highly effective solution. Simple to use, just insert in the beach angled away from your boat, and the Sandspike® acts as a temporary mooring bit. Once inserted, it looks good and it’s much safer than trying to tie off to sticks, rocks, or what ever else you find on the beach. They work on just about all types of beaches -- you place the bit into the sand and push down with your hand or foot to secure. Once it's in, it's simple to insert a line loop through the hole in the spike and secure it.

The Sand Spike is available in three sizes as well, for boats up to 42' feet. They are priced from $49.95 to $89.95 and are available from Sandspike.com They also offer complete kits, custom anchor head covers and custom lines for shoreline anchoring.