Kedge Anchor Rode ....

Jonny_H

Jonny_H

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Just bought a Guardian G37 as a kedge anchor for our 37 footer (a size up from whats recommended - its suits 42 - 47 feet), but we're on the heavier side for our length (8.5 tons without personal gear or full water tanks), and it was second hand off ebay!

Question is what rode to put on it and how to store it?

I've seen these little clamps on the web for securing it on the rail (look neat):

http://www.windline.com/accessories.html (PM-1 / PM -2 about 2/3rds down the page)

- but we are centre cockpit with no lazerette lockers so where to put the rode? We've seen these tape spools which have plenty of length and look quite neat:

21910.jpg


and would add some chain to the end.

Or should we use chain and warp and use one of these:

22955.jpg


and stow it in the cockpit locker when on passage?

Also - how much chain and what size? We have 10mm on the main anchor - is this overkill for a kedge? I was thinking 5 metres of chain (just enough to prevent chafe on the bottom) - any other thoughts?

Jonny

p.s. I am trying to avoid a 'which anchor' thread!!
 
Is it for a secondary anchor or a kedge, as in - row it out somewhere and drop - in which case I wouldn't want much chain on it (and it sounds a bit big for that job). 5m 8mm?

The spool looks good (anchoralina?). I keep my kedge rode in a mesh bag in a locker, but it is awkward and heavy so I tend to feed it in and out.
 
Think about how you are likely to use it, then plan a set up that suits that use.

eg. If you intend to use it when mooring bow to a quay, it needs to be ready to drop as you approach, so stored on stern with anchoralina reel alongside it.

Or, if you want it as a light lunch hook, or to supplement the bower in a blow, it needs to be handy for the bow.

These are just a couple of ideas, you will know why you bought it - although your plan may well change - mine usually do!
 
It has been bought as a kedge - for bows to mooring mainly. It will also be an emergency stern anchor for storms.

On the bow we have a 45CQR and a 20kg Delta (to come yet!) on 10mm chain.
We also have a heavy (not sure of weight - 20lb maybe) folding grapnel type anchor.

I wanted the Guardian / Fortress to stow on the stern for bows to mooring (used a Danforth like this on charter in Greece with ease - although they had a bucket for chain and warp which wasn't ideal).
I probably would have bought the 23 instead of the 37 if I was buying new - but the 37 I have got hasn't been used very much and was about 2/3rds price of a new 23 - so seemed like a bargain!

The anchoralina thing looks good (easy to deploy - high breaking load and and easy to store), but how easy will it be to wind back onto the reel as you haul the anchor up (I suppose you would haul the line on deck and then reel it up afterwards).

I think the G37 would be deployable from a dinghy - is 18lbs (8kg) which isn't too bad.

All advice very much welcome!! I've chosen our anchor range based on what we had (CQR and Grapnel) plus what others have used.

Jonny
 
Our boat is 10 tonnes 42ft LOA.

I bought a 25kg bow anchor and a 20kg second anchor. Anally I also have a third anchor, a 20Kg Danforth style anchor for chucking over the stern for mooring bow in - and for just in case!

For the Kedge warp I have 50M of anchorplait. The same 50M would attached to 10M of 10mm chain if I decide to use the secondary anchor giving me 60M in total.

At this point I must confess that if I am anchoring in really nasty conditions I would deploy the bower and secondary anchors in tandem rather than in a Bahamian moor, the latter being reserved for occasions where there is limited room.

Whilst on the subject of confessions I wish I had bought an aluminium Fortress instead of the 20kg Danforth as this would be much easier to handle.

Finally to answer your question I keep the second anchor warp in the stern locker in one of those large plastic "buckets" that Spanish building workers carry building rubble in. Its strong enough to hold the line and chain tidily but flexibly enough to mold to the shape of the locker. I have another 3 buckets in there which help to keep the locker tidy and also come in useful on wash day!

My final confession is that I have invested in modern anchors and given away the 45lb plough anchor that came with the boat. Whilst I have the courage to trust my life to these things I don't have the courage to come out of the anchor closet on this forum yet....worried that they will start outing people on the Scuttlebutt forum and in anticipation of this discrimination my bower anchor is kept in an anchor bag/forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

I will of course start using brand names once my consultancy contract is signed....../forums/images/graemlins/laugh.gif

At the boat show I saw a great arrangement where on the aft corner of the cockpit an owner had a roller fitted to to carry a kedge line that could then be hauled in by the jib winch which was just forward of it... neat eh?
 
3 points

Tape, while strong is more prone to chafe (all the treads are exposed) so may be short lived if it gets a lot of use

If you want to be able to take the kedge out in the dingy, particularly in a hurry (ie you just grounded!) it is much quicker to sling a rode bag in the dingy than to flake the tape off a reel.

If using short chain length it might be good to go for very heavy especially with an alloy anchor to give better penetration and grip
 
Forgot to mention - in our locker we use the blue Ikea bags. They are plastic coated (so water proof) have some sort of stranding within the plastic (so very strong) and cost £0.50 each!! Fill them with ropes, fenders - whatever!

We even use one to tie on the aft deck to put rubbish bags in when at sea as they don't leak.

Jonny
 
The tape spool idea does look good, however I recall that they are pretty expensive.

For info I can tell you that I have just bought 2 x 100m reels of 50mm wide webbing with a breaking strain of 6500kgs for £28.00 per reel plus £12.00 carriage!!!! This was from Ribbons Ltd in Wales.

I only needed about 30m for the job I purchased it for but with a min order of £50 it made sense to get the 2 reels. I now have about 170m spare for nothing. I think it will be easy enough to find a suitable plastic reel to hold 50 or 60m or even make a reel from ply. This will then be ideal for use as a shore line or similar, or even kedge warp as the thread is discussing.

Any way the main reason for the post was to make you all aware of how cheap the webbing is compared to rope. You can also get 7500kgs breaking strain but I am sure 6500kgs is enough for most people. Obviously you can't splice it like rope, but it will certainly hold in the normal way around a cleat etc.
 
Several Ikea bags onboard mine as well! Excellent bits of kit for keeping rope, fenders, wetsuits etc.

Get them from your nearest Ikea store for pennies /forums/images/graemlins/smile.gif
 
Hi, we have a fortress fx16 as a kedge / emergency anchor (it was cheap second hand). 7 mtrs of 8mm ss chain + 60 mtrs 1/2 inch nylon.
Kept in one of the cockpit lockers in a sack.
Me gads, the 37 must be a big beast !.. the 16 is big enough lol.

We were going to make a specific kedging location, but decided the ability to move it to the bow was useful.

Like the idea of the ikea bags !.. nice one, there furniture is crappo, but the bags look great /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif
 
[ QUOTE ]
Get them from your nearest Ikea store for pennies

[/ QUOTE ]

Would cost me several hundred GBP to get the my nearest Ikea store hence request for web details
 
I use a couple of Ikea bags too and find them excellent, I have just sewn two stronger webbing handles which circle around the bottom of the bag, as those thin blue handles that are originally fitted to the bag came apart quite quickly
 
[ QUOTE ]
It has been bought as a kedge - for bows to mooring mainly.

[/ QUOTE ] So it'll normally be stowed at the stern.

All I did was hang the anchor over the pushpit, coil the chain and rope over the anchor. When I wanted to anchor bows to, I'd 'heap' the warp on deck astern (I supose 'flake' is the better term!) with the chain flaked, and lead the first bit of line into the cockpit around a winch. Then I could apply friction to dig in the hook and brake the boat while approaching the quay.

Of course, you need a clear lead from heap to winch, and from winch to hawse (a big double pillar cleat in my case) and maybe antichafe provisions (a bit of metal stair tread protector).

Anchoring is then easy. While moving to the berth at about 2 kts, you or crew member lifts anchor off rail, drops it and checks the chain runs cleanly. The rope runs around the winch with only very slight friction. Crew member walks forward to tend bow ropes.

Apply a little friction to stretch rope/chain, and to dig in anchor.

Add friction as required to stop boat within stepping distance of the quay. At stepping distance, release friction to remove tension so the boat won't jump backwards. Make up rope, walk forward to help crew. Tighten up later.

Difficult to do the braking bit with the tape arrangement . . .

And the big builder's bag was there to cart the stuff out in a dinghy if needed, or to carry the load up to the foredeck for a forked moor. But I never used it . . . just flaked rope into the dinghy instead . . .
 
Thanks - I suspected the tape would be cheaper to buy than one of the Ankorlina things (for 50 metres they are around £130 25mm width). I had worried about cleating the tape and wrapping it around a winch etc. I suppose you could wrap it around a winch, but it would scrunch up, probably ride over itself on the drum, and no doubt loose much of its strength pretty quickly.

The 37 seems like quite a beast size wise, but at 8kgs is much lighter than the equivilant anchor we would use in steel - as Steve says he has a 20kg Danforth. Picture of the one I got (described as 'nearly new, never used'):

e6d6_1.JPG

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Hmmm, Ocotoplait could be the way to go - just need to consider storage - maybe coiled on the rail when local cruising, and then in an Ikea Bag in the locker when as sea??

Jonny

p.s. Ikea Bags - when you wonder around the shop they give you yellow ones as baskets, at the checkout you can buy blue equivalents to take home (£0.50 each last time I was there) - just looked on the web and you can't mail order /forums/images/graemlins/frown.gif
 
<<<< Hi, we have a fortress fx16 as a kedge / emergency anchor (it was cheap second hand). 7 mtrs of 8mm ss chain + 60 mtrs 1/2 inch nylon. >>>


Almost identical to us. We have 16 mm Anchorplait instead of 3-ply nylon, as it is so easy to handle and doesn't tangle. My chain isn't stainless.

This seems to be a very good choice for a kedge on our size of boat. Very easy to row out astern, the anchor holds extremely well so long as the direction of pull doesn't change, plenty of shock absorbence in the rope. We use a bag for stowage, it came from a Dutch supermarket and has synthetic canvas sides and bottom, two carrying handles.

The Anchorplait is attached to the chain with a loop and thimble and shackle for easy detachment should it be needed for something else.
 
This set-up sounds good to me too - the webbing / tape is starting to sound like it has a few draw backs.

What thickness anchorplait / octoplait would you suggest for the 37? 18mm sufficient? I am hoping to get enough to use as one of the warps for the Panama Canal transit - so that should give me plenty of scope! (Got two other long warps on the ends of the bow anchor chains - so only one warp down then to meet their requirements!)

Jonny
 
We have the same Fortress as you. We store it on the pushpit on a bracket that you can buy from Fortress specifically for the job. Rode and chain live in a bag in a locker with a shackle ready to attach to Fortress when used. FWIW, we use 16mm mulitplait on our R38. It's stronger than is needed but is easier to handle than lighter stuff.
 
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