Anchor rope

Re: Splicing ...

Nige

Sorry for the confusion re the use of the word 'wire' - 'metal' would have been less confusing maybe? Basically 8mm chain is made from 8mm 'wire' in my book so my meaning parallel your reference to a 10mm 'link'.

Understand you reference to older 3 strands - think you will find that most nylon ropes are made up of slightly longer lengths nowadays though - I will of course now pull a length of anchorplait apart for fun!
 
Re: Splicing ...

Very few roipes actually have l..o..n..g fibres ... as it makes rope making more difficult.
About the only rope that does have very long fibres is that horrible blue polyethylene staple stuff ... yuk ! One reason so I'm told apart from the machinery to handle it - is that long fibres resist setting up tight in the lay...... witness that 'orrible blue stuff !!
 
"Since you have 30mtrs chain on a 26ft boat, any rope you add will rarely go in the water"

Best not anchor in the Bristol Channel then /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif I have 45m and it usually all goes in, and often the spliced rode as well.
 
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A 'back splice' to the chain is better than a 'down the chain' splice for many reasons, not that the other is bad just the back splice is easier to get a safer result for most people. Also less prone to damaging winches.

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The problem I see with this method if I understand you correctly, is the whole weight of the system (for want of a better word) might be relying on one or two strands of the rope. To backsplice into chain I presume you build the crown through the last link yes?

I would rather use a eye spliced with thimble and an over-sized shackle.

Advantage, my anchor rodes are the longest single ropes I have on board, should I require extra long pieces at the end of a raft I can quickly remove the shackles and bitter ends and not mess about lashing bits of line together. A small reason, but it does give me 2x 60m lengths for emergency use. Just a thought.
 
No disrespect to any of the posters above but:
A good rope to chain splice is as good as a thimble spliced in. If you ever have to find out while on board you can't blame the rope or the splice. You can only blame yourself for using it very very wrongly. If you broke a rope or splice while using the correct rope in the correct way within the very well published guidelines then you just have to put it down to one of those 's**t happens' events. They do happen and there is nothing any of us can do about them. Anyway straight strength wise they are very similar, I've broken 100's.

The 'backsplice' method of joining chain is - less prone to rope damage, causeing winch damage, just as strong and easier for most to do safer than a 'down the chain' splice.
The 'backsplice' method of joining chain is more prone to causing chain damage though.
The winch makers prefer the backsplice.
Strength wise you lose approx. 15% of the rope load just as you work on for thimble splices. This means in most 'matching sets' of anchoring ropes and chains the rope still has a higher break load than the chain. The Down the Chain splice is a very smidgen stronger when new but lose strength faster over time and use.

Absolutly nothing wrong with a thimble and shackle unless you are using a Auto Rope to chain winch. As mentioned above it's a very handy length of string hanging off that anchor. That is the same reason boats using a Auto R to C winch should have a shackle on their secondary.

Also as mentioned above the original poster is very very unlikly to get any anchor to hold even close to the rode loads. Unless you get one of those 's**t happens' events and just happen to hook a rock.

Good 8mm chain 3200 kg break load, a good 14mm nylon over 4300kg (3650kg spliced), its a 27ft boat.

All of the above assumes good quality products and workmanship. Using budget products, who knows what might happen.
 
no disrespect taken - particularily as you seem to be singing from the same hymsheet with only one noticable exception

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The 'backsplice' method of joining chain is more prone to causing chain damage though.


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and as I don't understand this I'm certaily happy to leave it at that!
 
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Having switched from power to sail recently, I do not see why yachts need all chain. I have 30m of chain on my 25ft yacht.

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I agree that 30m of chain and then anchorplait is a good compromise, and is the prefered option for multihulls. Yachts tend to use more chain than mobos for two reasons:

Yachts will anchor more frequently and for longer periods (i.e. over change of tide) your short chain is fine for a lunch hook, but I would not trust it to maintain an anchor hold over a change of tide.

If a mobo starts to drag in bad weather, it has the power to resolve the problem. Traditionally yachts did not, but nowadays most yachts have a good big reliable engine as well.
 
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