Anchor Rode Choices

Feb 6, 1998
11,704
Canadian Sailcraft 36T Casco Bay, ME
After getting frustrated with my brait rode I continued my search and discovered a company in Canada called Nova Braid. They make an anchor specific double braid line called Nova Gold that has excellent strength, stretch and wear characteristics. I am now going on 6 years and could not be happier so wanted to report and potentially open up some more options as not a lot of folks know about this product..

Cajun Trading Co. in Nova Scotia sells it and will make it any length you want. It is very, very reasonably priced and holds up extremely well.

The Nova Braid NovaGold (LINK) double braid anchor line I use actually offers better elongation than does New England Ropes 3 Strand anchor line and also slightly better elongation than NER Mega Plait that I had previously used.

According to the manufacturers spec sheets, linked below, at a 30% working load the NovaGold double braid will stretch about 14%. At a 30% working load New England Ropes 3 Strand will stretch about 12.5% & Sampson 3 strand about 10%. So, the Novagold is actually more elastic, flakes better, has better abrasion resistance, does not hockle and thus takes up less space in the anchor locker. It also works very well in a windlass even though I don't use ours much.

Even NER Mega Plait, which I used our old boat, and did not like as much, does not beat the NovaGold double braid in either tensile strength or % elongation. Nova Gold is a double braid that actually performs tremendously well in both stretch and overall strength.

NER publishes a 20% working load stretch for Mega Plait of about 10.4%. At a 20% working load. NovaGold double braid offers a 12% stretch and the individual strands don't pull and pucker like Mega Plait did for me, which is the reason I disliked it so much.

NovaGold double braid also beats both NER 3 strand and Mega Plait, as well as other anchor rated lines, in tensile strength.

Here are the specs for 5/8" rodes - NovaGold beats them, and is less money:

------------------------------------Stretch @20%----- Tensile Strength

NER 3 Strand------------------------------------ 10%------------12,200
NER Mega Plait - 12 strand -------------------10%-----------10,000
NovaGold DB ------------------------------------12%-----------14,800
Yale Octo Brait - 8 strand ---------------------12%-----------12,200
Sampson 3 Strand ----------------------------- 10%-----------10,000


NovaGold can be purchased from Cajun Trading (LINK) and the price is amazingly affordable, was less than NER 3 Strand.

If you want to go three strand, NER and Samson, which Phil sells here are both good products. If you want to go one better for ease of use I can't recommend Novagold highly enough..
 
Mar 26, 2011
3,702
Corsair F-24 MK I Deale, MD
Could you please explain more?

* What about the brait did you not like? I have 3-strand, but it won't last forever.
* Does the Nova Gold work with a combination rope/chain gypsy?
* Does it splice to chain easily? I use a combination rode (50' chain) to save wieght (cat), because generally I anchor in shallow water (only chain is deployed), and because abrasion on the Chesapeake is very limited.

Thanks.
 
Feb 6, 1998
11,704
Canadian Sailcraft 36T Casco Bay, ME
Could you please explain more?

* What about the brait did you not like? I have 3-strand, but it won't last forever.
* Does the Nova Gold work with a combination rope/chain gypsy?
* Does it splice to chain easily? I use a combination rode (50' chain) to save wieght (cat), because generally I anchor in shallow water (only chain is deployed), and because abrasion on the Chesapeake is very limited.

Thanks.
My brait was constantly getting pulls and loops that hung out or got pulled like a bad sweater and was a royal PITA. I paid a lot of money for it and the stuff was very workable, big plus compared to three strand, but the pulls & snags were unacceptable to me.

I have a rope to chain gypsy and the Nova Gold works well in it though is probably not the "ideal" rode for a rope/chain gypsy. Splicing to chain is not going to work as well so I just manually lift it off the gypsy when I get to it but then again I have never liked any of my three strand to chain splices and converted most back to a thimble..

As I mentioned I rarely if ever find the need to use the windlass and prefer to let the boat do all the work while I collect rode and I then just lift the anchor about 20 feet. I use 60 feet of 5/16" chain and the rest Nova Gold as I really dislike man handling and cleaning the mud off my 300 feet of 5/16" all chain rode so that has been relegated as my secondary storm rode..
 
Mar 2, 2008
406
Cal 25 mk II T-Bird Marina, West Vancouver
I've been happy using 300ft of 1/2inch NovaGold double braid anchor line with 30ft of 5/16 BBB chain with a 22kg genuine Bruce for over 10 years now. Never understood why some use the stiff 3 stand stuff. p.s. NovaGold is the standard anchor line aroud here.
 
Feb 6, 1998
11,704
Canadian Sailcraft 36T Casco Bay, ME
I've been happy using 300ft of 1/2inch NovaGold double braid anchor line with 30ft of 5/16 BBB chain with a 22kg genuine Bruce for over 10 years now. Never understood why some use the stiff 3 stand stuff. p.s. NovaGold is the standard anchor line aroud here.
Nova Braid is well distributed in Canada but a little weak in the US. It's a good product.
 
Nov 9, 2008
115
Pearson 323 Bayfield
I followed your link to Cajun Trading but could not find NovaBraid in their web site. Went to NovaBraid's site but couldn't find search for dealers tab. They have an excellent site with lots of good info. Any other ideas about where to look?

Geoff
 
Feb 6, 1998
11,704
Canadian Sailcraft 36T Casco Bay, ME
I followed your link to Cajun Trading but could not find NovaBraid in their web site. Went to NovaBraid's site but couldn't find search for dealers tab. They have an excellent site with lots of good info. Any other ideas about where to look?

Geoff
Gary/Cajun Trading does not call it Nova Gold but ALL his line is made by NovaBraid. Email him and he'll set you up..