Anchor Bridle

Anyone found decent prices on anchor bridles?

Looking for a 2X25 foot 5/8 three strand braided nylon connected to a 3/8 chain hook or Mantus, or a single 50 foot line with with a hook or Mantus spliced onto the middle.

I don't fancy making one.

rope

Rope inc in Fort Lauderdale very helpfull
https://www.ropeinc.com/

I have exactly what you want hanging on my bow. I had a steel eye sliced in the middle and shackle on a Mantus chain hook. I also had loops spliced into the ends and wish I hadn't as sometimes it is nice to shorten one side to stop the hunting.

A marina mate made it for me but made me watch so I would learn....that didn't happen. He had it completed in 15 minutes flat!

West Marine will splice one up to your specifications.


David

I have used West Marine and a St. Lucian rigging guy to make them in the past. Basically just two lines with thimbles on the end to which you can connect by shackles the hook or chain grabber. My preference is the chain grabber.

I bought two 35' x 5/8" three-strand dock lines on sale at West Marine, had them braid thimbles in one end, bought a Mantus chain hook (great product BTW), a shackle, and voila, I had a perfect (for us) anchor bridle. All in about $125.

Drake said:

I bought two 35' x 5/8" three-strand dock lines on sale at West Marine, had them braid thimbles in one end, bought a Mantus chain hook (great product BTW), a shackle, and voila, I had a perfect (for us) anchor bridle. All in about $125.

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How long did it take them to splice the thimbles?

menzies said:

How long did it take them to splice the thimbles?

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I bought them one day and they had them ready the next day. If I had done it mid week when they were less busy, they could have done it while I waited.

Think I will drive over there at lunch.

I also like the functionality of the Mantus but West Marine don't sell them. So I will have to do with a shackle for now and order one on line.

menzies said:

Think I will drive over there at lunch.

I also like the functionality of the Mantus but West Marine don't sell them. So I will have to do with a shackle for now and order one on line.

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Get a chain hook. WM sells one for 5/16" chain for $11.00. I have never had one come loose. Let enough chain out once the hook is set to maintain tension on the hook even if the wind is light.

David

I understand not wanting to make one, OTOH, it isn't that difficult. I am in the process of making up a couple to see what I like best.

West marine guy said that they weren't allowed to splice. Now if I caught him at home...

So here is a question.

What do manufactured or home made bridles give you over running a 40 foot dock line through a shackle and shackling to the chain and tying off?

menzies said:

West marine guy said that they weren't allowed to splice. Now if I caught him at home...

So here is a question.

What do manufactured or home made bridles give you over running a 40 foot dock line through a shackle and shackling to the chain and tying off?

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Your dock line would work fine. I would go with a longer line if you want a bridle. For your boat, I would go much longer than a bridle with 20' legs. I believe in March of this year Practical Sailor did an article on snubbers. They recommended a snubber length of 1.3 x the boat length. I'm not sure how that would work out for a bridle. Even if you used 1/2 that length for a bridle (two legs instead of one) you would be looking at close to 35' per leg for your boat.


You just need to keep the line from sliding along the shackle. You can do that likely with just a couple round turns on the shackle, or you can put the shackle through a slip knot in the center of the line.

dhays said:

Your dock line would work fine. I would go with a longer line if you want a bridle. For your boat, I would go much longer than a bridle with 20' legs. I believe in March of this year Practical Sailor did an article on snubbers. They recommended a snubber length of 1.3 x the boat length. I'm not sure how that would work out for a bridle. Even if you used 1/2 that length for a bridle (two legs instead of one) you would be looking at close to 35' per leg for your boat.


You just need to keep the line from sliding along the shackle. You can do that likely with just a couple round turns on the shackle, or you can put the shackle through a slip knot in the center of the line.

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I was going to take a turn or a knot at the bridle.

I may go down to her this evening and put it on and drop the anchor at the dock to see what it looks like.

I have to think that at a certain boat length that rule becomes null and void.

For example a 70' boat would have a 95' bridle, even at half it would be 47'? Surely it is the bow to water line using the measurement of the side length of a right triangle using the Pythagorean Theorem?

So if my bow to the water is 10 feet, and the bridle needs to be able to reach, say 15 feet horizontally from the front of the boat, the bridle length from bow (hypotenuse) is ~18 feet. Add some for tying off and I would think 35 would be more than enough?

Yeah, good point. They did say up to 60'. I am not sure if that is 60' boat length or 60' snubber. I am guessing snubber.

FWIW, I am using two 25' dock lines that I have splice an eye on the end. So they end uo being about 24'. I will play around with how to attach them to the anchor chain. Currently I am looking at connecting them to a pendant that is tied to the anchor chain.

I have the Mantus bridle, it works great for me. The price of the Mantus vs having one made up isn't significant. The Mantus comes with a carabiner tha makes catching a mooring ball easy.
Arch

Arch said:

I have the Mantus bridle, it works great for me. The price of the Mantus vs having one made up isn't significant. The Mantus comes with a carabiner tha makes catching a mooring ball easy.
Arch

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A Mantus Bridle with the chain hook for a boat my size with my chain would be $273 direct from Mantus. Several cheap 3 strand dock lines and a few nylon thimbles are a LOT cheaper than that.

OTOH, if what I am making doesn't work out, I might be spending the money anyway....

Any rigging shop worth its strands can make one up for you. You may have to order the hook of your choice and supply it if they are only worth a few strands...

Or, learn how to tie a rolling hitch and save $$$. The only reason I eventually went to a pre-configured bridle is that a friend gave me one.

Folks that read Practical Sailor can simply select the knot that is easy to undoo after max loading and not bother with any metal hooks to remove the galvanizing from their chain.

FF said:

Folks that read Practical Sailor can simply select the knot that is easy to undoo after max loading and not bother with any metal hooks to remove the galvanizing from their chain.

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No need to read Practical Sailor. Chapman's, Knots for Sailors, and of course, Post 18.

Recently made one myself. 3/4 inch 3 strand nylon. Used 3/4 because of the weight of our boat. Started out with 60 ft. By the time I spliced eyes on bothe ends, it was about 55 feet long.Tied an overhand knot in the middle and attached a Mantus hook to the loop with shackle. At this length, we can attach the eyes in several places to reduce swinging if needed.
By the way, if you use new line, it's a lot easier to splice the eye's.
Used it a few times already and works great.

I use two 50' lengths of 1/2" three-strand. I tie each one onto my chain with a rolling hitch, then lead them both through my bow chocks. Works like a charm, although I do like the looks and ease of the Mantus hook. YMMV.

Cheers, Bill

"3/4 inch 3 strand nylon. Used 3/4 because of the weight of our boat."

The snubber is usually used as a shock absorber to smooth the ride.


With stretch coming at about 10% of the lines breaking strength a 3/4 line would be fine in 4-8 ft waves.

Just for fun try 30 ft of 3/8nylon line set up on 40 ft of chain, and see the ride you get in most anchorages.

djmarchand said:

Get a chain hook. WM sells one for 5/16" chain for $11.00. I have never had one come loose. Let enough chain out once the hook is set to maintain tension on the hook even if the wind is light.

David

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Me too. And more often than not, it actually does fall off as the chain comes up to the bow roller.

But like David, virtually never before.

Practical Sailor discovered some hooks will reduce the chains breaking numbers.

So last weekend, as I still hadn't found a store source for 35' 5/8 three braid nylon rope with thimbled eyes, I went with temporary fix. I bought a stainless shackle that was big enough to take two of my dock lines. I then tied those on with two half-hitches each (Clove hitch), and cleated the bitter ends.

Looks horrible, and as you can see is "lumpy" enough that it can grab stuff. I would also like to have another five feet of line as when the boat pulled the knot lifted out of the water altogether and straightened the chain somewhat.

But it worked.

Will need to order the rope and Mantus on-line.

"Looks horrible, and as you can see is "lumpy" enough that it can grab stuff. I would also like to have another five feet of line as when the boat pulled the knot lifted out of the water altogether and straightened the chain somewhat.

But it worked."

It might look horrible but testing it to get the lengths right is the smart way to do it. You will only have to make up one bridle

We had Parks at Hopkins-Carter (active member here) make one that is 100% to our spec and it is great. Not expensive either. He does the braiding himself (probably while he watches Grey's Anatomy) and really did a fine job. He gave us options, sent pictures, and was very helpful in helping us get what we wanted.

Tom.B said:

We had Parks at Hopkins-Carter (active member here) make one that is 100% to our spec and it is great. Not expensive either. He does the braiding himself (probably while he watches Grey's Anatomy) and really did a fine job. He gave us options, sent pictures, and was very helpful in helping us get what we wanted.

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This sounds like a great option for you Menzies. You can get exactly what you want at a reasonable price and not have to splice anything.

BTW, it would be interesting to see how you felt about your stop gap measure if you did without the shackle and simply used rolling hitches to attach your lines to the chain.

Tom.B said:

We had Parks at Hopkins-Carter (active member here) make one that is 100% to our spec and it is great.

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I was going to suggest going to Parks.