Excepts from recent Houseboat Forum exchanges at www.houseboatmagazine.com

[Enduracne]  I have been boating at Lake Powell on the Utah/Arizona border for just over 40 years and have never seen a houseboat anchored out in the water. Anchoring the bow of the boat to the shoreline is so common that houseboat builders make so-called reverse floor plans that put the salon and galley at the back of the boat, which becomes the primary gathering point on the boat. Although more boats have a traditional front-facing salon, even that is a hub of shore activity like campfire building, beach volleyball, and sandcastle building. When cruisers anchor, their stern is generally within 5 to 10 feet of the shore and their bow faces out. I have a hard time imagining what a Lake Powell trip would be like if I didn't anchor to a shore. On the anchoring thread, the discussions seem to assume that lake anchoring is pretty common on other lakes in the world. Is it?

[Sinorswim] Our lake is in the middle of Iowa and it is a reservoir. So, much of the decent shoreline can be covered with water much of the time if the lake is not at normal pool level. The rest of the beach areas are actual people beaches where you can't dock a boat. Other than that, the shorelines can be rocky or they have vegetation all the way to the edge. In our area that means poison ivy, etc. We have one "party cove" where it seems most gather and almost everyone anchors.

[Stmbtwle]  How deep is Lake Powell? Some artificial lakes are so deep you can’t anchor effectively. I'm in Florida (salt water) and because of the tide and shallows I can't usually get anywhere near the shoreline, so I anchor where I feel safe and use a dinghy. The lakes in Florida tend to be shallow, and with no tide, houseboats can anchor about anywhere and sometimes even raft up.

[Amelia] For all the reasons above—especially as mosquitoes like being near land, and inhospitable shoreline, mostly cypress-knees and snags—we have been anchoring in isolated sheltered coves but a little way out. We set an anchor alarm on the iPad's GPS charting program, so if we start to drag anchor in the middle of the night, a squeal will wake us up. If we were worried about storms, we might set two anchors forward, at about a 60 to 80 degree angle.

Do you have some advice anchoring? Offer your thoughts at www.houseboatmagazine.com/forum.