How long is your anchor snubber?

[markxengineerin]

For those with all chain rode- I'm trying to understand what practice people are using for snubbing.

I suspect that many are like me- the same snubber is used every time independently of the conditions, because it's extra work to change the line size or length.

If you have special cases (anything other than a single or dual nylon snubbing length), feel free to comment.

(I understand the conclusions are limited without knowing boat length, displacement, type, etc, but for poll simplification, going with this)

[sailorboy1]

Well my snubber is 30 feet long, but normally only has about 10' out. Conditions mostly determine out much is out.

[Ween]

For light conditions a single snubber with a wichard hook long enough to be under water - thus about 5 meters off the bow

for long-term and weather I use a double bridle that can be 5 meters to 10 meters out depending on the conditions (waves need more absorption length)

[El Pinguino]

I put out about 2 metres. I only use it to take the load off the capstan.

[ranger58sb]

We just got a Mantus bridle, 3/4" rope, seems like it's about 90' long or some such. OK, actually 30' or whatever. I used about 10' on it's maiden splash.

Costs an arm and a leg... but I haven't been able to take time to find or make an alternative.

-Chris

[Pete7]

10 metres of 10mm 3 strand nylon on a 31ft yacht. Runs from about the water level to a genoa winch to give the stretch needed.

Pete

[noelex 77]

For strong wind the anchor system needs some elasticity to keep the load on the anchor reasonable.

The ideal snubber length depends on the line diameter, material used, the characteristics of your vessel, etc. It is worth some experimentation, but nylon of around 10-12m is a good starting point.

[s/v Jedi]

There should be about 3-4 meters between the cleat and where it attaches to the chain. If this doesn’t give enough stretch then you need a smaller diameter.

I find many go for large diameter because their snubber doubles as a chain stopper. This is an error imo as there should be a separate chain stopper. If there’s no room on deck for a real one, then make a Dyneema one.

If you have the right diameter snubber but go beyond 4 meter active length, you make things worse because you get pulled too far forward in the lulls.

[ABJ87]

37ft 20k boat. 3/4 braided nylon, between 6-30ft depending on conditions.

[Lee Jerry]

"How long is your anchor snubber?"

That's a bit of a personal question.

And a bit of an odd euphemism for...

[Mike OReilly]

37-ft boat, 30k. We use 1” nylon 3-strand, 40-feet, set in a bridle, so 2x40’.

I rarely deploy the whole 40 feet (x2), but never have less than 20 feet out (again, x2).

I use rolling hitches. I’ve used three or four different chain hooks, but they all seem less reliable, or more bother, than simple hitches. That said, I’ve not used a Mantus hook.

[Panope]

I just use the bow dock line. It is about 40 ft long.

Unless the wind is 20+, I don't bother setting it.

We have deep water here, so chain catenary takes care of moderate wind shock loads

[Simi 60]

Having had some big weather in the last six months and chewed through a couple of snubbers we now run 20mm 3 strand nylon from Sampson post to a foot before roller.
8 mm dyneema over roller with multiple layers of leather chafe protection
Then 20mm nylon again.

Short length that not quite touches the water for normal weather
And a 40 ft length that can be changed out for bigger weather.
All connection points heavy grade galvanised thimbles

[noelex 77]

In light or moderate wind the elasticity of the snubber is not needed so some cruisers only deploy a long elastic snubber when adverse conditions are expected.

You should still take the load off the windlass and many cruisers use a short snubber for this purpose. This has the added benefit that it muffles the noise of the chain scrapping along the sea bed.

There are advantages to this approach. The long elastic snubber is not subject to fatigue and UV damage and when adverse conditions are unexpectedly encountered the short (or no) snubber makes it easy to deploy more scope.

Personally, I have been caught out on several occasions with unforecast weather events so I always deploy a long elastic snubber even if I suspect it will make no difference with the expected conditions. Our snubber is rigged from the stern of the boat so only projects over the bow roller a metre or so. This means that to deploy more scope only a very short amount of chain needs to be retrieved before the snubber can be detached, minimising the major drawback of always deploying a long elastic snubber.

[Pegu Club]

Our snubber line is 35 feet long, it is single line 5/8 diameter, attached to a Mantus chain hook. We run it over our bow roller with appropriate anti chafe in place. The majority of the time we have between 10 and fifteen feet deployed, more as conditions dictate, this has worked well for us in a variety of conditions.