Extending my anchor rode

I anchored in 85' of water in Alaska but there was little wind. I was close enough to the beach on one side to require 3-1 scope or less. I used my 22lb Claw because of it's short scope abilities.

CaptBill,
For a 30' boat that is not heavy 1/4" chain is perfect ... Not too light or small. And no reason to buy more chain I agree but at 3-1 a bigger anchor would be more secure IMO. Instead of 40 lbs additional chain 40 lbs more anchor would give him a 62lb anchor. If the bottom's any good that should hold his boat at least in a 50 knot blow.

The answer to any anchor question on this forum is your anchor is too small, it's the wrong kind and you don't have enough chain.

HopCar said:

The answer to any anchor question on this forum is your anchor is too small, it's the wrong kind and you don't have enough chain.

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Lol

Says the man who sold me a bigger anchor

"Says the man who sold me a bigger anchor "
That's right, now don't you need an even bigger one?
How about a shot of chain to go with that?
How about a nice balsa wood kellet to go with the chain? They're so much easier to handle than those heavy old cast iron and lead ones.

I have dived my anchor line many times, and the chain is usually lying on the bottom (except 3-4' of the shackle end) even at fairly short scope if the tides and wind are moderate. I might opt for a longer chain only if I were going to be awake all night, say tuna fishing, but not to sleep on of for extended stays. I am a believer in a balanced anchor system with no knots or splices in the rode. As a former firefighter I use the figure 8 a lot. It is easy to tie and untie even in the middle of the rode, and won't work loose like some other knots when worked by waves and wind.

1/2" three strand line is what is presently in place then simply splice an eye on that and then splice another eye in the additional line. Either hook together with a shackle or entwine prior to splicing the second eye. Should take about two minutes and creates an 80-90 % effective joining.

HopCar said:

The answer to any anchor question on this forum is your anchor is too small, it's the wrong kind and you don't have enough chain.

Click to expand...

Well of course! And all those answers are the correct. :lol:

I formed my opinions on the limited effectiveness of chain catenary from two sources.

1.). Hinz's book, "The complete book on anchoring and mooring". He had some interesting math that seems to show that while chain does have some incremental catenary effect, it's not much, and less than by word of mouth than we typically give it credit for.

2.) Standing on my bow in a fair breeze with 4:1 scope, and watching the anchor chain tighten up, go perfectly straight, then we would drag about 15 feet, the gust would die down and start the cycle over again. I was stern tied, heavy, with the wind on my side acting like a sail. It was just a cool little science project to see how obviously, immediately and simply was the relationship between scope acting to keep the anchor line parallel to the bottom and how easily an anchor can drag when that effect is momentarily overcome.

ghost said:

. I was stern tied, heavy, with the wind on my side acting like a sail..

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Unless the winds are forecast light, I don't stern tie. An anchor and rode performs much better IMHO when the boat is allowed to swing.

A few weeks ago when anchored in the Broughtons the winds were blowing 20 to 25 knots. A GB was anchored nearby, stern tied too so he could easily get Fido to shore. His anchor would not hold as the winds from the side kept breaking him loose . After noting we were swinging freely and not dragging at all he finally pulled loose from the stern tie and reset in deeper water, no problems after that as he swung freely.

If you're going to also set a stern anchor and align perpendicular to the wind, I'd say all bets are off on how much anchor/chain/scope you're going to need. Seems contrary to any anchoring advice I've read. That provides maximum windage to the prevailing winds which will place maximum tension on your rodes, current notwithstanding.

Nope just bow anchor lots of swing room.