Snubbers

Friends:

I use the traditional snubber line, but saw a mechanical chain stopper--akin to the halyard snubbers used on sailboats--that is mounted on the deck or bowsprit down-rode from the windlass and locks the chain in place.* An intriguing idea.* Does anyone have experience with this (as opposed to opinions) that they would share?

Also, I have seen two ways to deal with snubbing the rope part of the rode.* One is to take the bight of the rode between the roller and the windlass back to the bitt;* the other is to make a rolling hitch with the snubber line around the rode and take THAT back to the bitt.* Again, I wonder*of others' experiences and would love to hear of them.

common use is to eliminate the noise tranmitted up the chain as it rolls along the bottom. I use a custom made SS hook on the chain. lower it to the waterline and the 7 or 8 ft of nylon takes the noise out, transfers the load from the windlass to the cleat.

We do more or less the same as Keith. We use a grabber plate on our all-chain rode with a pair of 1/2" snubber lines coming back in a bridle to the two foredeck cleats. We let the grabber plate down about eight feet below the water and then let down a long loop of chain to hang between the plate and bow roller. Maybe 12 to 15 feet below the water. So there is no strain on the pulpit or the windlass and the chain in the roller doesn't move since there's nothing pulling on it.

I run a snubber from the forward cleat, out the hawshole and up through the hole in the bow platform where the rode runs over the roller. I tie the snubber onto the rode with a rolling hitch, and then ease the rode out 8-10 feet or so, until there's a good bight of rode between the roller and the snubber and no chance of strain on the windlass. Works great. I often use a heavy dockline for the snubber; a bridle snubber would be even better. Maybe I'll do that this winter as a nice snowy evening project.

I guess I've been doing it all wrong on the all-chain rode of our yacht-club's trawler: I hook the snubber into the rode between the windlass and the roller before releasing the clutch on the windass to ease the tension at the wildcat; only the rode is over the side as the snubber is drawn up short and made fast to the bitt. My idea is that there is no chafe on the snubber and I rely on the catenary of the chain to give the rode enough spring to allow for pitch on anchor (we often anchor in an open roadstead where the sailboat racing is taking place, usually an active anchorage).

Chris491 wrote:

I guess I've been doing it all wrong on the all-chain rode of our yacht-club's trawler

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There aren't too many techniques in boating that are "all wrong" and I don't think your snubber rig is one of them.**But*a *snubber has two main purposes in my opinon:* providing the shock absorbing properties that all-chain rode doesn't have, and taking the stress and*shock loads of rding at anchor off the pulpit and windlass.

For the first purpose, the longer the snubber is the better a shock absorber it will be.* For the second purpose, it's ideal if the snubber is fastened to a solid, well-backed deck cleat or sampson post than to a cleat that's part of the windlass itself.

There is actually a third benefit to a snubber if a boater chooses to take advantage of it.* It can be used to reduce the angle of pull on the set anchor and thus help the anchor stay set.* This is why we lower our chain grab plate quite aways under the water and then let down a very long loop of chain to hang even lower*between the grab plate and the bow pulpit.* The wind has to be a little stronger now to lift all that weight that's hanging down below the grab plate, which itself is some eight feet or whatever below the water.* So the angle of pull on the anchor stays a little lower a little longer as the wind builds or we get hit with gusts.

There is a fourth advantage, too, and that is that with no strain at all on the chain coming over the bow roller it won't move around.* Which as most boaters know can put a fair amount of noise into the interior of the boat, particularly if you or guests are trying to sleep up in the forward cabin.* However I don't regard that as nearly as important as the first three advantages I listed.

-- Edited by Marin on Wednesday 15th of September 2010 12:11:55 AM

Here's the business end of my snubber. I got the chain plate from West Marine, but I don't know if they carry it any more.

Hiya,
** Just did a search of WM catalog.* Doesn't seem to list that model any more

I had mine made up at a local marine store who does rope work. I used chain grabbers instead of the plate. Cost - about $100

Fisheries Supply in Seattle carries the same plate West Marine does (or did). http://www.fisheriessupply.com/productgroupdetail.aspx?cid=3425&did=3387

anyone know where to get the chain plate or chain grabber?
i dont see it at WM and the above link is dead..

or perhaps something somewhat easy to rig on your own?
consider we dont want to be handing too much over the bow to attach this thing to the rode, so easy to deploy and easy to retrieve and perhaps with some flex in the bridle?

Try http://www.fisheriessupply.com/results.aspx?keywords=chain+gripper+plate

The plate is still listed in the Fisheries Supply catalog. It's called a Chain Gripper Plate and it's made by Sea-Dog. I just looked it up by putting Chain Gripper Plate in the search window on their home page.

awesome thanks (and yes the page didnt work for me earlier so i just assumed they were gone..)
buying one now.

The snubber is best to a bow eye , but at least 2 different line thicknesses are required.

A very light , say 3/8 for under 15K and a heavier one tho stretch in a higher wind.

A sailboat snap shakel is cheap and strong enough .

Just be sure the line is NOT long enough to reach the prop , incase it is lost overboard.

FF

FF said:

The snubber is best to a bow eye , but at least 2 different line thicknesses are required.

A very light , say 3/8 for under 15K and a heavier one tho stretch in a higher wind.

A sailboat snap shakel is cheap and strong enough .

Just be sure the line is NOT long enough to reach the prop , incase it is lost overboard.

FF

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Have been toying with this concept. First I have to install the bow eye (will be nice if I ever need to be towed also)...

Then how to either leave a permanent snubber (easily changed to larger/smaller is easy) that looks OK...or just a method of quickly threading one when it's time to anchor.

If you use all-chain rode, which the majority of powerboaters in the PNW seem to do, you can accomplish to a degree the same thing as attaching a snubber to a bow eye by letting the snubber out so the chain grab is several feet underwater and then letting out a long loop of slack chain to hang some eight or ten or even more feet under the water. The weight of the loop of chain hanging down helps keep the angle of pull on the anchor down. Of course if the wind blows strong enough the chain will lift up, but in the typical winds we get in anchorages around here the weight of that long loop of chain hanging down does a pretty good job of helping keep the angle of pull on the anchor lower.

FF said:

The snubber is best to a bow eye , but at least 2 different line thicknesses are required.

A very light , say 3/8 for under 15K and a heavier one tho stretch in a higher wind.

A sailboat snap shakel is cheap and strong enough .

Just be sure the line is NOT long enough to reach the prop , incase it is lost overboard.

FF

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are you saying to use the snap shakel in lieu of the chain gripper plate?
or to attach the snubber to the boat's bow eye? i guess the latter..

here is a good schematic of anchor snubber:
Grab hook, anchor snubber, anchor bridle, anchor chain

Per said:

are you saying to use the snap shakel in lieu of the chain gripper plate?
or to attach the snubber to the boat's bow eye? i guess the latter..

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We have the same chain gripper plate you asked about earlier. We have a shackle "permanently" in each of the two corner holes. Our snubber lines are a pair of 30 foot or so 1/2" nylon braided lines with a stainless thimble splced into one end and a stout stainless karabiner on the thimble. To set the V-bridle snubber up we snap the karabiners to the shackles on the gripper plate. put the plate on the chain, and let the snubber and chain out to where we want it.

Marin
I must be missing something. Why do you use the carabiners at all? Why not just connect the thimble on each line directly to each of the respective shackles on the plate?

Gemma said:

Marin
I must be missing something. Why do you use the carabiners at all? Why not just connect the thimble on each line directly to each of the respective shackles on the plate?

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Because we take the V-bridle apart to stow in the line locker. Yes, we could unscrew the shackes but we have them safety wired so it's a lot easier and faster to simply use karabiners.

Here is the design for a combination anchor and mooring V-bridal that I built. It serves to both attach to a chain for anchoring and attach using and extension line to a mooring buoy.

Marin said:

Fisheries Supply in Seattle carries the same plate West Marine does (or did). Error Page

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Bad link...

JAT said:

Bad link...

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Use the link in post #12. I just tried it and it works fine. The link I put in post #10 no longer works.

Marin said:

Use the link in post #12. I just tried it and it works fine. The link I put in post #10 no longer works.

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Thanks!! It worked. And that looks like a handy piece to have. I've been planning on putting together a bridle and I think that fits the bill!!