Rope to rope 'snubber'

[mjcayman]

Having no samson post, and a windlass at a poor angle to hold the rope rode, I tie a cordelette prussik around the anchor rode and then cleat it off one bow. Is there a better way? The snubber holds the rope from slipping on the windlass gypsy only really as I don't need much shock protection given 50' chain and usually 50' nylon 3 strand out. Wondering if a "y" set up to each bow cleat is a better solution or if I can go straight back and tie to the hole drilled on the lewmar windlass. 40' 18,000lb sailboat. Hope I described this alright...

[SailFastTri]

What is it about your current setup that's causing a concern? Sounds like a sound solution so long as the cordelette is strong enough to take shock loads. Is it spliced or just sewn?

[Wanderlust]

Welcome to the forum mjcayman.

You don't say what boat you have, but I presume a catamaran as you refer to "one bow".

I wouldn't bring the attachment point back to the windlass as this is nearer the centre of the boat, and will cause it to weave back and forth. The usual catamaran setup is for a Y shaped bridle, with the end of the Y attached to the rode about 5 metres from the bow. Each leg is attached at the bow. Often these are permanently attached below the forebeam, but if they are cleated on the deck, they can be individually adjusted.

However, with 50' of nylon out, you may find the stretch is a bit much unless the rode is quite substantial. With a strong gust, the nylon strecthes like a rubber band (the benefit of nylon). As the gust passes, the elasticity pulls you towards the anchor again. Then when the next gust arrives there is more distance to be blown back, causing increased momentum. This also increases the tendency to weave from side to side, and puts increased pressure on the whole system.

If you don't want to increase your chain length, you can mitigate this somewhat by having a longer bridle, but made out of oversize nylon. Just be aware that if the nylon can lie loose on the bottom, it could foul/abrade on rocks, coral, etc.

[thinwater]

A climbing cordelette? The strength (5000 pounds) is marginal for that boat. I would splice one from 1/4" Amsteel.

The simplest bridle for a cat would be 2 legs ~ 110% beam length, ~ 5/8" rope with eyes and a soft shackle to attach the cordelette. Since you use rope, shock is a non-issue.

There is no reason not to use a polyester bridle with a nylon rode (I did); less stretch (Wanderlust was right) and less chafe (less movement). When I switched to all-chain I switched to a nylon snubber.

[GordMay]

Greetings and welcome aboard the CF, mjcayman.

What Steve said.

[mjcayman]

Sorry. I have a beneteau 400. I guess I meant one bow cleat. I could cleat off to one of them but it's offset. Any issue? Climber in me wants to equalize I guess. My windlass is too low giving an angle where the gypsy won't really hold the rope rode so it needs to be secured. The prussik seemed logical to me.