Quote:
Originally Posted by mastequila
Hi all,
Yesterday, while reviewing my ground tackle, I noticed that my anchor bridle has begun to show some signs of chaffing.
I initially started looking for some three strand nylon to replace the existing bridle. While researching I came upon the following article...
Sizing the Capable Snubber | | PassageMaker
As I read the article the OP seems to suggest that low stretch, low chafe, high strength material is a better option than the traditional nylon.
I would be interested in your thoughts. |
I suggest reading the article again, more critically this time through.
Length. They mention 30-40 feet. Because stretch is important. They then mention that they sometimes snub at 15 feet, but ONLY if someone is around to lengthen if the
wind picks up. The best way to break a snubber is to use a short one (too much energy to absorb).
Loading. they mention that the working load should not exceed 15% of the BS. That is because this is, more or less, the fatigue limit. Additionally, so long as the load is below 15% there will be no
heating; that ONLY happens at higher load factors. Obvious. Additionally, they talked about load but never explained how they actually measured it or any data collect effort. Had they done so, they would have said so. I suspect they were guessing based upon tables or something similar.
They dismiss peak loading as a cause of anchor tripping rather flippantly. Yes, you can always accuse an anchor of being too small. I think if you re-read that paragraph you will see it is indefensible and contributes no knowledge. A better analysis is that they simply do not know.
I do know from instrumented testing (Practical Sailor next month) that is shallow
water, low stretch is a terrible recipe. There was also a good article in Sail last month that explained why short
scope works in deep
water. BOTH are true; in deep water catenary works, but in shallows only a long snubber works.
There is no one answer.
As for chafe and low-stretch, an argument can be made for having a short non-stretch leader through the chocks. A
mooring pendant, for example. should generally be low-stretch for this reason. But for most people, So long as the snubber is long enough and sized reasonably (15% BS), good chafe
gear will easily see them through.
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Al of this depends on whether you ever anchor in relatively shallow water (<20 feet). Deeper that that, chain catenary is pretty useful. All of my testing was in shallow water, intentionally so, to collect data.
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