Quote:
Originally Posted by makobuilders
Perhaps this poll is biased because the majority of the responders use windlasses? The guys with captive reel winches generally use all nylon with a chain leader, or sometimes wire rope. I spent some time on a friend's 100 footer with the stockless anchor snugged up in the hawser hole, and he still used nylon on a reel. A great number of commercial fishermen use the reel with nylon and those guys use their boats a lot more than the average pleasure cruiser.
So Mr. READY2GO, perhaps the poll should be expanded to be more accurate.
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Those commercial fishing guys rarely anchor, for one thing, and rarely for more than a day, if that.
All chain is chosen for several reasons, all of them practical. To name but a few:
1) the weight makes for a heavier catenary and thus a more gentle motion at anchor under normal conditions. 2) the chain is not subject to chafing on the sea bottom and the various hard object thereon; between that and stress a rope rode will be more short lived 3) the chain can bury and settle into mud and sand deeply; it is not uncommon for the boat to lie to the chain, not the anchor (ever wonder about one reason why an anchor may come up backwards sometimes?), again making for a gentler motion, and less horsing.
Heck, I see this phenomena on the short lengths of chain we use on the Whaler.
If you are a weekend warrior or rarely anchor, I don't see the necessity of an all chain rode. But for full time cruising across a variety of geographies, involving multi-day anchorages and the inevitable sporty conditions I wouldn't be without it .