Heavy Weather Achoring

[Michael]

I just (I mean just) bought a Catalina 30 Tall Rig. One of the questions I have as I am exploring the systems is how to properly tie off the anchor in a heavy blow. Is it best to put the road over bow roller and tie off to the mooring cleats mounted at the rail? It seems that this system would put a lot of strain on the forestay when the boat starts to hobby horse. Would it be better to not use the roller and go right to the Mooring cleat? And/or use a rolling hitch on the road to the other mooring cleat, making a bridle? In a really nasty blow (i.e. Hurricane), what do you think about attaching the road where the bobstay attaches to the hull? I think I had read in Adlard Coles' book about this technique.Sincerely Michael

 

[Richard]

Bridle

Michael,I would use a bridle from the mooring cleats out and around the bow sprit. Attaching the rode to the bobstay eye would(I think) make it too difficult to get to.

 

[Chris Hyland]

4 way bridle

Hi Richard, Congrats on the boat. I like the brindle idea but would go one step beyond.I'd use the cleats on the bow ans run lines back to the winches and just snug them up to take some of the strain off the cleats.It would take a pretty serious blow for that to fail. I think in any case your anchor would pull out well before the deck hardware failed.In such cased I would consider two anchors at 30 to 40 degree angles, one to each cleat and back to the winches.regards,ChrisRegards