View Single Post
Old 01-07-2016, 09:07 PM   #17
TDunn
Guru
 
TDunn's Avatar
 
City: Maine Coast
Vessel Name: Tortuga
Vessel Model: Nunes Brothers Raised Deck Cruiser
Join Date: Feb 2015
Posts: 889
Quote:
Originally Posted by manyboats View Post
1025,
I made a mistake putting out the tree scenario.
You've got 480lbs of chain? If you went to an all line rode you could have an anchor over 350lbs. Think that would hold your boat? Here's a pic of a boat in Alaska w a 500lb anchor. Don't know what his rode is. Simple fact is that if you substitute the chain for nylon and got an anchor that would bring the weight back up to what it was w all chain your boat would be very much more secure than it was before. Or if you took the upper half of the chain rode off and substituted it w nylon, weighed the chain you took off and got an anchor as heavy as the removed chain and your old anchor you'd still have the mother of all anchors. You may then sit tight in 100mph winds w no increase in rode weight.
Interesting take on it. Weight is fine, but heavy chain is good too. Take my mooring for example. It is three tons of granite. By your logic I could just run a suitable line up to the boat. However, local convention requires a two stage all chain rode up to the mooring ball. My mooring has 35' of 1-1/4 inch chain then 45 feet of 5/8" chain. I have a 25' x 1" double braid pennant shackled to the chain just below the mooring ball. The mooring has held my 20,000 lb boat through several 60+ knot storms with 6 foot seas at the mooring. The weight of the chain (about 700 lbs) helps prevent shock loading that might break the granite block out of the bottom or rip the cleats off my foredeck. Shock loading would occur with an all line rode since the line would be bar tight even in moderate winds (30-35 knots). Locally there are a couple of places that have all line rodes on moorings, but those are only found in hurricane hole type harbors where waves don't develop.
TDunn is offline   Reply With Quote