need some advice or reassurance

[Islandmike]

I am anchored in 18 feet of water, I have a 60 lb Manson Supreme and 140 feet of 3/8" HT chain out. It is snubbed with 15 feet of 5/8 nylon. It is supposed to gust to 50mph tonight. To be honest I have never anchored in these conditions before. Is there anything else I should do? The boat is 40 feet, draws 5.5 feet and weighs 14 tons... Any advice would be appreciated.

s/v Tivoli

[Vasco]

Is there room to put out more chain? The snubber seems a bit short to me. Mine is 25 feet and in gale conditions I let most of it out. Have you got chafing gear on the snubber? Good luck and if it really blows hard doesn't hurt to have the engine ticking over. Everything lashed down on deck? That Manson Supreme is a good hook!

[AnchorageGuy]

Mike, we have anchored our Mariner 40 in worse conditions with that kind of scope with no problem. the biggest consideration is fetch for the seas to build. If you have good protection from the seas you should be fine but again bottom conditions make a difference. What type of bottom and is the holding good bad or so so? That makes more of a concern than anchor type, scope, etc. The Mariner tends to sail quite a bit at anchor under those conditions so add some chafe gear to the rode at the deck.

[noelex 77]

Dear Mike and Paula
You have what is reputed to be the best anchor design there. Your scope is about 6.5:1 which is fine (remember though more always gives better holding). Gusts to 45 knots is not an enormous amout of wind and I am sure you will be fine. By tomorrow you will wonder what you were worried about and have more faith in your ground tackle.
Is there anything else I should do?


Here are a few things that I always do when I am anchored and a strong wind is forecast.

Reduce windage, roll up boom tent etc
Make sure you have some good transits that will still be visible at night.
Set the GPS anchor alarm.
Note the position of other boats so you can tell if there dragging
Have a powerful torch, fog horn to wake up other boats if they drag
Have fenders and a boat hook handy up front when they don't wake up to your warnings.
Get some sleep in case you have to stay up all night
Have suitable clothes and a torch immediately available if you do go sleep
Know the compass bearing of an escape route out of the harbor
Cheer John

I am currently anchored with a forecast of 35 knots tonight, but this is not enough to put the above plan into action even though my plow copy is not a good anchor

[Vasco]

One other thing, make sure your vhf is on. I don't know how crowded your anchorage is but if someone starts dragging you're sure to hear about it on the vhf.

[AnchorageGuy]

Mike, If you have radar aboard we find it very useful under those conditions to not only keep track of where we are but what the other boats are doing without standing and staring out the ports or sitting in the cockpit. Good luck.

[Whoosh]

Mike:

Rick's pic is a great illustration of the importance of that snubber line. Personally, I prefer something at least as long as you are using and a bit smaller in diameter. On WHOOSH we use 25'+ of 1/2" 3-strand and keep a back-up snubber in the forward locker if we find we have to veer more chain. WHOOSH is 11 tons, 42' and has a bit of windage being a ketch.

BTW in anchorages expecting a blow, it isn't a bad idea to have a roving fender handy - round better than cylindrical, and the bigger the better - as you never know what will blow down on you (at night, of course).

Jack

[imagine2frolic]

Put out as much scope as you can. If it's all chain get as much of a snubber as you can. The more stretch the less shock on the chain, and that's what breaks anchors loose. Better safe than sorry......BEST WISHES in getting through the night.....i2f

[Ancora Latina]

Originally Posted by imagine2frolic

Put out as much scope as you can.

The chain will be much more effective in the water, increasing your scope, than in your anchor locker.
But don’t pay out more than 10/1. Any lenght of chain over 10/1 scope, will have very little effect.

[imagine2frolic]

Even if it is very little. My simple mind thinks every little bit helps?

[Cacique]

How did you get on? Hope everything went OK

[Stillraining]

He was drug to sea and never heard from again.


The End

[bmartinsen]

All good ideas, I use 2 snubbers , one on either side to single chain hook. It helps stop the sailing back and forth. Also, more windage in back helps, anchor sail or in my
case radar arch/davits( unexpected benifit). Also, have spare anchor ready incase you have to drop yours as someone drags onto you. Bitter end should be easily cut or released. Cut it loose , go re-anchor and pick it up in the morning. Good Luck

[Islandmike]

We have had problems getting back on line, and No we were not drug out to sea..lol, in fact we fared ok, however did get some damage to our bobstay/dolphin striker. I think I am going to try and modify this to maybe avoid this issue in the future. This is the third time I have had issues with it. Thanks for all the advice and encourgament it was appreciated

[imagine2frolic]

How did the damage to the bobstay occur? Possibly someone here can help yopu with a better set up? Glad to hear you survived with minimul damage.....i2f