Why Does My Anchor Come up Backwards?

Does yours do this? Over at Sail Delmarva, Drew asks the question, and then shows why and how to fix it:

After fixing this on 3 boats (mine was the first) I thought I would share something so obvious it is commonly overlooked.

 There are many things that can bring the anchor up backwards, not the least of which is a shift in the wind. The easy solution is a swivel, but failures are not unusual; my SS swivel had a nice interior crack that I noticed only when taking it apart to replace the anchor. Many sailors have abandoned swivels for this reason, and then wondered if they made a mistake when the anchor came up reversed most of the time. Never fear.

Notice the nice straight chain. No twist.

When connecting the anchor, observe that there are 4 rotation options. Unless you considered this at the time, you had only 1 chance in 4 of getting it right.

• If you are 180 degrees out of alignment, reattach inverted.
• If you are 90 degrees out of alignment, either add/subtract a shackle or clip one link.

The chain cannot rotate in the gypsy, thus, getting the twist right significantly improves the odds of the anchor coming up right way round, more so if the windlass is near the roller. Not 100% certain, but improved odds. For me, >95%.