setting the hook with larger boats

[Stu Jackson]

Now I got it, Scott

If the wind kicks up, there's no reason you can't simply reach over and grab the anchor rode outside the pulpit and lead it back to the cleat (which seems to be a bit further aft than usual, and may contribute to "sailing" around the anchor, but that's another story). You could even rig a bridle from both bow cleats and run it to the anchor rode again outside the pulpit. Ya just have to stop thinking about the bitter end of the anchor rode, currently in the locker, from being the operative point. The anchor rode still goes thru the roller, but you've "captured" it further up closer to the anchor so what's coming thru the roller is "limp." You do have bits and pieces of spare lengths of line on the boat, right? I have so many I'm thinking of starting an inventory.

 

[Scott B]

If the wind kicks up, there's no reason you can't simply reach over and grab the anchor rode outside the pulpit and lead it back to the cleat (which seems to be a bit further aft than usual, and may contribute to "sailing" around the anchor, but that's another story). You could even rig a bridle from both bow cleats and run it to the anchor rode again outside the pulpit. Ya just have to stop thinking about the bitter end of the anchor rode, currently in the locker, from being the operative point. The anchor rode still goes thru the roller, but you've "captured" it further up closer to the anchor so what's coming thru the roller is "limp." You do have bits and pieces of spare lengths of line on the boat, right? I have so many I'm thinking of starting an inventory.

Stu, gots lots of bits on hand. I think I've got it. If I ran it to one bow cleat I'd be at a fair angle to the wind, but a bridle would work.

Sorry, to the OP for hijacking his thread so much after he posted a new thread to not hijack another thread ..... or something like that.

 

[Maine Sail]

Maybe I'm misunderstanding Maine Sail. He has said not to run the rode through the anchor roller. I was trying to picture how to get the rode off the roller.

I have a cleat in the anchor locker that I use, which is just behind the "hump" in the lid to the locker.

Scott,

Yes a roller should not be used in anything but benign conditions. Do I use mine? Yes but only when I know it will be calm or below 25 knots. They are for transportation launching and some retrieval. The design loads are not ones that will handle storms or waves well. That pictured roller is a Windline BRM-3 off a very pricey Nordic Tug. It is a robustly built roller but the boat went beam to in heavy seas and when she snapped straight on her rode it simply collapsed the roller in one single motion..

To re-route your rode simply reach in front of the roller and pull the rode back to the cleat. I'll dig through my photos and see if I can find one. I couldn't see any cleats in your photo. Sorry for being so shocked but it looked as if you had no bow cleats...

I had to crop and do a little MS paint but the rode passe through the hooped roller, if that is what you have, then to the bow cleat but with a but of a sag or slack in it..

Stu's roller, unless he changed it, is not one that sticks out beyond the bow chock and is integral to the stem head. Even on my C-36 I still never used this roller in rough conditions for fear of tweaking the stem head fitting. The ones that stick out like added appendages should not be used to lay to in windy conditions but ones like Stu's are more robust....

 

[Scott B]

Scott,

Yes a roller should not be used in anything but benign conditions. Do I use mine? Yes but only when I know it will be calm or below 25 knots. They are for transportation launching and some retrieval. The design loads are not ones that will handle storms or waves well. That pictured roller is a Windline BRM-3 off a very pricey Nordic Tug. It is a robustly built roller but the boat went beam to in heavy seas and when she snapped straight on her rode it simply collapsed the roller in one single motion..

To re-route your rode simply reach in front of the roller and pull the rode back to the cleat. I'll dig through my photos and see if I can find one. I couldn't see any cleats in your photo. Sorry for being so shocked but it looked as if you had no bow cleats...

I had to crop and do a little MS paint but the rode passe through the hooped roller, if that is what you have, then to the bow cleat but with a but of a sag or slack in it..

Stu's roller, unless he changed it, is not one that sticks out beyond the bow chock and is integral to the stem head. Even on my C-36 I still never used this roller in rough conditions for fear of tweaking the stem head fitting. The ones that stick out like added appendages should not be used to lay to in windy conditions but ones like Stu's are more robust....

Makes sense now. I couldn't picture grabbing the rode from the front of the bow and running it back to the cleat.

Mine's not a single roller like the damaged one in your pic, but all part of a larger fitting. There's an open loop on the port side of the roller, not sure if this would be used to take the rode off the roller. The bow cleats are a fair ways back so unless rigged to a bridle would pull the boat askew. This was taken before I replaced the ugly Danforth.

And Newly anon..... I really didn't mean to totally derail your post. :Liar:

 

[newly anonymous]

no worries...

And Newly anon..... I really didn't mean to totally derail your post. :Liar:

...other than to wonder whether it's possible any longer to discuss best practices for larger boats on this forum. (And to wonder where all the folk with 40'+ boats, who used to be plentiful on this forum, have gone.) There really is a difference in handling larger boats, as demonstrated by Scott's hijack. Imagine pulling the rode back to a bow cleat when you've got an all-chain rode. And there really is a size when nylon rodes cease to be an option: ever seen a battleship with nylon sliced behind the chain? (Yes, yes, by the way, I realize that in a storm surge someone with an all-chain rode should set nylon snubbers back to the bow cleats. I've worn out many a snubber at this point in my sailing career.)

I chartered a trawler up in the San Juans about 10 years ago, and the one lecture I got from the charter operator was, "I'm going to tell you what I tell all the sailboat fellows who come up here and charter trawlers. Don't back down full throttle to set the anchor. You bend the flukes, you buy the anchor." So at what point is the engine too big to use Maine Sail's 80% WOT technique?

One last call: anyone out there with a 75+ horse engine who'd care to discuss best practices for setting the hook?

 

[Brezzin]

One last call: anyone out there with a 75+ horse engine who'd care to discuss best practices for setting the hook?

Ok I'll bite. I've got a 4jh4hte at 110 hp. Three blade fixed prop, Rocna 40 (88lb) anchor.
The rode is all chain, 3/8.

When approaching the spot where I'm going to drop the hook I stop and begin to SLOWLY back up the moment I release it. Once I have the amount of rode out that I want, I pull forward to slack the rode while I or crew attach snubbers from the rode to both Port and Starboard cleats. Once attached I slowly begin to back down. Once the the hook appears to be set, I increase the rpm's to around 900 and the prop walk starts. At that point I put the boat in Neutral. Grab a beer and wait about 10 minutes. Back down again to around 900 rpm's and I'm good. unless the hook doesn't set in which case we undo and repeat. Undoing this is a real pain. Fortunately the Rocna tends to set much better than my old Delta.

 

[Mike B]

DWJ if you increase the revs to 900 then what RPM do you idle at?

 

[Franklin]

If the anchor size (including strength) is proportionate to the size/weight of the boat and the engine is proportionate to the size/weight of the boat, I don't see backing down any different between a 20'er and a 80'er.

I'd say that guy's trawlers either had an engine too strong or his anchors were too weak. Now I'd agree if we weren't talking about displacement boats where the engine is much larger.