Do you Like your Rope Rode ?

[Weyalan]

Originally Posted by ggray

I suspect a lot of the 100% chain sentiment is because of the windlass.

Hey, I know I haven't spent a lot of time out there, but I'm with Vasco, if you have enough chain where it lies near the bottom,and if you can deal with handling the split rode, it should be fine.

Our windlass copes equally well with both chain and rope.

[downunder]

Originally Posted by Delancey

I guess that's part of the question. How much time do people spend anchored in coral? I mean it's bad for the coral isn't it? Do people really have to go out of their way to avoid anchoring in it? In the Caribbean?

In the coral you always anchor on the coral sand. It the adjacent coral heads you worry about.

[cheoah]

Originally Posted by ggray

I suspect a lot of the 100% chain sentiment is because of the windlass.

Hey, I know I haven't spent a lot of time out there, but I'm with Vasco, if you have enough chain where it lies near the bottom,and if you can deal with handling the split rode, it should be fine.

Like others, my manual handles rope and chain pretty well. I think the biggest attraction with chain is chafe protection. A snubber gives you the stretch, but if it ultimately chafes through, the chain will not. No doubt chain handles nicely with a windlass.

I've used a mixed rode east coast US for lots of days and nights on the hook, including storms and hurricanes. 100' 5/16 G4 with 150' three strand in 5/8. Mostly gets used with 40' snubbers now, same size as anchor line. I've spliced the line to the chain, but again, mostly only the chain and snubbers get used.

When I have more time to extend my trips, ill add more chain, and stow it on passage. Whenever possible, ill limit to 100' for the bower to keep weight down, and pull out the long chain when I'm anticipating a deeper anchorage or issues with coral. The 1/4" G70 could work, but not with the windlass and not sure about how it handles.

[Delancey]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

Delancy, you don't tell us much about your boat, but IMO any 40 foot boat from the 80's should easily be able to handle the weight of a rode with 200+ feet of 8 or 10 mm chain. We had 280 feet of 10 mm plus lots of nylon backup in our previous boat which was a retired 36 foot IOR one-tonner. She had a pretty fine entry, but bore the weight well for the 86K miles we cruised in her. I think that folks worry too much about the effect of an extra hundred fifty pounds in the chain locker. You could try an experiment: lash a few jerry jugs of water to the bow pulpit and go sailing... see if the load causes any horrible mishandling. I bet it won't! And do remember that using G-43 or even G-70 chain can help keep the weight down... both in your locker and your wallet!

As others have noted, all of us who have been cruising remote areas for a while have seen rope rodes fail. For me it simply is a no-brainer to use chain.

And about "anchoring in coral". This doesn't necessarily mean anchoring on a living reef, not at all! When in coral areas one finds the sandy patches to drop in, but even there numerous lumps of isolated and usually dead coral litter the bottom, and these are deadly sharp to nylon.

Cheers,

Jim

The boat is a Philip Briand design from around 1980 with a listed displacement of 18,000 lbs on about a 34' waterline. It's fairly flat up forward with a typical-of-the-time pinched stern.

Some of my greatest memories from the time I have spent racing were sailing in less than 5 knots of breeze. This boat is no ULDB by any stretch and I know I have to balance my expectations, but at the end of the day I am a sailor and sailing is something I love to do.

Sometimes motoring is a matter of practical necessity, but for me sailing performance is quintessential so anything I can do to improve it is at least worth exploring.

I had previously given myself over to all chain, as you say a no brainer but somehow this forum, in its many splendors, has given me pause to consider. Specifically a couple different comments on a couple different threads.

The first having been made by the esteemed Captain Slocum when he described the ground tackle he used during his first ever solo circumnavigation.

The fact that rope worked for him as well as the rest of humanity for thousands of years kinda got me thinking a bit. Then elsewhere el Pinguino remarked about how all the locals wayyy down south also were observed to rely on rope. Kinda gets me thinking more.

My boat doesn't have a windlass but I did just score a set of winches as big as my primaries I am going to mount on my cabin top for halyards. We'll find out next spring but I wonder if they are big enough for my wife to be able to use the for the anchor, an important for me consideration.

It's not about being cheap, if I did all chain I would spend the money on high test to save what weight I could. But in a way it is about money because if I don't have to buy a windlass and a bunch of chain I can go sooner.

If I could afford the multihull of my dreams, having a rope rode isn't something I would have to think twice about, it would be a given. Now that I ended up with a for me heavy boat do I just go ahead and make it heavier when I could make it lighter?

[estarzinger]

Just a few comments on rope . . . the 'accepted' solution is nylon.

BUT . . . the french successfully use poly pro rodes in the pacific because it floats over the coral heads. Sometimes they even add small floats to them, which adds some shock absorbing characteristics because the float has to be pulled down into the water as the rode is pulled tight.

I have actually wondered about using spectra as an anchor rode, it floats like polypro, is more uv resistant and because it adds quite a bit of chafe and cut resistance. Or perhaps a loose spectra cover to a nylon core to get both chafe resistance and elasticity.

Before people jump on me about elasticity . . .chain is also inelastic and we deal with it by adding snubbers. You could use a snubber on a polypro or spectra rode (a bit harder on spectra because it is slippery but it is possible to accomplish).

Both poly pro and spectra are lighter than nylon (and don't absorb water) and offer some possible coral/chafe benefits. But I have personally never tried either so I can't vouch for them. We do know a small number (not statistical) of people who have used one or the other without problem.

From our own personal experience with 75' of chain plus rope, I think you could certainly do that safety.

[markpierce]

Previously used largely-rope rodes on my previous sailboats. On my current motorboat, the primary rode is all chain. Secondary anchor is a bit of chain and primarily nylon rode ala sailboat (not used yet). Don't have negative experience with either. With a 14-ton vessel, a couple hundred feet of chain hasn't been a problem. Actually, I would welcome lots more chain to balance the boat.

[onestepcsy37]

Originally Posted by Delancey

We'll find out next spring but I wonder if they are big enough for my wife to be able to use the for the anchor, an important for me consideration.

i see trouble a-brewin! young man, YOU are the one who hands the anchor while the wife hands the wheel!

i have a 45lb manson with all 3/8" chain. i also have a manual windlass. but i bring the chain in hand over hand until it's pretty much straight up and down. then i might either hand it up the rest of the way or use the windlass, depending on how old i feel that day.

when you're racing, each crew member has a particular job; when you're cruising, you have ALL of the jobs....

[Caribsailors]

Originally Posted by Weyalan

Like you, I have come to cruising from a racing background. I was used to carrying a relatively small amount of chain and a lot of rope. Like you I also have a mid-80's boat (with all the sins that come with that era).

Now, when we race, we carry a 35 lb anchor, with 33' of 5/16" chain and 130' of rope

When we cruise we use a 45 lb anchor with 165' of 5/16 chain and 25' of rope (and retain the racing anchor & rode on board, as a back-up.

I sleep well at night.

Ding Ding!!

[Stu Jackson]

A friend wrote this. Catalina 34, 16,000#

,,,all 20kg of it with 100ft of chain. The rest of the world can debate all they like. When I pull into a place like Bodega Bay at midnight and the fog is so thick I can't see the jetty 50 feet away to make an entrance, I drop my hook in the rolling ocean swells with the surf crashing (Foster says it's like staying in a cheap Best Western beside the highway), and I sleep. And in the morning I have a windlass to pull the beast up and I wouldn't trade it for anything. (I also wouldn't add more chain - this works perfectly in 25 to 30 feet of water - you let all the chain out and you tie off nylon at the preferred scope and don't bother with snubbers and chain hooks and all that stuff...)

This was our best upgrade.

Saves dealing with a separate snubber arrangement.

[Delancey]

Originally Posted by onestepcsy37

i see trouble a-brewin! young man, YOU are the one who hands the anchor while the wife hands the wheel!

Nah, not like that. I think more in terms of like what happens when the windlass breaks and I have a heart attack pulling in all that chain, then what? How does she get the boat underway without me?

[hoppy]

Originally Posted by Weyalan

Our windlass copes equally well with both chain and rope.

I have 180ft of chain and want a longer rode just for the odd occasions when I need to anchor in deeper water or if I drop a fraction too early when med-style mooring.

I'm thinking of adding rope to extend to extend my rode which means a windlass upgrade. What windlass do you have?

[ranger58sb]

I'll add +1 to the folks who've said rope/chain combo can work... and agree, enough chain is part of that, with "enough" being a relative word.

Helps to have a windlass that handles both.

FWIW, we use only about 25' of leading chain on our rode here in the Chesapeake, (+ 300' of 8-plait) mostly to save cleaning time, getting mud off as we bring the anchor in. Elsewhere, I'd use more.

OP: Might be optional to carry a secondary rode -- with more chain -- elsewhere in the boat?

-Chris

[rourkeh]

I sold a replacement boat to a client who had a 46' French bleach bottle that he was cruising the Caribbean with. He anchored (all rope,no chain) one night in the Dominican Republic in a secluded bay on the north shore and woke up when his boat was being smashed on the beach because his rode had parted. He was alone when the locals came out to "help" get the boat off the beach and try to refloat it. The crowd numbered about fifty people and they proceeded to strip his boat while he watched, including stealing all his clothes and handing them out to others who were running up and down the beach wearing them. A local government man came out took his passport, and all his money for safe keeping then disappeared before the crowd took a chainsaw the boat. spend the money and do whatever is necessary to install the chain.

[Delancey]

My current bower set up is a rusty CQR with fifty feet of chain and 250' of rope. Personally I would never go in for an all rope rode, just to clarify.

[Scott Berg]

Do I like rope rode? Easy… NO

Longer answers are here from others but it's true that windlasses (affordable and reliable) made a huge difference in how much chain people can carry and deploy. This, I submit, has been led to an increase in anchoring safety.