Best rope for anchor rode ?

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seajayare

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For a ground tackle set up that is a mixed rode with 75m rope and 25m 8mm chain what is the best rope from a handling perspective. That's for things like going through a vertical axis windlass and down a hawse pipe and looking after itself in a chain locker? Take as a given that an all chain rode is better. Boat is 30 foot 7Te monohull.

Thanks
 
seajayare said:
For a ground tackle set up that is a mixed rode with 75m rope and 25m 8mm chain what is the best rope from a handling perspective. That's for things like going through a vertical axis windlass and down a hawse pipe and looking after itself in a chain locker? Take as a given that an all chain rode is better. Boat is 30 foot 7Te monohull.

Thanks
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Octoplait or anchorplait. Jimmy Green sells both. One has markers to make splicing easier. Very easy to handle and flakes easily.
 
Jimmy Green says 14mm Octoplait for 8mm chain, I was looking at this very thing earlier for my kedge. 14mm rope and 8mm chain have similar breaking loads while 10mm octoplait is about half that, and would be harder to splice since the "links" would be too small for the chain.

Anchor Chain and Rope Size Guide
 
PlankWalker said:
10 mm Octoplait would be strong enough when new, but 12mm would be a bit easier on the hands and allow for a little chafe when older.
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With 8mm chain, I went for 14mm octoplait. It certainly doesn't seem oversized. I'd recommend talking to Jimmy Green before making a choice.
 
It's the hawse pipe that bothers me. Anchorplait is great, I have it on my kedge, 16 mm for handling pleasure, but it has no stiffness at all. Pushing it down a hawse pipe will be like knitting fog. Might be better to go with three-strand even though it is less pleasant to handle.
 
Worked on my old boat with Hawse pipe. Gravity pulls it down, you don't need to push. Three strand will cause issues below, hence the need to push it, whereas 8 plait just falls flat like chain and pulls the next bit in. I used to have to push the splice through, but that was easy enough.
 
lustyd said:
Worked on my old boat with Hawse pipe. Gravity pulls it down, you don't need to push. Three strand will cause issues below, hence the need to push it, whereas 8 plait just falls flat like chain and pulls the next bit in. I used to have to push the splice through, but that was easy enough.
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Gravity? It weighs nearly nothing. Even flaking it in a bag needs a push.
 
First thing to do is to check that the windlass will actually handle a rope chain splice and that there is sufficient fall for the rope to go down by itself. 8mm/14mm is the normal mix.

Are you sure the boat is 7 tonnes? Seems rather high for a 30' yacht. not that it really affects the choice of chain/rope mix as the biggest issue will be whether your windlass/hawse locker can actually take it
 
I'd ask why you are looking at a mixed rode. With a 7t yacht and an old fashioned design (no insult intended) I don't think you are overly worried about weight, nor weight in the ends - so why not optimise your chain to suit the majority of your anchorages go for chain and have a 'seldom used' bit of rope. You would then need a snubber - but that's not difficult.

If the issue is cost - the cost of new chain over a few years is peanuts - though the initial hit to the wallet is not to be ignored.

The advantage to chain, ignoring catenary, is defined above, splicing, does the splice pass through the gypsy, will the rope section fall neatly, will the whole lot fit in the locker - and not mentioned - you will have chain sitting on wet rope and this is a recipe for the chain to corrode more quickly. If the existing chain has any sign of rust - sitting on wet rope - the rusting will accelerate.

If weight is an issue then I'd suggest looking at 6mm chain, high tensile, which I think Jimmy Green sells - but you would need a new gypsy and they are not cheap. The ideal time to change the chain size is when you need a new windlass - but life is not ideal.

We use 6mm HT chain on a 7t (fully loaded) 38' catamaran. But we have a weight fetish. I had my rode made in Australia, I bought the High tensile 6mm chain, I tested how it should be galvansised, I had it galvanised to my specification (and have arranged production of 4 more rodes since). The same process is available in Europe and currently the best place to do it would be Israel (where the process was developed). Most anchor HT chain comes from Italy - so Israel is not impossible. If you want more on all of this - either ask here, or send me your email address via PM

Jonathan
 
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Bilgediver said:
Have a word with Marlow Vyv. I have Marlow 14 mm and it certainly does not behave like you say. maybe there is Octoplait in Nylon and Poly which may give a difference. Mine is nylon soft and flakes easily?

MULTIPLAIT NYLON
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There is no problem with it, I have owned it for many successful years. It is beautifully soft to handle but I have little hope it would run down a hawse pipe unaided. When I am hauling my anchor, especially with other boats around me, the last thing I want to be doing is pushing rope down a pipe.
 
I use 3 strand 12mm nylon on 8 mm chain. I do have to be careful to guide the splice through the windlass (using some tension on the rope as it emerges into the locker) otherwise it all works fine. It may be that a different splicing technique would help to make it smoother but it's not a big enough problem to re-do.
 
One issue with rope is determining ageing - how do you know if the rope needs replaced. Chain is easy - if it is damaged, stretched (the links no longer fit the gypsy), worn (it looks thinner) corroded - easy - not so easy with rope. Except you know when rope has passed its use by dat - when it fails.

But maybe this should be another thread - divorced from anchoring?

Jonathan
 
Neeves said:
One issue with rope is determining ageing - how do you know if the rope needs replaced. Chain is easy - if it is damaged, stretched (the links no longer fit the gypsy), worn (it looks thinner) corroded - easy - not so easy with rope. Except you know when rope has passed its use by dat - when it fails.

But maybe this should be another thread - divorced from anchoring?

Jonathan
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Definitely ! ! !
 
Neeves said:
One issue with rope is determining ageing - how do you know if the rope needs replaced. Chain is easy - if it is damaged, stretched (the links no longer fit the gypsy), worn (it looks thinner) corroded - easy - not so easy with rope. Except you know when rope has passed its use by date - when it fails.

But maybe this should be another thread - divorced from anchoring?

Jonathan
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One way to gauge overloading is permanent stretch. A rope that has been loaded even near the WLL repeatedly will elongate in a predictable way. Rope that has not been loaded near the WLL basically does not fatigue soon.

UV is a separate issue. I look at that by time in the sun (time in the anchor locker, even wet, makes very little difference). There are many papers on nylon and UV; anything over 5 years in the sun is probably 1/3 degraded. But 5 years is a LOT of time at anchor for most people (increase the chain to 50 M and you will be on all-chain 95% of the time). Finally, there is chafe, which is probably the one that will condemn the rope first. Samson has a good guide.

I've tested climbing rope that were >25 years old and rodes that had been in the anchor well for 15-20 years but very little used, and unless damaged, time alone makes very little difference. Chain, in that same time, would have been replaced 3 times.

But yes, overall, it require thought compared to chain. It's not to hard to gauge stretch, UV, or chafe alone, but when combined it gets tricky. And it's psychologically hard to replace a rope when it still looks pretty good!
 
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