Anchor Chain

[Don Guillette]

I was reading a thread over on the "ask all sailors" section on anchoring and I thought about a tip I learned from a cruiser. My slip in Long Beach was 4 from the end and a lot of the cruiser stop in Long Beach and many tied up at the end of my dock. I would go out of my way to talk to them about their boats and sailing experiences. They were the most interesting group of sailors I've ever met. Anyway, what brought this up was I had spread my anchor line out on the dock to check it out. The cruiser asked me how I secured it in the anchor locker. I was embarressed to tell him it was not secured but that I was going to bolt the end in place in the locker the first chance I got. He said that was not a good idea because in an anchor emergancy it would be near impossable to get the anchor line free. He told me that most cruisers secure the end of the line with a piece of rope and they have a small float attached to the line. So if they have to cut the anchor line free, they just cut the securing line and cast it off with the small float marking the spot for later retreval. His tip made good sense to me and that was my setup when I put the anchor back on board.

 

[Tsehum Pete]

Tossing Over Tula's Chain

Don,Interesting tip Don. On Tula (39 feet), I have 300 feet of 5/8" chain in her forward anchor locker and that is attached to a 35lb CQR anchor on her bow roller. The bitter end of the chain is attached with a little light line to a padeye in the anchor locker. In a crisis, I always thought I would slash the light line with the knife I always carry on my belt and let it go. That chain though weighs a lot. The "small float" may not be that small though. If the float was too big, it would take up too much room in the anchor locker and get in the way when I operate the electric windlass and feed chain into the anchor locker. The former owner of Tula decided to go with chain that could hold the Queen Mary. I am somewhat stuck with that. However, probably bigger is better. Hopefully, none of your readers ever have to ditch the whole lot. Although I am sure that many have. Stories folks?? Thanks Don for stimulating this discussion.PeterS/V TulaTsehum Harbour,BC, Canada

 

[David W]

Our bitter end is also secured with light line

nm

 

[Don Guillette]

Peter: Yeah, that is a lot of weight to be carrying. You'd really need a BIG float to hold that up. There are divers on Catalina Island that make a few extra bucks salvaging and selling anchors they retrieve from the bottom. I'd be interested in hearing from sailors who had to ditch the anchor. I can think of a couple of situations where you would really have to get under way quickly. The cruiser told me about a situation in Baja where a barge had broken loose and was bearing down on him and he had to get out of the way very quickly.A funny thing happened to me a couple of years ago at anchor at a Newport Beach, Ca raft up. A brother sailor, not connected with our group, dropped anchor near us. I did not pay much attention to him after he threw the anchor but I did notice he had trouble setting it as he kept moving backwards and forward. How a problem setting the anchor could happen in Newport harbor is beyond me as the muck is 1000' deep. Anyway, about 15 minutes later he motors by me and waves. I was the first boat in line. The next thing that happens is my boat start to move and begins to follow him. I thought at first I had broken loose but I really did not know what was happening until the next boat and then the next one started following him I knew what had happened - he had not pulled in the anchor and was catching our anchor lines!! We were all waving and yelling at him to stop but he just kept waving back at us. Fortunately, the boats down the line saw what was happening and got the fellow to stop. We all had a good laugh about it after everybody untangled. It turned out the young couple had just bought the boat and this was their very first outing. Some of us went over to their boat and got him situated and they spent the whole week end with out group. In fact, they became sailing buddies of mine and have come a long way since then but every once in a while I tell him "remember that time in Newport Beach ........".

 

[Rick D]

Nine Boats In A Raft

And current/wind caused us to rotate several times during the night making a most impressive mess of all the rodes. Took the better part of a morning to straighten out. Now, we set one small stern anchor. We don't care if it drags some, the idea is just to damp the rotation. Works great. RD

 

[tomfoolery]

add some line and a float

I use 45 ft of chain, then nylon rode with a small float that could remain on the surface if I ditched the whole lot as it just holds up 40 - 50 ft of nylon rode, what about you all chain guys , in addition to the light line tying the chain bitter end to the pad eye also had piece of 1/8'' nylon about 60' long with a small 6" float attached, then if you cut away the chain from the pad eye, even though the chain would sink, you would have the small float attached to the light line that would float on the surface for later retrieval.

 

[Dan Anderson]

The Cost of Chain

Hunter 45This is a fascinating thread and its given me a lot to think about. I'm going to attach my bitter end of 400' chain with a line and a knife next to it in the anchor well. While at anchor, I'll attach one of those huge orange float balls outside the anchor roller and just make it a practice to let it float. If I have to cut and run then maybe there's a chance of finding my chain (will the float support a 50'length of heavy chain?)it'll be a gamble but if things go real bad - well at least I can get out of there in a hurry. Worry about the chain later.

 

[Kevin]

Dan

You might want to re-think that plan. Sounds like it would work out well for you, but what about leaving an anchor attached to a chain that is suspended a few feet underwater (where you cannot see the orange ball) that another vessell comes along and snags onto. Seems very conceivable that another vessel could come along and snag itself on that hazard, and maybe even pull it up into the wheel, spin the boat around, or who knows what. You'd be better off with a small diameter nylon line (50', 100', of whatever it would take to allow the chain to go to the bottom with a shackle on one end that you could attach to your rode, and a float on the other end that would stay above water. That way, you know that you could come back for it. When I read your post, I got an image of a chain possibly lurking somewhere underwater, to be snagged by a vessell or another anchor line or God knows what. Seems like a hazard to navigation to me.

 

[Franklin]

Float on other end

There was a thread about a week or two ago that discussed attaching a float to the back of an anchor to assist in pulling up the anchor. I added to the discussion on how to attach the float with a self adjusting line so the float wouldn't provide any pull on the anchor.Now, if you have a float that marks the anchor, isn't that all you need (the chain being attached to the anchor)? So, this aproach solves two problems...how to find an achor and chain when dumped and how to pull up a stuck anchor.

 

[Dan Anderson]

Tangled up in chain

Kevin after I thought about it awhile, I came to the same conclusion you did about a column of chain lurking just below the surface. I like the idea of using a lighter line for the bitters with a smaller float bouy to find the chain and anchor when its safe to return. And I won't need to stow that huge orange fender ball!