Anchor Rode Poll

Thinking of comments from another thread I thought it might be interesting to see what people use for their anchor rode.

Went with all chain but actually carry two rodes (one all chain and one combo), for each of the two anchors on the pulpit.

I have combo rodes on both boats. 250' of chain backed up by 200' of 3 strand nylon. I am thinking of switching the nylon to brait though.

550' of 5/16 ht chain for us

All chain on the big boat primary. Secondary was about a boat length of chain then 3 strand. Combo on the Whaler with about 1 boat length (all of 15 feet) on the primary and about 10 on the stern. Whaler gets anchored a lot as our summer past time is going to the beach.

220' of 5/16 Ht as the primary
Combo as the secondary 5/16 with 5/8" 3 strand

150' of 5/8" chain backed up with 5/8" cable (wire rope?).

Ted

300 ft. of 3/8 BBB

400' of 5/8 chain for 42' and 35,000 pounds.

Sometimes chain is really important....

Conrad said:

400' of 5/8 chain for 42' and 35,000 pounds.

Sometimes chain is really important....

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5/8"? Wow, that's heavy chain for a 35k lb boat.

twistedtree said:

5/8"? Wow, that's heavy chain for a 35k lb boat.

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Sometimes when your mind is thinking of 5/16 vs 3/8 it crashes. Mine is in perpetual crash mode.

3/8 is what I should have said. Otherwise I wouldn't really need an anchor, just chain.

twistedtree said:

5/8"? Wow, that's heavy chain for a 35k lb boat.

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It sure is heavy. I only have 1/2" on my mooring top chain.

240' of ht 5/16, spliced to another 200' of rode. Most anchorages we are only on the chain.

Was 200 ft now 150 ft of 5/16 BBB chain on the main, boat length of 5/16 and 150 ft of 5/8 3 strand for the secondary.

combo chain and rope

All nylon with perhaps 5 ft of chain.

Ours is about 25' of 5/16" HT chain with 300' of 5/8" brait nylon line.


The combo is specifically because of a local issue (mud) here where we do most of our boating (Chesapeake Bay). Otherwise I'd go back to all chain.


-Chris

FF, I'm stunned! What happened to your philosophy of If it's worth doing, it's worth over doing? I would have guessed you for an all chain, one size bigger kind of guy. That boat of yours is built like an ice breaker.

Combination rode for me. 25 feet 1/4" stainless chain spliced to about 200 feet of 1/2" 3 strand nylon.

dimer2 said:

Went with all chain but actually carry two rodes (one all chain and one combo), for each of the two anchors on the pulpit.

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I probably should have specified on the primary as I imagine most who have two anchors use a combination rode for the second anchor.

We have 200' G4 5/16" for the primary and a combination rode of 20' 5/16" chain and 200' of 1/2" 3 strand nylon for the secondary.


Interesting results so far. 70% all chain and another 15% with over 100' of chain. 85% total.

Voted All Chain

We have 300' of 3/8" chain on our main 66# Bruce anchor. Backup CQR, also on pulpit, has 50' of 3/8" chain and 250' of 3-strand rode.

READY2GO,
I,m really supprised at the results so far. I'd a never thunk.
No wonder there's so many guys try'in to beat me up when I rave about how unnecessary (or even not benefical) all chain is. Haha Marin has many followers.

Well for the survey I use 3' of 3/8" chain next to the anchor and 6 to 12' of 5/16" chain attached to that. Then 5/8" nylon Brait. Chain length varies on anchor used or anticipated weather. Never used more than a boat length of chain.

Chapman recomends "6 to 8 or more feet; longer is desirable between the line and the anchor." In an older book Chapman recomends a "short length of chain (a fathom, more or less) of chain. Interestingly the text goes on to say that "one authority claims that the lightweight anchor bites best without chain" .... even I doubt that but it's an interesting tidbit. How we went from a few feet of chain to hundreds of feet of chain is a mystery to me. But I see here many embrace just that. Is it a case of some's good mores better philosophy? The guys on my dock say so? That's what fishermen do? That's what the USCG does? I have another theory.

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.

Before I had a real windlass, I had nylon 3-strand rode with about a boat length of chain (30 ft). Lots of work and a mess on the deck every time.

After I installed the windlass, I went with 120 ft of 5/16 G4 chain with 240 ft of 8 ply 5/8 nylon Brait spliced. Since much of my fishing anchoring is in 20-35 ft of water, I'm often hanging on all chain.

Primary: 325' 5/16 G4 attached to original Bruce,
Secondary: 125' 5/16 G4 with about 200' 1" 3-strand nylon attached to CQR.

The secondary rode hasn't seen water in nearly eight years!

My other theory (mentioned in post #21) goes something like this .. that I posted on the "Recreational Trawler" thread.

"All chain rode has a nice ring to it. It reeks of heavy duty, smart, salty and kinda top of the line mentality. Heavy is the essence of "trawler" and all chain is the heaviest and most expensive option. Also it's obviously the most widely used anchor rode on real trawlers ... I should probably say "fishing" trawlers. And it kinda makes a lighter rode look like a half baked anchoring effort. The better choice (combination) is rejected as it dosn't measure up re the trawler image. The image is obviously very important to a lot of trawler skippers. When you go to the dance you dress accordingly."

The whole premise is based on weight. Heavy duty. No Namby Pamby light stuff for me dude .. give me the stuff from the men's section. My dad was a member of that club. Had a Lobster yacht built in Maine and was on the phone w the builder a lot (probably drove them nuts) requesting this or that to be more Skookum. The boat was 36 feet powered by a (you guessed it) 6-61 DD. By the time the boat hit the water her top speed was 9 knots.
Maybe I learned from dad that there was a time for skookum and a time to say too much.

And my philosophy of light is better came partly from the fact that most of my time w our 30' Willard has been spent w/o a winch so all of my weighing anchor has been by hand. So I started using this anchor of 13lbs (2nd pic). Had big problems w that and begun experimenting w anchors. Still doing it but have a small capstan now. So I was sorta forced into the light gear channel. After a time I realized I had never dragged any anchor and was doubting the all chain rode songs I kept hearing on TF.
People usually go for the trawler because they are oriented to and prefer heavy duty stuff .. skookum like dad said. So it shouldn't be a surprise to me to find out most guys on a trawler forum prefer chain.

2nd pic is of Dad's boat. Posted some time ago also but you can see the chain, heavy winch and oversized Forfjord anchor.

Moonstruck has 30' of 5/16" G4 chain and 300' 5/8" 8 brait nylon rope. Quiet, smooth, and easy to set up. The natural stretch of the nylon is a good shock absorber.

makobuilders said:

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 .

Like the vast majority of boats we see in this area of the of the type we have we have an all-chain rode for the main anchor.

The FX-23 we carry on the swimstep for a stern anchor-- but which is sized to be the main anchor for the boat should we want to use it for that-- is equipped with a combination rode that we keep in a covered plastic crate on the aft deck so we can easily carry if forward if we want to.

I would have guessed that "more than a boat length but less than 100'" would take in most of us. I was very wrong.

But now that because voting posts your name by your vote everyone will know you're in a small minority unless you vote all chain. But I think there's enough up there to show what people are using. Next week I'm going to the hospital for a big fat hernia operation .. two actually. That will make 4 total. Perhaps I should join the chain gang and leave the anchor on the bow. Sometimes it pays to follow the crowd. Not my style though. Don't want to shell out $1500 bucks either not to mention a winch install.

Eric--- I thought you had purchased a windlass of some sort for your boat while you were still up in SE Alaska?