Harness or snubber on nylon rode?

[Sailon1]

How does one apply a snubber or harness to take the load off of a nylon rode and a single cleat?
My boat’s basic set up includes a bow roller with a cleat about half way between the roller and the hawsepipe / anchor locker, with 2 more deck cleats near the toe-rails port and starboard.
I’m long overdue to leave the marinas and venture into new territory.
Your experience and advice, as always, is appreciated.

[leecea]

For attachment of a snubber to a rode, I use a rolling hitch.

If you want a bridle and you can reach the rode as it hangs down below the roller by leaning over the bow, you can simply run the lines outside from each bow cleat and use a rolling hitch to attach each one to the rode, then let out enough rode that the hitches are down near the water.

I can't reach that far so I run the lines from the cleats outside of everything and then back up the bow roller. Then I tie the rolling hitches, making sure that they will be correctly oriented when I lower them. Then I let out more rode and carefully ease everything over the bow roller and down to the water.

Chafe protection is probably needed where the bridle lines go over the toe rail.

Adjust everything so you have slack in the rode and the bridle is taking the load.

[Sailon1]

Correction: “hawsepipe” should be “chain pipe.” Correct?

[Sailon1]

Thanks leecea, that technique makes sense. I will practice same.

[Stu Jackson]

The rode IS the snubber.


Here's the way a friend of mine describes it:


Steve’s Anchoring 101

The Rocna. 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 separate snubbers and chain hooks and all that stuff...)

[s/v Jedi]

The snubber is much smaller diameter than the rode itself because you want more stretch.

The rolling hitch is the way to go. For a 25 ton boat I use 5/8” diameter 3-strand nylon of 20’ long. Lighter boat, thinner nylon.

[Benz]

Originally Posted by Stu Jackson

The rode IS the snubber.


Here's the way a friend of mine describes it:


Steve’s Anchoring 101

The Rocna. 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 separate snubbers and chain hooks and all that stuff...)

The problem is that the rode might chafe, depending on foredeck geometry. I use a short snubber with a rolling hitch on my nylon rodes, not for snubbing, but as a sacrificial chafe member to save the more expensive rode.

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by Benz

The problem is that the rode might chafe, depending on foredeck geometry. I use a short snubber with a rolling hitch on my nylon rodes, not for snubbing, but as a sacrificial chafe member to save the more expensive rode.

Agreed, that can be a concern. I always chafe sleeve a mixed rode where it goes over the roller, etc. In heavy weather a snubber can be useful either for chafe or to unload the roller depending on how everything is designed.

[leecea]

Regarding chafe of the rode, we had a buddy boat who lost their anchor that way during a rough night. Luckily they were able to use a spare anchor before anything too bad happened, but they did lose their primary anchor.

[mvmojo]

On MOJO (80,000 lbs) we use a wire aircraft cable for an anchor rode. I found that an icicle hitch was the only hitch that would secure my 1/2" nylon snubber to the wire rope 100% of the time. It's a little more difficult to tie, but once you learn it, it's a piece of cake. Here's a .pdf from BOAT/US showing step by step how to tie.

Icicle Hitch.pdf

[thinwater]

I fact, the purpose of a snubber with a rope rode is completely different from a snubber on a chain rode. They are different conversations. In both cases a bridle can be used to alter the direction the boat faces waves.



Chain rode. None of these apply to rope rodes.

* Cleating chain is impractical or damaging with most cleats.
* Unload the windlass. They are not designed for anchoring loads. Most boats using a rope rode don't have a windlass.

* Absorb impact, since chain does not stretch. A nylon rode does this.

* Quiet the chain rumble on the roller. Rope does not do this.



Rope.
* Chafe. The snubber wears instead of the main rope rode. Chain, of course, does not chafe.


So the requirements of a snubber for rope are different:
* Non-stretch. The knots will jam less and wear will be less (because there is less motion).

* As strong as the main rode. Obvious. There no reason for it to be stretchy.
* Smaller, so that attaching knots will work. Prusik and rolling hitches are only efficient if the attaching rope is ~ 30% smaller or more.

* Can be short. No need to allow length for stretch.



The last requirements suggests Dyneema slings or polyester covered Dyneema rope. They are non-stretch, small enough to form efficient rolling hitch, camel hitch, or pruisk hitch. Chafe is less and strength is high.


I have used long stretchy nylon bridles on my cat (chain rode) and a non-stretch Dyneema bridle on my tri (rope rode) with Dyneema slings for the attachment (prusik hitch). The Dyneema climbing slings are $5 to replace, but they last a long time. Different horses for different courses.

[David Mathis]

Our 43' 28,000 pound boat has 200' of 9/16 nylon after the 30' of 5/16 chain attached to the 20kg Bruce. The Bruce had a couple of disappointments until the leading edge was sharpened which resulted in it penetrating like a new anchor, but that's another story. We have enough nylon to provide sufficient shock absorption so a snubber isn't needed. One of the bow cleats was replaced with a post to provide a much greater radius for the rode attachment. Even after a couple of nasty storms, no chafing was detected.

[sinnerman]

[QUOTE=Stu Jackson;3591055]The rode IS the snubber.


With a nylon rode (especially three strand) the rode is the snubber as the nylon has a lot of give/stretch.

To take the load off, as stated use a rolling hitch.

[Sailon1]

Originally Posted by s/v Jedi

The snubber is much smaller diameter than the rode itself because you want more stretch.



The rolling hitch is the way to go. For a 25 ton boat I use 5/8” diameter 3-strand nylon of 20’ long. Lighter boat, thinner nylon.

Thanks for the good advice[emoji736]

[Sailon1]

Originally Posted by rslifkin

Agreed, that can be a concern. I always chafe sleeve a mixed rode where it goes over the roller, etc. In heavy weather a snubber can be useful either for chafe or to unload the roller depending on how everything is designed.

Good info on the chafe, thanks.