No. The ability of Anchor Lookout to predict – in real time – that any anchor is set or dragging across the seabed does not depend on either the anchor being used or the boat your rode is connected to. Boats without the ability to apply reverse power, as usually done when setting the anchor, such as a row boat will usually not observe Anchor Lookout’s floats submerging feature. However, the float’s position, even then, will benefit the skipper in knowing their swing radius and aid in anchor retrieval by allowing the helmsman to steer directly for it.

The float radius (pully or loop) that redirects the line under the float functions to physically separate the sensor cable coming up from the anchor and the sensor cable descending down to the ballast weight. This configuration essentially eliminates the sensor cable lines tangling themselves recognizing the cable’s proper length is being utilized based on the anticipated water’s depth.

Anchor rodes have been historically known to sometimes tangle themselves around a propeller or keel when there is low speed, squirrelly winds/currents. The Anchor Lookout’s sensor line, during its many Beta tests, has not shown that tendency, but cannot similarly be 100% ruled out based on “Mother Nature”. If conditions exist that would cause the boat to float randomly around the anchor, as might happen at night when the wind dies/tidal changes/current changes, then setting a stern anchor, or use of a kellet would reduce that wrapping possibility by holding the rode taut from the bow to the anchor. In light conditions Anchor Lookout’s sensor cable should remain taut, and the float would merely bob against the side of the hull rather than get “run over,” but fouling , is possible regardless.

Anchor Lookout’s alert float is designed to be plumb over the anchor once set. The boat will be downwind or downcurrent of the anchor depending on the relative contribution of those force factors – your freeboard or underwater hull shape.