Jody-
At the A Worlds we had 100 boats and two ramps to the water! Multiple people planted small Danforth anchors or cinder blocks with floats on them out in the water so they could launch "before the rush" and bring the boat up "after the rush"- It was very helpful. IMO small mushroom anchors- unless well buried in the sand/dirt/rocks will not reliable hold our boats in much wave or wind, especially with the sails up. So I would use a more substantial anchor-

Kirt

John,

I thought I was the one on the rocks in the channel--that was scary. Still, our hulls don't look anything like Wills'--I tend to use beach wheels 100% of the time if the boat isn't floating.

I don't know how the 12:1 external is set up, but having to re-thread it sounds wrong. A shackle is one solution. Another way is to use two pieces of rope with plastic balls on it. Push a loop of one through the hole in the sail and feed the ball on the other through the loop. Pull tight.

Paul

I like the Danforth anchor idea as I don't think the cylinder block or mushroom would hold the boat in white cap weather with the main up. I've been thinking that if I drive a stake on the shore I can have a long line attached to the wheels and for launching I could just let them float, as long as I wasn't at a ramp or similarly congested area. If there was an anchor off shore then there could be a line attached to that also. Maybe the line could be a loop between the stake on shore and anchor off shore with the wheels attached to a point in the loop. It would be like the clothes line Mom had when I was five, there was a pulley on the house and another one some fifty or seventy five feet away attached to a post or the garage. There was a rope that made the complete loop and she would hang the laundry on one side of the loop and pull it out using the other side of the loop. I always thought that was pretty neat.
Will