How to rig anchor?

[Clivevon]

Ok, couldn’t resist, googled it so now i know what trolling is.

[Rumrace]

Good for you. Social media is a bear out of season. Navigating it and not being misunderstood is not easy.
You’re not a troll a concerned fellow boater were you standing beside op would be laughing and pissing off the whole dock laying chain out. Then two more guys carting parts would stop by with expert advise. I try to keep that in mind. If social media was like that at dock be a heck of a fight. We all have opinions.
I love two anchors

[Rumrace]

You won’t see any chain hanging off my boat. I’m in the Great Lakes and have little anchoring in tides.
I can switch from twin danforth to twin plows. I have only 40’ of chain on each rode of 200 feet. The chain drops into a separate area. Although you can raise and lower one anchor from the Starboard helm I never use it. The two shock cords take up 6 feet of rode which reducing movement and pull on hardware. My bow has been hit twice lucky both times with a weed mud ball lucky, no cracks. A longer bow pulpit was suppose to be an improvement but I’d say it should be longer with my blunt bow. I’d love to have a lake water pump to clean anchors.
Years ago in a Small Sea Mid cabin I had a enormous teak bow pulpit and and bold ugly winch with double rollers. New I had no chain 200 feet of rope. At night the single line new boater listened to the teak squeak all night in Georgian Bay surf. So my learning curve came from lessons each boat taught me. I had a Sea Ray Sedan had 2 of everything except 3 fridges and 1 anchor. It had 150’ of chain. I had the winch Modified the bow rollers upgraded to two staggered rollers so the anchors nested. I had the chain cut so each anchor had 75’ which was often too much.
In a smaller sailboat I stuck with my plan but with shorter chain. I don’t want chain on hardware. I don’t want to listen to chain at night. The chain in my view is to assure the anchor is set and stays set. Hauling an extra 200 pounds of chain in the bow does not interest me. Are my experiences relevant for tides no idea. I was nervous about anchoring in tides I spent most time tied up to docks. The Ugly Danforth are for fish country. Weeds mud. The Plough anchors rocks and sand. Wasaga beach is the worlds longest fresh water beach. Has a rolling surf so dumb place to spend the night and dangerous place to anchor. Many boats get pushed in to shallow from poor anchoring techniques. It’s a learning curve which seems never ending

[siraXLe]

Thanks for the detailed info and diagram Hank, it is much appreciated.

I asked this question as I could not find any relevant I for action in the books I own on seamanship, on YouTube or on this forum. Most of the information related to how to drop anchor successfully and not rig it and the best method of.

Thanks all.

[JPA Cate]

G'day, SiraXLe, and welcome aboard CF.

If you go to buy new anchor rode, buy nylon. You may be offered "silver line". It is cheaper by far, but it is floating line, and for anchoring, nylon is a stronger, safer choice.
13 mm diameter should be adequate for your size boat.

My husband, Jim, used to have a Yankee 30 (similar to an S & S 30 here in Oz). That boat did not have a windlass, and all he had was an anchor, about 30 ft. (9 m.) of chain, and all the rest of the rode was 1/2" nylon 3-strand. We never dragged, in that boat.

When calculating depth vs. length of rode, we (with all chain rode) normally use 3 times the depth from the bow roller to the bottom, and with all rope rode (like his Yankee), we used 5:1.

In our experience (see our profiles, if interested), you do not need a swivel, between the anchor and the chain. We started out using one, then took it out (there are threads here discussing the subject), and have since been content.

If you can take a picture from further aft on your foredeck, a picture showing your bow cleats, and the windlass, will help us understand better what you have to work with there.

Where are you keeping the boat? Somewhere in Moreton Bay?

Fair winds,

Ann

[jalmberg]

Those aren’t bow rollers. Too close together, and no cheeks to keep the rode on the sheaves. No idea what they are.

[pbmaise]

siraXLe
I just want to mention that your anchor chain looks fairly rusted. This can be renewed by regalvanizing it. You will have the option of sandblasting the chain first. A good idea in this case. They can also sandblast and renew your anchor. That certainly needs sandblasting.

At the end of the rope is a stainless steel shackle. Look closely at the last link of chain. Make sure it is not corroded away because stainless steel is in contact with a different metal. Some people just cut out the last link of chain and then attach to the next one. Also shackles are cheap, always a good idea to replace them.

The same is true to look closely at the shackle connected to the anchor. There appears to be a third shackle where the chain may be attached to the vessel.

Overall to extend the life of your chain make sure any mud is washed off the chain. A saltwater wash is fine followed by a bucket of fresh water if you have one available.

Any rope will also get wet and store moisture. It looks to me like you may have a lot of anchor chain, you may be able to eliminate any rope if you have enough anchor chain to anchor in spots you go. Remember the chain must be longer than the depth of the water. About 4 to 1 ratio is minimum to hold position. See the books recommended.

[pbmaise]

siraXLe
Check very carefully the gear box below deck. It should have oil inside. Given the way your chain looks I suspect the previous owner likely has not replaced the oil seals inside this assembly. The oil seals are really cheap. They are just not easy to replace and sometimes hard to find. I located oil seals in Thailand for my vessel but had to go to like 10 different automobile supplies to find all the correct ones.

If the oil has leaked out of the gear box, do not operate it until you replace the seals and oil.

This video will start to give you an idea what I am talking about.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CQE6UM_JRxg

[siraXLe]

The boat is in Batemans Bay. I am heading there this weekend to grab the anchor and chain to have a look at it in detail. It is a possibility that it may be too rusted and not able to be regalvanised?

It does look like there is a lot of chain which may be sufficient length to not require any rope for the rode but isn't having a spliced rope in the rode best practice when rigging an anchor?

Regarding the winch, I think it definitely need a service. Another part to take home and re-do.

Thanks for the advice.

[pbmaise]

siraXLe

The chain I am looking at in the photo looks pretty good. But yes there comes a point that chain can be too corroded that it should be scrapped. I wouldn't be at all surprised that the chain at the bottom of the pile is too far gone especially if it sat in a layer of muck for many months. This is the reason it is so important to clean out the anchor locker on a regular basis.

It was a nasty job aboard my vessel and I washed the entire length of chain by moving it between different buckets of fresh water. I also had to dry my chain in the sun to get the sea life to drop off. Once I had everything out of the chain locker I then removed all the mud. The chain itself sat on several layers of plastic grating to allow water and air flow below it.

[Tetepare]

Our new to us boat came with an undersized SL Bruce copy, 4m of decaying, rusted vinyl coated chain, 10m of real chain, and secured to the rode with a bowline. Will swap for playing cards or a cheap dinner.

Just tell OP what to buy and send him shopping! The early diagram posted is the way to do it. Bite the bullet, go to the chandlery, and that’s what you want.

And Danforth is junk. Throw them overboard minus the rode. Get a fortress for sand/ second anchor. If anyone says Danforth is OK put them on your ignore list and carry on.

[Jim Cate]

Get a fortress for sand/ second anchor. If anyone says Danforth is OK put them on your ignore list and carry on.

Please support this statement with some facts... something showing why the Fortress (which is an aluminium version of the Danforth design) is great and the Danforth is junk.

And to save you some trouble, put me on your ignore list now, for I've used Danforths of various sorts for stern anchors, bowers (on smaller boats) and for kedges... all successfully. They have their place in the anchor firmament IMO, even if not at the top of the list for best bower roles on serious boats.

Jim

[Don C L]

Guess I'm on the ignore list too. You can check Panope's results with Danforths too. I believe the Fortresses, while impressive, still did not match the Danforths, the real ones, especially the high tensiles. When my Danforths are set in sand or mud, I'm pretty confident they will bury and break long before they will drag... and it is really hard to break 'em. Now I am talking about for single direction pull. I would not recommend one as a single anchor off the bow when the boat is likely to be changing direction.

serious boats? I don't have a serious boat? I hope she doesn't hear that.