chain type

[dhenline]

thank you everyone. I have decided to just keep the 70 meters of chain. I will add chain or use rope as needed.
I will upgrade the anchor to a Rocna Vulcan

don

[David Mathis]

The Delta is a great anchor in cobble but less capable than most other popular designs in most other bottoms. It's terrible in soft mud. A Danforth has a low price and is a great sand anchor if the wind or tide doesn't change. Buy one of the newer designs that is larger and you can sleep well. As to your chain, it's fine.

[OneBoatman]

It's not the length of chain that concerns me 70M should be enough. I would want 3/8" galvanized chain and an anchor of at least 50-55lb with a windlass that could handle the chain having 20M 5/8 8 plait Nylon tail as loaded up that cat will sailing at somewhere around 26,000 lbs. Plus a spare anchor of having at least 50 ft of chain of at least 20Kg.

[SV Coronado]

I have a similar-sized boat that I bought new, and I cruise full-time, spending about 300 nights a year on the hook. We replaced our pathetic 22 kg Delta with a 40 kg Rocna before we left the dock. Upgrading our anchor was one of the best changes we made. To date, it's held us steady in up to 65 knots, and we haven't moved a cm! We've anchored in all sorts of bottoms and haven't had it drag. That doesn't mean it always digs in on the first try, but once she's set, we don't move. You don't need a Rocna brand specifically, but any large, modern design anchor will do.

As for chain, we have 75 meters 12 mm galvanized chain. Even anchoring in deep water places like Croatia, we've never found a need for more chain. Being on a shallow draft catamaran, you can get near shore. In deep water, we can shore-tie or motor into shallow coves where our friends on deep draft vessels can't. This is mainly the reason we don't need more chains. 12 mm is better than 10 mm, but I would stick with the 10 mm until it wears out, then replace it with 12 mm.

We had a number of things on our new boat we wanted to replace, but kept the factory-installed option until it broke or wore out. Unless you have money to burn, you must ask yourself if there are other areas of the boat where you should spend the money.

Feel free to DM if you have other questions about out-fitting a new catamaran.

[sailcrazy]

FWIW, we sail a 43'Taswell, aprox 32,000lbs gross(based on Travel-lift scales)in cruising form. We had a Delta on the bow, and never could trust it-we still carry it, in the lazarette, for emerg use.only...it hasn't seen water in 11 years! We bought a 25kg Rochna several years ago, and have been very happy with it-it sets easily, resets when the wind changes, and has never failed us in 12 years. We also use a 10mm chain-started with 100m (but never used it); now we're down to 200'. Weve sailed the Medd, and now the Caribb with that combo

[motion]

Buy a new chain. I failed to get a new chain when I bought a used boat. Chain failed during a storm and I lost the boat. Cheap insurance.

[MicHughV]

Don't forget that the " safety factor" used for chain is typically 5:1, so your 3,800 lb rated chain will go to around 19,000 lb before it breaks.

[captstu]

Keep the Anchor, keep the chain:

first the Chain. I ave been in two very serious storms (hurricanes that changed path) and survived both with no real damage. In the more severe case, both bridles (my normal 5/8 and storm 3/4") snapped and the chain stretchec.

Galvanized chain stretches (making it worthless in the future) if the safe working load is significantly exceeded. Stainless Steel chain snaps.

My 50 kg Bruce was attached to a 37# Fortress for the hurricane. They were rigged as a tandom - that is the Bruce (my main anchor) was attached to the chain and the Fortress attached to the Bruce at the point furtherest from the main chain - with an additional 6' of chain.

When the storm eye passed over the boat there was a veer, a sudden wind change - of nearly 180 degrees. The boat sailed over the anchor, tripped the Bruce (I could see the drag lines when I dived it the next day) and continued over the Fortress - that had burried itself nearly 6' into the bottom during the early part of the hurricane.

The Bruce served as a weight and the Fortress turned into a potato chip, but it held. Nearly every other boat in the anchorage (many having laughed at me for only one chain) had dragged their 3-anchor setup up onto the beach, later to be salvaged by a crane.

Effectively, I used the Bruce as a "lunch hook" and the tandem setup as a serious anchor. Once layed out, it never, ever, moved. In 15 years with 3 boats, the combination of claw and Fortress never dragged.

There may be better anchors - your broker is probably right - but there is no better anchoring system. Any claw or other claw-shaped anchor tandfem attached with an appropriate Fortress, will hold until the chain stretches.

Since Stainless is 6 times more money and 1/2 the strength (thinking breaking, not working), I only used 3 of the 6 parts of the cost for my 5/16" G3 galvanized - downsized from the recommended 3/8" for weight and because I figured 5/16" would hold in anything the boat would otherwise survive.

BTW, Fortress replaced all the damaged parts for free under their warranty.

[CAVOK]

Get rid of the anchor. Too small and not a good brand. .
Get an oversized Sarca Excel or Rocna. You definitely will sleep better on the hook.
Also get an anchor watch app on your phone and put it beside your bunk.

[sailingharry]

If/when you consider new chain, consider the value of higher test. For a given working load, G4 chain is cheaper, lighter, and smaller than BBB. Kind of counter-intuitive -- one would think that high test chain is the expensive solution, but not if you are buying for a given load.


Of course, downsizing to smaller/stronger chain requires adjustments to your windlass, so it's not all that simple.


And a thought on additional rope. I haven't done this, so it is pure conjecture (I have 260' of chain backed by 40' of nylon...). If you needed to add chain for those extremely rare instances where 70M isn't enough, I've often thought that dyneema would be a good solution. For a given strength, it is cheaper, smaller, and lighter than nylon. Your long chain already gives you all the advantages of chain. It's harder to manage on the windlass -- but if it's a twice a year (or less!) event, you can just "make it work." When we did our trip to the staggeringly deep waters of the St Lawrence, I thought about 150 feet of dyneema to replace the nylon, but never got to it (and never needed it).

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by sailingharry

If/when you consider new chain, consider the value of higher test. For a given working load, G4 chain is cheaper, lighter, and smaller than BBB. Kind of counter-intuitive -- one would think that high test chain is the expensive solution, but not if you are buying for a given load.


Of course, downsizing to smaller/stronger chain requires adjustments to your windlass, so it's not all that simple.


And a thought on additional rope. I haven't done this, so it is pure conjecture (I have 260' of chain backed by 40' of nylon...). If you needed to add chain for those extremely rare instances where 70M isn't enough, I've often thought that dyneema would be a good solution. For a given strength, it is cheaper, smaller, and lighter than nylon. Your long chain already gives you all the advantages of chain. It's harder to manage on the windlass -- but if it's a twice a year (or less!) event, you can just "make it work." When we did our trip to the staggeringly deep waters of the St Lawrence, I thought about 150 feet of dyneema to replace the nylon, but never got to it (and never needed it).

Along that line of thinking, I'm thinking the rope portion of my next rode will be Samson Tenex. It's a polyester 12 strand that's stronger and more abrasion resistant than nylon, but unlike Dyneema, grippy enough to attach a snubber to (Tenex has minimal stretch) and will also work in the windlass gypsy. Strength-wise, 5/8" Tenex is good for 18,500 lbs, so about 50% stronger than comparable size nylon. And if we take 20% as max working load, that puts it pretty close to the 5/16" G43 chain it would be paired with.