Following is part of a text thread I had with another catamaran owner who wanted to keep the boat light. However, this person is out cruising and is spending a lot of time on the hook in The Bahamas. I understand why people wish to save weight, but this might have gone very differently. A cruiser who sleeps on the hook has different concerns than a racer/day sailor. Even if you don't cruise near coral or sharp rocks there is also a concern about bottom debris.
The person's rode parted at about 4:00AM after the light wind shifted and rose to about 25kt. They were anchored in about 7-10 ft depth of (what appeared to be) sandy bottom.
My texts are italicized, the other person's texts are not:
Just curious, did your rope get cut by something on the bottom or did it chafe where it went through your roller?
Also, curious to know how you were able to get your secondary anchor deployed in time? The lee shore was close.
I am nearly certain it caught and chafed through on something on the bottom when we spun around in the wind shift. The cut was about 25 feet from my boat.
My second anchor was sitting on the bow roller on my port side. I got the motors on and we dropped the second anchor within a minute.
My anchor alarm didn’t go off. I was still in the radius, incredibly.
Thankfully there was a loud pop and the boat lurched when the rode snapped. That made me leap out of bed.
I have only 25 feet of chain…just yesterday I was saying I wanted more chain. This is why!
Wow! You are so lucky that you were quick like that.
Yes. I’ll be upgrading to MORE chain, for sure.
I got lucky this time.
The person's rode parted at about 4:00AM after the light wind shifted and rose to about 25kt. They were anchored in about 7-10 ft depth of (what appeared to be) sandy bottom.
My texts are italicized, the other person's texts are not:
Just curious, did your rope get cut by something on the bottom or did it chafe where it went through your roller?
Also, curious to know how you were able to get your secondary anchor deployed in time? The lee shore was close.
I am nearly certain it caught and chafed through on something on the bottom when we spun around in the wind shift. The cut was about 25 feet from my boat.
My second anchor was sitting on the bow roller on my port side. I got the motors on and we dropped the second anchor within a minute.
My anchor alarm didn’t go off. I was still in the radius, incredibly.
Thankfully there was a loud pop and the boat lurched when the rode snapped. That made me leap out of bed.
I have only 25 feet of chain…just yesterday I was saying I wanted more chain. This is why!
Wow! You are so lucky that you were quick like that.
Yes. I’ll be upgrading to MORE chain, for sure.
I got lucky this time.
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