Anchor weight

[Talbot]

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I have a 32ft light weight 1 class design boat. A couple of months back i was anchor next to another. I have 15mts of 7mm chain to 12mm polyester 8 braid (Octiplait to you northern types). The other had 9mts of 10mm and 14mm laid nylon. These boats would rate in the all time top 3 for sailing at anchor. My ride was noticeably smoother. The longer chain even though smaller and smaller stretcher rope just was having a ball, loving every minute of it. He just was too oversized.

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Crucial info that you left out was depth of water.
Not surprised that he was sailing around on only 9m of chain. I have a cat and I suspect most cats sail around better than any mono, unless they have a bridle rigged. I definitely noticed a vast improvement/reduction in the yaw at anchor by using the heavier chain.
You comment on tuning the rig to the boat. I would suggest that you not only optimise to the boat, but also to the normally expeced range of anchoring depth, and to the method of hoisting the anchor.

 

[Mrnotming]

A tale of caution.I upgraded to a very successful (afterwards) lewmar Delta 20Kg anchor for my Dufour 36 as the Med sand is so compacted you need a sharp point to penetrate.
Embarrassment followed as the new anchor plus chain jumped the chain gypsy during deployment and the lot ran our including the spliced on nylon rode, or a lot of it anyway!No problem so far, but then the windlass at 1000W (engine running to assist) tripped out leaving the lot dangling in 45m of water, a place far from the 8 metres I had planned!Drifting down on a cliff meanwhile the hand operation of the windlass proved more than I could manage.(Slashing the lot with the knife thoughts uppermost). Finally motored back to original spot selected and fouled another anchored yacht in the process. Well crewed this one with a massive hydraulic windlass, they sent down another anchor to retrieve mine and were utterly charming, in spite of all the work on a very hot day.Square green bottle passed over by way of thanks and we departed for a more user friendly island!
|Taking to Naval skipper afterwards, he tells me a standard ship test is to deploy the anchors in deep water and then to see if the lot can be winched back up! Have since replaced all my ships batteries as I suspect there may have been more that one cause to my adventure.
So before you upgrade the anchor, you may find that a size smaller chain will restore the weight combination to below the max load permissable on the electric windlass.Hope this is useful,Polly

 

[GMac]

[ QUOTE ]
Crucial info that you left out was depth of water.
Not surprised that he was sailing around on only 9m of chain. I have a cat and I suspect most cats sail around better than any mono, unless they have a bridle rigged. I definitely noticed a vast improvement/reduction in the yaw at anchor by using the heavier chain.
You comment on tuning the rig to the boat. I would suggest that you not only optimise to the boat, but also to the normally expeced range of anchoring depth, and to the method of hoisting the anchor.

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I was on my long rode and was nearly at the end so I'm thinking we were in 12-13mts odd. It's 70mts LOA and I always run 5:1. The other boat was also 5:1, I asked. My 5:1 is to the cleat not waterline, not the usual but I'm to lazy to add that many numbers togeather /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Re his chain length - That is what is required by yachting race rules for any catogery i.e one boat length. For or boats the rules say it only has to be 10mm warp (60mts) and 6mm chain (boat length). The 2nd required rode (I made myself a new one today for a big short handed race this weekend) is the same sizes but 40mt of warp and only 6mts of 6mm. I think that is good if racing but pointless if you ever actually use it so my 2nd is 7mm chain (6mts) and 12mm polyester laid (40mts) warp just like my main. As these boats race a lot many just run race rodes and we have plenty of places to hide if the weather goes real bad so it's not too bad.

The 9mts of 10mm is not that bad. Going up a few sizes offsets the short length to a point. He was getting a snatch which I wasn't though, quite surprising how differantly the 2 boats behaved. I've been in 40+ knots and not had the snatch he had a lot less wind.

I'd happily put my at anchor sailing up against most Cats and win /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif , not all but most anyway, these things are shockers of the 1st degree. Nice motion to get the snoring happening though /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif

Yeap tune what you can to whatever you have and do. It's well worth it. It's quite funny seeing all the 'excitement' of the anchors but no-one ever seems to consider the huge input the rode has on the anchor, its performance and the ride at anchor. My times we have "my anchor is crap" when if fact the anchor is fine and the rode it the crap item, very common.

A good story there Polly and a good one I'm sure you learnt from. A bummer it has to happen that way but you'll be in a far better situation now with the knowledge. You're spot on with the ships thing. We do similar here with the new superboats as well, part of the commissioning tests.

And the another really good thing you touched on - Balance. Get it right and everything works so much better.

You mentioned the chain 'jumped out of the gypsy' when you were deploying. That is usually a sign the chain and gypsy are not the best match. May pay to check they are next time you're aboard. They could be and it was just a s**t happens but I'd check just for the peace of mind.

Sail safe all.

Note: I know the products very very well and use my boat as a test bed so do run some very not standard gear sometimes. On the end? a 4kg alloy anchor currently /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif which does work exceptionally well but does scare people who don't know what they are looking at. Don't copy me willy nilly without thinking about it.