anchor chain snubber - how do I deploy?

[Burnham Bob]

My anchor chain runs over the bow roller. Must admit I've simply wrapped a couple of turns of chain around the cleat if all the chain isn't out. However, to prevent snatch (whatever that is!) I'm told that the chain hook and length of rope that was left in the anchor locker by the previous owner should be used to take up some slack in the chain and form a loop hanging downwards. So should the rope to the chain hook run from the cleat through the fair lead and onto the chain via the chain hook or simply over the bow roller but again attached to the cleat. I've never had noise or rattle from the chain by not using the chain hook as suggested and when the boat has rocked up and down the chain has simply moved gently with it. Would the experts on the forum please tell me if I've been doing things wrong all these years and am lucky not to have had a disaster?

 

[GHA]

Lucky to be alive!!

I usually just use a rolling hitch through the bow roller, though that's because there's a samson post dead in line to tie off to. As long as it's quiet and doesn't chaff does it matter?

 

[NormanS]

I have no idea how big your boat is, but unless very small, I would always avoid putting chain on a cleat. If there is any load on the chain, it could be quite difficult to get it off the cleat safely. However, if you have an anchor windlass, it is recommended that the load is not taken directly by the windlass when you are lying at anchor. This means using either some form of "slot" for the chain to be pushed down into, or a chain hook. Normally the chain hook is hooked on outboard of the roller,with a loop of slack chain hanging down. Some will maintain that the line for this chain must be stretchy nylon, and must be 10 metres long. I am not getting involved in the ensuing arguments about this.

 

[Pleiades]

Well snubbed

View attachment 40092

Hi Bob, picky shows snubbing gear on Pleiades - a set up for admittedly heavy duty anchoring, but the principals are applicable for routine anchoring.
The main snubber is the long nylon rope which is sheathed in the reinforced hose pipe to prevent chaffing. It is about 12 ft long and catches on the anchor chain by a chain hook - forming a nice big loop of chain which takes up all the snatch, normally.
The second thicker short nylon rope is again fitted with a chain hook and it acts as a second spring. In really heavy winds the first snubbing line goes taught in the gusts and it then pulls on the short one which will provide another spring. Bit of trial and error necessary to get the length of the second snubber just right. When I drop anchor and am motoring astern to dig the anchor in I know that it is properly set once the first spring goes tight and the second starts to engage.
Happy hooking.

Robin
Pleiades of Birdham
MXWQ5

 

[Mike k]

I use a Y shaped rope harness connected to the two forward cleats then onto the chain via a shackle - once fixed I then let out more chain and the harness takes the strain leaving a droop in the chain and no pressure on the windlass. I then tie a rolling hitch onto the chain too JUST in case the harness snaps.

 

[J Neeves]

The snubber has 2 roles.

it takes the load off the windlass and allows you to transfer that load to a strong point on the yacht, which would have been the samson post but on most modern yachts is a bow cleat, or even 2 bow cleats if you are able to use a 'Y' snubber. As mentioned snubbers are preferentially stretchy nylon which can degrade (and break) and it is wise to secure the chain as a back up by some means or other, another chain hook.

This set up will be adequate for winds upto about 20 knots.

What everyone finds is that at winds of over, about, 30 knots there is no effective catenary left, its always there but as it moves toward disappearing you are effectively tied to a long piece of inelastic steel and any wave action or shearing of the yacht cause snatch loading (and this might occur anywhere in between the 20 knots and 30 knots. You will know it when you feel it - its like being hit by a wreckers ball. At this point to smooth out this snatching, other than moving to somewhere quieter (not easy in 30 knots) a mechanism is to use a longer snubber 10m. This is then sufficiently elastic to absorb that wreckers ball energy. The 10m snubber needs to be thin (the thinner it is the more energy it can absorb) so for a 35' yacht maybe 12mm (either 3 ply or octaplait). If its any thinner it would have a shorter life.

If you have never anchored in 30 knots of wind you will simply not know what this is all about and if you never anchor in 30 knots its possibly not necessary (unless you are cautious). Equally if you have a 9m yacht with 12mm chain - the 30 knot when the chain goes tight will be about 33 knots - but you might be getting the idea?

10m of snubber is quite long and we run ours down the side deck and attach to a stern cleat. But you do need to watch for chafe, use hose pipe.

Jonathan

 

[charles_reed]

I use some 12mm octoplait on a Wichard chain hook. Between 3 and 10m rope out with a large (10-15m) of chain bight.

This has cured the horrid habit of sailing up to the anchor, in any wind, giving it a shake and then sailing off at a tangent.
The highest wind speed, in which I've been anchored, on a single anchor, is 35, gusting 49 knots. It's only at that order of wind speeds that the hook-end of the snubber comes out of the water, but 10m of 12mm octoplait acts as a more-than-adequate snubber. That's connected to the starboard, bow mooring cleat, whilst the chain is round the central, anchor cleat.

I anchor about 200 times a year, in the Med, on (preferably sandy) bottoms, in 6-12m of water, in a boat of a designed weight of 3 tonnes but weighing more like 4.5 tonnes. During the last 3 years, I've had 4 drags (all due to fouling).
As the bower anchor is a genuine CQR, I hesitate to lay down my theories of anchoring in such august and well-heeled company.
My aft kedge is a Delta (1/4 drags) and the 2nd kedge is a danforth (never dragged).

IMHO successful anchoring has more to do with operator competence than tackle technicalities.

Being a system with at least 4 variables, I suspect, there can be no single "correct" way of anchoring, (statistically there would be at least 64). Most of us, having stumbled on one that works, firmly shut our comprehension, "don't confuse me with facts when I've just made up my mind"; and maintain that ours is the only one that works.
This communal angst is fostered by various "snake-anchor" manufacturers who batten on anxiety to make a handsome profit on our communal delusions.
;-)

 

[J Neeves]

This communal angst is fostered by various "snake-anchor" manufacturers who batten on anxiety to make a handsome profit on our communal delusions.
;-)

+1

If it works use it!

I do not want to denigrate the rest of the post - which was admirable, but there is some hysteria around.

I'll champion progress and advances in design and material but Fathers and Grandfathers (or those lucky enough to be able to get on the water, not mine I confess) all managed to survive with CQRs, shackles that were not rated, chains without 'G' numbers etc. If you cannot afford, or justify, the latest stainless swivel (which costs as much as a modern anchor)- do not get upset.

Jonathan

 

[Tony Cross]

I use a Y shaped rope harness connected to the two forward cleats then onto the chain via a shackle - once fixed I then let out more chain and the harness takes the strain leaving a droop in the chain and no pressure on the windlass. I then tie a rolling hitch onto the chain too JUST in case the harness snaps.

That's pretty much what I do too.

 

[Spirit of Glenans]

I have no idea how big your boat is, but unless very small, I would always avoid putting chain on a cleat. If there is any load on the chain, it could be quite difficult to get it off the cleat safely.

I was taught that it is ok to put chain on a cleat, but as Burnham Bob mentions, you should put it around the cleat. Two or three round turns will hold it, but if you put it in figure of eight configuration and it gets loaded up, it will as you suggest, be extremely difficult to remove. Anyhow, a snubber, or even better, two snubbers should ensure that this theory will not be tested

 

[KellysEye]

Use a rope with a hook on it, put the hook on the chain and tie the end of the rope to a bow cleat then use the winch to put a loop in the chain.

 

[Ric]

So should the rope to the chain hook run from the cleat through the fair lead and onto the chain via the chain hook

Yes, this is correct. If you run the rope through the fairlead and onto the cleat, the boat will veer around less in wind than if the tension runs over the bow-roller. This is because the restoring force if the boat slews acts closer to the centre of yaw, and so the boat is pulled back straight less violently.

I use a long v-shaped snubber, and the boat veers about much less as soon as I deploy it through the fairleads.

The longer the snubber you can deploy, and the further back it is lead, the less the yacht veers around. I have experimented using even longer snubbers, lead back amidships, and these stop all yawing completely - but are a fiddle to rig and deploy on a monohull. The reason catamarans lie so stably at anchor is that they are able to deploy a long v-shaped snubber lead back midships.

 

[deep denial]

can I just point out that if you use a v-shaped snubber ie a bridle, this should not be allowed to run freely through the chain hook as it will chafe quickly, but can be tied with a knot

 

[Paddydog`1]

How can I acquire or make a y shaped rope harness?

 

[NormanS]

How can I acquire or make a y shaped rope harness?

Take two pieces of preferably nylon line, either tie them or splice them to a suitable chain hook. The chain hook can either be bought, or like mine be made out of a piece of 5mm stainless steel plate.