Anchor chain

[PeterR]

I always find useing the anchor a pain with the anchor rope. it always get tangled My rib is stern heavy and i have probaply 20 kilo of lead in the bow locker as well as the anchor and 5 m chain.I have been considering changing what i have to 30 metres of chain and no rope.I am also about to change my a-frame to a sturdier and heavier by about 12 kilos and also fit a 5hp aux on the back.So i think the weight may help to compensate for my additions on the tramson. will this much chain end up getting knotted??????or will it be Ok

[codprawn]

Good luck pulling it all in!!!

How do you manage to get in a mess with your anchor line? I am the worlds worst for getting things in a twist and yet I never have any probs. Maybe you are using too small a line? Mine is 16mm stuff - proper anchorplait - nice to handle.

[Neil Harvey]

chain should not get knotted as long as you stow it away nicely, which will probably mean hauling in onto deck and then stowing after anchor is recovered, or having one person hauling in and one stowing neatly. Chucking it in and I guess it could get all snarled up.
Never used all chain on a rib though, but sail on a tall ship and the chain has to be neatly stowed away in the anchor locker on there, slightly differenty though as the guage of that stuff is huge in comparison to what would be used on a rib.

don't fancy the idea of hauling in 30m of chain and anchor by hand though.

[PeterR]

Originally Posted by codprawn

Good luck pulling it all in!!!

How do you manage to get in a mess with your anchor line? I am the worlds worst for getting things in a twist and yet I never have any probs. Maybe you are using too small a line? Mine is 16mm stuff - proper anchorplait - nice to handle.

Thanks not sure what the line is called i shall find out,didnt think pulling it in would be a problem but thats why i,m asking for others experience.I dont really want to buy it all to find i missed the obvious.The bow hatch is quite small which also makes feeding in the line in any form of order hard so if the chain would be to hard i should change the hatch.does anyone else think it would be to hard to pull in.

[PeterR]

Hi Neil my hope with chain was to simply feed into locker job done but if in practice this wont work i think its back to rope idea.Does any one use all chain on their rib and have any regrets

[mike]

hi,
for my coded boat we had a bruce anchor and chain/warp.
A number of issues became apparent,
The weight on a vertical lift does take some strength, I used to haul in using wave movement as the energy source ie haul in the troughs and let the boat do the lift!

safety, if the chain is big enough to get finger stuck in wear gloves and or be very careful.
line the locker as it will have your surface scratched up nicely if theres sand or anything in there.

Remember the weight before deployment, as it goes V fast when you lower it away and it needs therfore to be neat before you start.

I think chain for 100 pcent is possibly going to be a handful. Have you considered keeping the ballast and adding some chain as I am assuming that at present you have the boat balanced up and therefore only need to add a bit to offset the new weight?
hope this helps these are only my experinces.

mike

[PeterR]

Thanks Mike and all , it does seem apparent that all chain is not the answer when retreving by hand and deployment.Any other comments are still welcome though.

[codprawn]

You could try an anchor angel - a large lump of lead on the anchor line - that way you keep your ballast as well.

[Stoo]

Originally Posted by codprawn

Good luck pulling it all in!!!

No kidding... That would definitely require a winch wench!

I use 250' of 3/8" braided line with about 10' of chain. I use a good old bucket to store my line. It just coils loosely inside, never knots and pays out quickly when required... I learned that from watching an old Cousteau film eons ago!

I don't have an issue with the bow weight (internal fuel tank is way forward, plus I generally have a set of dive tanks up there...).

Before switching to chain, you might try hauling it up something.... It won't get any lighter in the water!

[Aidan]

Hi Peter,

Technically if both ends are secure, then the rope cannot knot, though it can tangle.
Some Ropes of the Ski tow variety are more likely to work free rather than Tangle.

However, Given that when you wish to pay out the mooring line, you really dont need to wrestle with it at that time.

I have found that using Ties (short Lanyards) 120 degrees on the coiled loop works fine. I have since found "handcuff" type self locking plastic gadgets (really, they are like a plastic handcuff) and I use them for all Warps, lines etc. They are very useful.

Not sure if this is much help to you..

Aidan