Length of anchor rope?

[SimonCh]

Hey folks,

On my boat, i've got 3 metres of anchor chain, and the guy had MEGA amounts of rope - as he used it for shotting shipwrecks when he dived. Whats a reasonable amount of rope to have on the anchor?

Si

[bosun]

Six times the depth of water you intend to anchor in is the recommended amount.
Have a look a the chart of where you usually go,add the height of a spring tide to the depth of where you intend to anchor and you need a total length including the chain of six times that.

[SimonCh]

Yeah I know that rya say 6 times, but what length do you guys carry? I could look at where I usually go, but often may go elsewhere, just wondering what a decent length to have is!?

[willk]

We carry lots. You should consider more chain (6m ideally) and two anchor warps. One of about 25/30m for immediate deployment, and another of at least 50/60m (buy cheap fisherman's rope) to extend the first if necessary.

The advice above is sound. The last time that I thought I was going to need an anchor pronto, I was in 90m of water, very close to a lee shore

[SimonCh]

Lol, fair point! Think thats pretty much what i've got - a decent length bit immediately attached to the anchor, and another of about the same which were joined using a sheet bend, but i've separated them, and as you say - i can at least re-join if required.

cheers

[wavelength]

http://www.powerboat-training.co.uk/...anchoring1.htm

[captnjack]

140m or so. But I've anchored in 35m or water on divesites which is not really an "anchorage"

[yoyo]

My main anchor is an Alloy Fortress danforth type, with 7mtrs 10mm stainless steel chain and and 40m 12mm rope. I also carry a secondary anchor, one of those folding type with 4mtrs of 10mm SS chain and 20mtrs 8mm rope.
In addition I carry a seperate 12 mm warp of around 30 mtrs lenght.

[jyasaki]

6 or 7 times is recommended for overnighting. You can get by with less if you're in calm conditions, eating lunch or something where weather is not likely to change.

When diving, I personally scope out to about a 1.5 or 2 : 1 offset; i.e. in 80 feet of water, I adjust until I'm 120 to 160 feet or so from the numbers. Not going to do the math right now, but it should work out to about 3:1 rode to depth.

That said, I carry 400' of primary anchor line, with a spare anchor and another 200' rode stowed away. I usually don't anchor in more than about 140' depth or so.

jky

[Mollers]

My main anchor line is approx 60m. There's another 60m of other warp onboard. When in the sh*t, the anchor is the 1st line of defence.