Making an Anchor Bridle ? How to ?

[offline]

Hey all.. Just picked up a lightly used Gibson 50.. The previous owners used it as a condo and only left the dock for local day cruises and the occasional beaching. As a result the boat does not have an anchor aboard.

Really!

I've got a spare 55# Plow anchor that will do the job for now but this boat does not have a center anchor cleat, just bow cleats on either side of the deck. The boat has a 14 foot beam. Because of this I'd like to rig a anchor bridle system and put on an anchor roller.

Does anyone have a website or a how to on how to properly rig a bridle?

This boat is going to be used exclusively in protected water (ICW primarily)...

Thanks!

[Tropic Cat]

Originally Posted by offline

Does anyone have a website or a how to on how to properly rig a bridle?

This boat is going to be used exclusively in protected water (ICW primarily)...

Thanks!

A website? No. But it's not all that difficult. A bridle is two lengths of line. Each length is roughly the width of the boat. Each has a large thimble on one end where the anchor rode will attach. Some put a swivel at this point.

To deploy, one end of each line is cleated to port and starboard forward cleats, and the remaining ends with the thimbles are attached to the anchor rode with a large shackle and/or swivel.

[stevensc]

There are a bunch of articles on the subject, many with diagrams, try google for "anchoring bridal" for examples of bridals for: mono, multihull, rope, or chain rode etc
godd luck,
Steve W

[jeremiason]

Our Catalina 470 has the same problem with bow cleats located about 3 feet back from the anchor roller. Since we carry two anchors, we could run a snubber through the anchor rollers. So this is what we did....

Use 5/8" three strand dock line for the snubber.

One line is 15 feet long and the other is 10 feet long... I spliced the shorter one into the longer one making what looks like a "Wish Bone".

I then spliced an eye with a thimble on the hook end and in combination with an anchor shakle use a Wichard Anchor Chain Hook with a small spring loaded retaining pin.

The Wichard Anchor Chain Hook is expensive, but in 21 months of fulltime cruising it has never dropped off the anchor chain or rusted.

Since leaving San Francisco, we have expereniced a couple of strong wind events while at anchor... The snubber has worked great!

[Hud3]

I did the same thing as Tom--the wishbone--except I spliced a chain hook on the business end and two eye splices on the ends that attach to the bow cleats. Add chafe protection at the bow chocks when needed, and you're good to go.

[Stumble]

There are a number of reasonable variations depending on exacally what you are trying to do.

For a fixed mooring, where the mooring has enough of a catenary that you don't need additional spring from the line, the best system I have seen was to use a triangle plate (similar to a split backstay plate), with the single leg leading to the mooring. Then the double leg side was brought to the boat using two dyneema lines, with thimbles at the plate end, and eye splices at the cleat.

This helps to minimize the primary failure point of nylon (at the chock where it comes on board) but requires something else to absorb shock loads (in this case either the mooring design, or the leader from the plate to the mooring should be nylon).


This won't work for an anchor since it requires a fixed leingth everywhere.

Assuming you have an all chain rhode, then chain hooks work great. Just splice a line from either side onto the hook then back to the cleat. Typically you see either three strand or double braided nylon here. I prefer the double braid, but Tom above seems to like three strand. This one is up to personal preference, do you want more stretch (three strand), or a higher breaking strength and abrasion resistance (double braid).

[jackdale]

You really do not need a bridle. Just use a a nylon dock line and attach it to the chain with a rolling hitch, fed it over the bow roller and cleat it off. Feed enough chain out so that the tension is taken up by the nylon line and the chain is slack between the bow roller and the rolling hitch.