Anchor sentinel/kellet weight

[brianc]

I anchored twice over last weekend and both times ended up with the anchor rode wrapped around the back of the keel (but luckily not the saildrive!) Both were light wind with tidal current.

300 ft nylon and 35 ft chain, had about 150 feet out last weekend. I'm actually surprised that we didn't drag because we were two boats rafted exposing the full length of the hull to the current after we were wrapped, which I'm guessing happened around 4:30 am and I noticed around 7.

So it looks like I need to get a sentinel/kellet to hold the rode below the keel when we swing. My question is what amount of weight is enough to do the job? I was looking at an 8 lb mushroom anchor, would that do the job?

Thanks, Brian

[Randyonr3]

never had the issue , but it could be that we use "ALL CHAIN" for our anchor..
My personal views on the subject are that if you have a concern, drop a stern anchor to keep you in colum..

[Night_Sailor]

I was planning on making one using a 16 oz Budweiser can filled with lead. It calc'ed out to 11 lbs I think. Your idea seems a lot easier. I tend to go for overkill options. Part of being in the Air Force.

I was thinking about putting a carabiner type shackle to afix it to the rode and lower in on some lighter line or else snap in onto a link in the chain.

I like to anchor with 3:1 chain unless it is very windy. A sentinel would help some.

It also prevents the drunken dinghy load of sailors from running over your rope rode at 7:1 scope at 0-dark-30.


Sent from my iPhone using Cruisers Sailing Forum

[UNCIVILIZED]

Up where you're at the water tends to be Deep, the bottoms hard on gear, & currents/tides STRONG. So that said, I'd suggest upping the amount of chain a LOT. And if you go to a kellet, the heavier the better. Like say 50lbs, & lower it down your rode on a block. You're gonna' need something heavy enough not to get lifted when it starts blowing N. of 20kts. And if you want to look up/do the math, consult the ABYC or similar charts for rode loads, or do the wind loading math, it only takes 5 sec. with a calculator. And even 50lbs isn't that tough of a number to reach quickly.

The catch is, since you're on a rope rode, if the kellet does it's job right, your rode's zip code is now chafe city. So you've got some choices to make. Were it me, I'd skip the kellet & go straight to chain. At first glance chain looks pricey, but if you dig, you can find it for literally about twice the cost of an appropriately sized rope rode. Not counting a windlass of course. Such is my $0.02 on this.

[JPA Cate]

BrianC,

That's not heavy enough to do you very much good if the wind picks up, I don't think. Ours was ten lbs. when we anchored on rope rode, before shifting to all chain. When we were in La Paz, BCS, during the "waltz" (the tide change time"), some of the boats with rope rodes had keel wrap problems, some of them dragged ashore; one guy replaced the rode and then did it again. It seems to me that with tidal changes, even though there are some downsides to it, chain rodes are more safe than chain, rope combinations. Of course, using long snubber.

Ann

[capngeo]

FWIW, on my Cal28, I use a 100# kellet, and I have 50' of ⅜ chain before the nylon. That said, I only use it when expecting EXTREME anchor conditions. 99.9% of the time the 50' of chain does the trick, as here in the West coast of Florida, it is rare that I anchor in more than 20' of depth.

[a64pilot]

If all your trying to do is keep the rode out of your keel in light conditions and not trying to increase your anchors holding ability, then you don't need a whole lot of weight,a mushroom anchor ought to be plenty to keep the rode sunk.
Of course all chain is best, if you can afford it.

[brianc]

Thanks for the responses...

As a64pilot said, all I'm trying to do is keep the rode from wrapping around the keel. I ended up buying a 10 lb mushroom anchor that I'll send down the rode just short of the bottom so hopefully that solves the problem.

In hindsight I probably would have gone with a bit more chain but I don't think this boat was really designed for 300 feet of chain in the bow, nor do I think I'd be able to pull it all up.

UNCIVILIZED - thanks for mentioning chafe on the rode where the kellet hangs...I'll keep a close eye on it.

Ann - I'm going, for now, with the assumption that if the wind picks up it'll hold us against the current in any of the places that we'll be anchoring...if not, we'll change the strategy once again!

[brianc]

So a quick update...

The kellet worked and kept the rode below the keel as we swung around with the current.

Brian