petem
Well-Known Member
J, what weight of chain do we have on out boats? 8mm?
Is my chain too thin?
- Thread starter Eren
- Start date
J, what weight of chain do we have on out boats? 8mm?
jimmy_the_builder
Well-Known Member
8mm is OE on the T40; I've got 80m on mine.
petem
Well-Known Member
That's a lot of chain. I have 20 fathoms plus 5 fathoms added when new as an optional extra (so c. 45 metres in total).
You've got over double the standard amount that was supplied with the boat. Does it impact your trim (potentially for the better)?
jimmy_the_builder
Well-Known Member
No noticeable effect on trim. I put the 80m because of the deeper anchorages in the Med, although in practice I don't think I've ever had more than about 60m out.
MapisM
Well-Known Member
I'm with JTB on this, P - 45m just ain't enough for a decent peace of mind, and if that's what FL supplied as standard, they should be ashamed of it.
Mind, in 17 years with 2x100m chain, I can only think of a couple of cases where I went anywhere near using the whole length, and both were for very peculiar reasons.
In fact, imho the 120m of Deleted User and MedMilo, let alone the 150 of Hurricane, are a bit overkill.
But of course, weight aside, it's better to have more chain than necessary rather than the opposite...
Imho, 60m is the very least you should have, and I would have understood that as OEM installation.
But 80 as JTB mentioned is certainly better. 8mm is perfectly fine for your boats, anyway.
Fwiw, I found 75m on the DP when I bought her, and I'm NOT considering to make it longer. The plain vanilla Delta is a keeper, too.
My own approach (though I accept that someone might have a different view) is that if the conditions are bad to the point of making me worry that 70m of chain aren't enough, I'm going to stay on watch, 'cause it would be hard to sleep anyway.
Hurricane
Well-Known Member
One night in Caletta should fix that - thats where we couldn't set our Delta alongside you.
IMO you will soon change to a proper anchor.
The Delta never actually sets it just ploughs at different levels of "plough".
Hurricane
Well-Known Member
My 150m of chain isn't because we anchor in deep water.
In fact it is the opposite.
I like tieing back to the rocks like MYAG taught me.
A longer chain means you can find a nice patch for the anchor further out from the shore and wind back to tie off. on the rocks
We used to have 70m - that wasn't enough to use this technique.
Like this
In fact it is the opposite.
I like tieing back to the rocks like MYAG taught me.
A longer chain means you can find a nice patch for the anchor further out from the shore and wind back to tie off. on the rocks
We used to have 70m - that wasn't enough to use this technique.
Like this
D
Deleted User YDKXO
Guest
I'll second that. I upgraded to a 60kg Delta on my F630 when I first got it 4yrs ago and I thought that would be heavy enough not to have to worry about dragging ever again but I was wrong. It dragged in 2 different anchorages in fine sand in the Costa Smerelda and like you, it also dragged overnight in Caletta once luckily not enough to put us in danger. As you say, there's a good reason these types of anchors are called plough anchors. As you know I changed the 60kg Delta for a 55kg Rocna and the Rocna has never dragged anywhere in 2 seasons. I have a lot of confidence in it
petem
Well-Known Member
P, if my 45m means that I need to stick to anchoring in max 4.5m with a 10x scope, so be it (certainly for this year). To be honest, the only overnight anchoring we're likely to be doing will be in the 'lagoon' which is pretty shallow, pretty sheltered and has a nice muddy bottom (SWMBO likes her creature comforts, and we have no Genset).
Incidentally, I note that Fairline say the chain is calibrated. Any idea how? I can't remember seeing this on either of my boats.
MapisM
Well-Known Member
LOL, I see your point. Maybe I'm spoilt by the ground tackle of the previous boat, whose anchors were actually more akin to bricks than to anything sophisticated, but at 50Kg each they were oversized in proportion to the boat.
Otoh, the fact that the boat spent her first 13 years of life in the Adriatic (whose seabed can be tricky in places, in my experience) with her original setup makes me hope that she'll be ok. Time will tell...!
MapisM
Well-Known Member
Afaik, all anchor chains are. Whatever that means - never exactly understood!
Yep, of course when I said that you should consider a longer chain I meant for general Med usage. For what you have in mind at the moment, 45m should be ok.
MapisM
Well-Known Member
Mmm... I didn't know (or didn't remember) of your previous experience with a 60Kg Delta.
IIRC, I've got a 25Kg one on the DP, which is obviously smaller and lighter than the F630, but not THAT much.
Oh, well. If I'll start yet another thread along the lines of "Rocna/Mantus/Ultra/[whatever]: which is best?", you will already know why...
Hoping to NOT start a thread about how to straighten shafts and props instead!
BartW
Well-Known Member
My 150m of chain isn't because we anchor in deep water.
In fact it is the opposite.
I like tieing back to the rocks like MYAG taught me.
A longer chain means you can find a nice patch for the anchor further out from the shore and wind back to tie off. on the rocks
We used to have 70m - that wasn't enough to use this technique.
Like this
+1
in the adriatic this is standard method for anchoring,
and the long chain gives a bit more "play" when you drop your anker and reverse to shore,
sometimes, the anker drops really "deep"
with my previous 90m chain, in a few occasions I ran out of chain, before I was close enough to the quay in Cavtat, .. how ambarrasing
I have to admid that at that time I didn't use the radar, nor a digital meter, to have a more accurate estimation of the distance, before dropping the anker.
Now with the 140m SS chain I'm alway's safe :encouragement:
petem
Well-Known Member
Afaik, all anchor chains are. Whatever that means - never exactly understood!
Yep, of course when I said that you should consider a longer chain I meant for general Med usage. For what you have in mind at the moment, 45m should be ok.
Would it be possible to add 20m of S/S chain to my existing chain? I could be tempted by that as I have suffered from the galvanised chain piling up in the locker that led to a jam in the hawse pipe and gypsy.
In the meantime, I will need to train SWMBO to be more observant!
MapisM
Well-Known Member
Yes you can, you just need one of these thingies
TBH, I neither like them nor used them - ever. But as I'm told, they do their job.
MapisM
Well-Known Member
Yup, agreed.
The couple of occasions I previously mentioned, where I used almost all of the 100m chains in my previous boats, were both with that type of anchorage.
Once in a small bay very sheltered but a bit exposed to the south, with predicted strong SE wind, and the other one in Split Marina, when a bad Bora blow was predicted and the only spot left was on the outer side of the marina breakwall, and with all bowlines already taken, for good measure.
In fact, I would have rather moved to some bay and let the boat swing around one anchor, but we were forced to stay in Split because SWMBO had to fly back home for family reasons.
Anyway, in hindsight it was a good thing that we had to use our anchors, because when the Bora on our nose began pushing the boats backwards towards the dock, there was nothing the neighbors secured with bowlines could do (and in fact some boats suffered minor damages, due to the swim platform hitting the dock), while for me it was easy peasy to pull the chains a bit.
Anyway, imho in this type of anchorage what really makes a big difference is the possibility to deploy two anchors, at an angle anywhere between 30 and 45 deg.
With that and 100m of chain each, I can't imagine any coastal anchorage which could put the boat in trouble.
Now with the DP, I'm not expecting to miss the longer chain so much - if anything, in such extreme conditions, it's the second anchor which I might regret not having.
But, hey-ho...!
BartW
Well-Known Member
a second anker, in a "pocket" configuration still is on my wishlist for BA,
it would fit nicely on a C70s
but it is on the nerdy list , so not at all priority
MapisM
Well-Known Member
Absolutely.
Btw, there's a resident C70s in CF, all wooden construction so obviously earlier than yours (though I don't know by how many years), which has that arrangement.
I can't understand why they abandoned such solution later on...
BartW
Well-Known Member
any pictures ?
remember I saw a C23 / 1997-ish in Genua, with a single anker "bow pocket" (?) arrangement.
I prefer side pockets of course
MapisM
Well-Known Member
Sorry, not any good one (also because her blue hull somewhat hides the anchor), but below you can at least get an idea. Yup, side pockets, anyway.
The owner is a nice French chap, who is very frequently onboard.
I'm sure he would be glad to show you the thing in flesh, when you will be there. :encouragement:
PS: no prize for guessing what fine boat is the one on stbd side of the C70s!
