Quote:
Originally Posted by sabray
Thanks for that. How much chain is all chain. Your experience with mixed rode would be good. Describe condition depth type of boat etc...
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Well... we now have a 25 ton boat, so we're able to carry 100 meters of 1/2 chain; the amount you'll be able to carry will depend on the boat and size of the chain. On our previous boat, a
Hunter 450, I carried 200 feet of 5/16 inch chain (I think) and used a
Rocna 60 pound
anchor and a smaller Danforth before that.
Prior to extending the length of chain to 200 feet on the
Hunter, I used 100 feet of chain spliced to 1 inch nylon
rope (3 braid) and anchored out in Long Beach
California for two months one
winter within the harbor breakwater during several storms which whipped up winds in excess of 50 knots. The bottom was mud, thick gooey mud. After one of the storms when I'd let out all my rode (100 ft of chain and 100 ft of rope in 37 feet of
water, when I pulled up the
anchor, I noticed that the splice was heavily chaffed and didn't look as if it had much life left in it. So rather than hire a guy to redo the splice (which looked like new prior to the storm), I went down to the
chandlery and purchased an additional 100 feet of chain for peace of mind, knowing that there would be no splice to chaff through again. Had I left the anchor in place and not checked the rode... who knows what could have happened during another blow by the Santa Ana winds... or if the storm had lasted a little longer. There must have been something sharp or medal down there on the bottom that snagged onto the smooth rope where it met the chain at the spice.
I just decided after looking at the almost failed splice, that I was never again going to leave myself vulnerable to that sort of failure. Our
Oyster 53 has always had 100 percent chain rode with a snubber.