anchor snubber for a 43ft mobo...

[vas]

evening all,

one for Jonathan I guess... obvs everyone is free to suggest

right, 43ft f/b mobo 12odd tons.
East Med setting, 99% of anchoring done on reasonably protected bays with a 18-20mm floating rope tied back to the rocks.
Water depths between 4-8m (as in drop at 8m, reverse to around 4m and 40m from shore), usually 35-40m of 10mm ISO galvanised chain out. Anchor a 20kg Mantus, seabed often sand.
Windlass a 1500W Lofrans Tigress (horizontal).

Never used anything as a snubber, all load remains to windlass - occasionally I've used the "lock" on the windlass body to the gipsy (seems a bit of an afterthought and flimpsy).
Around 30-40days at anchor each summer, typically stay in same place for 4-5days at a time. Avoid marinas (not that there are many here...)

Enough with the intro!
So having read many of the anchoring/snubbing/whatnot threads, I thought I could try that myself. Mind when anchored wind is typically 0-3kn after 8pm and up to midday and may go up to 8kn during the early afternoon.
There have been cases where we had 2 days of wind in excess of 16kn, when that happens it usually is NOT head on but from the side, so boat shifts about. Once had to drop a FX11 I have with a 5m of 6mm chain at the stern and use one aft cleat in order to stop the boat moving about too much.

Found (but haven't yet bought!) a decent self releasing chain hook - was 30+ euro for a nice shiny ss one, looking for a galv one...
considering I've NOT got mid ship cleats (I know haven't bothered to fit them following the refit, have to eventually but not in a great hurry) my option is to use the two fwd deck bow cleats which are almost 1m from the bow either side of the windlass with their own fairleads.

Q:
do I get some stretchy (not good with ropes!) 16mm rope say 4m each side with the hook in the middle with two soft shackles to go through the bow cleats, or does it make sense to use some rubber springs as well since 4m wont give enough stretch?
Bow is over a metre from the sea level, going for more than 4-5m each side will be a bit too much with the hook permanently in the water (if it makes any difference-doubt it!)
I guess getting a shorter line and adding a proper ss spring is out of the question, right? Not that I found softish springs that would probably work.

Ideas welcomed, just keep in mind that since I cannot really say I have any problems with my existing setup, if the system is not reasonably easy to use, it wont get used so might as well not spent money building it...
final concern is that I'm sleeping in the bow cabin, chain grinding on the bow roller is minimal unless 15+kn winds in which case, I like the grinding as it wakes me up, go up to watch what's going on and eventually end half asleep in the salon sofa keeping an eye on things. There was only ever been one night that I had to stay awake from 2am till mid morning...

cheers

V.

 

[Dellquay13]

how about 45' of suitably stretchy 3ply from a stern cleat, along the gunwhales to the bow roller and down a couple of feet to hook onto the chain just above the water, with a small loop of loose chain back to the windlass. A single snubber instead of a bridle, but plenty long enough for a cushioning of any snatch?

 

[Dellquay13]

or maybe a line from a midships cleat if the stern cleat line is too long?

 

[vas]

thanks, a few problems:

50mm hard step from aft cleat to side deck (at the aft deck /salon door area): worry about chafe.
IF I get the mid cleats fitted (still in a locker...), they'll be an extra hazard as they'll also be on top of the side deck capping again 50mm above deck and with the curvature of the deck in plan this snubber line will be an excellent way to trip and fall down when walking on the side deck (OK not me, but a friend I had onboard managed to trip in broad daylight in the deckwash bucket line and come down hard on the windlass! Luckily didn't break anything but could have been nasty.
Further bow fairleads are close to stanchions and worried about chafe again.

In all due to the shape of deck and plan of the bow with the bow deck elevation I recon it's going to be rather tricky and end up not using it tbh. I'll try to see what route a line will follow from the possible mid cleat area but not confident it's going to be safe to walk around.

cheers

V.

 

[Stemar]

Go to your local climbing wall, where they are likely to have a quantity of climbing rope to get rid of. Blag or buy a couple of lengths, because there are always good uses for a legnth of stretchy rope on board, Attach your, as yet unbought, chain hook to the middle of one your lengths of climbing rope, and hook onto your chain, as far out as you can, and bring the lines back through port and starboard fairleads to the aft cleats. A bit of plastic pipe through the fairleads will reduce friction and, hence wear. The stretchy rope will dampen shocks, reducing both the load on your chain and the risk to your glass of wine and the bridle to each side of the boat will help her sit straight, further reducing both risks

This is overkill for the kind of anchoring you and I hope to do, but isn't overkill if you find yourself doing the kind of anchoring we don't want to do, when you might want to double up the climbing rope for a boat that size.

BTW, I understand it's not possible to splice climbing rope.

 

[vas]

I'm afraid I'm failing on the first bit, no local climbing wall that I know of in Volos. Used to be an indoor one 20yrs ago. Will check!
Effectively you are also suggesting of having such a setup for the hopefully few and far between nasty days of our summer boating.
Still would rather have something smallish that I can deploy from the bow only. Seems that's not an option though

V.

 

[duncan99210]

My normal anchoring bridle (for use in the Ionian) is a two legged affair with a hook at the mid point. The hook goes onto the chain, the ends of the legs go on the forward cleats and then the chain is eased until the bridle is taking the strain. The bridle is made of 16mm octoplait and the legs are about 7.5m long. Works well at absorbing shocks and reduces the tendency to swing violently.
For anchoring with lines ashore, I use just one leg of the bridle, hooked onto the chain close to the windlass and made fast to the cleat. The object isn‘t to provide shock absorption but to take the strain off the windlass. All the shock absorption in the system comes from the lines ashore which are retired climbing ropes (as per Stemar - bought off eBay. At this time of year you can often pick up end of season sales.) They stretch nicely to stop any jerking action.
As per the OP, when the wind is from the side and becomes too strong for comfort, I rig our Guardian either from the midships or forward cleat to help secure the boat. All that said, of the wind looks like getting up too much, I usually bug out to sea or to a more sheltered spot.

 

[ashtead]

Have you considered watching sailing doodles on vid -he now has a mobo so is into mobo bridles.

 

[vic008]

I think they recommend octoplait nowadays, over 3 strand

 

[TiggerToo]

Attach your, as yet unbought, chain hook to the middle of one your lengths of climbing rope, and hook onto your chain, as far out as you can

May I suggest you make your own soft shackles with dyneema? Exceptionally satisfying to make, and far superior to a metal chain hook. Then imply use them to fix your (elastic) bridle/snubber to the chain.