Steel rope/wire as anchor chain.

[Jonny2018]

In this times of looking for things to do....
I have a portable winch which runs steel wire/rope.
I was thinking about making an electric anchor winch with it my question is, is steel rope/wire suitable as an anchor line or does it still have to have the rope/chain combination?
18ft Fletcher 18.
Thank you

 

[NormanS]

I wouldn't condemn it. It's what we used on a fishing boat in Alaska.

 

[PilotWolf]

Personally having worked on fishing boats and with wire rope I’d avoid it like the plague.

It’s a dangerous route to go down. It can be lethal when it breaks and trust me it will break at some point. I’m talking 16mm + on 70ft trawlers, so even though you’re boat isn’t that big steel and salt water don’t mix well.

Even off roaders here are looking at and do use modern alternatives on their winches.

PW

 

[jrudge]

The boat is small, so risks of it snapping as above aside , it will probably be fine as you won’t be anchoring overnight etc.

The anchor chain relationship is usually simplified as the anchor holds the chain and the chain holds the boat.

The chain is heavy and drags on the bottom. This keeps the anchor perpendicular to the bottom allowing it to dig in.

Without a chain you won’t have that benefit.

Personally I would use either all chain or 3-4m of chain followed by some line

 

[dava]

I had steel cable on a winch once that we used for laying mooring, 12 mm diameter and after only a short while it began to rust and splinter untill 1 day it snapped, whipped round and very nearly took my arm with it. I'd avoid at all costs if I was you!

 

[MapisM]

is steel rope/wire suitable as an anchor line or does it still have to have the rope/chain combination?
18ft Fletcher 18.

In principle yes, you still should have also some chain, for the reasons jrudge mentioned.
But for a boat as light and small as that, are you sure it's worth bothering going electric at all, regardless of chain/cable/line?
My fist lake boat was a 20 footer, equipped with a small folding anchor, about 3 meters of 6mm chain, and 50 meters of smallish sinking line (8mm, I believe it was).
I never felt the need for more than that, and both dropping and weighing the hook manually could neither have been easier nor faster with a winch.

That said, I'm not dismissing the principle of chain+cable for anchors, mind.
That's what many bluewater commercial fishing boat have, as NormanS said.
Besides, some of the most extreme go-anywhere trawlers have that type of ground tackle, particularly if you are thinking to anchor in 50+ m depth, because having enough length of chain only becomes very impractical in any boat of "human" size.
But that demands huge and ugly drum winches, which aren't exactly what you want to have on the bow of any day cruiser.
The pic below is just one example, where BTW you can see the line under the chain in the port drum, and it's "only" a 65' boat, go figure!

 

[QBhoy]

The chain attached to the anchor is crucial to the whole idea of anchoring.
mad it happens I have a similar fletcher 19. I use a 2kg Bruce anchor with 30ft of chain and rope after that. It’s always held me in shallow depths.

 

[Assassin]

I do a lot of heavy off roading and lots of winching and steel wire really is a no,no, because it rusts, splits strands, and when it snaps it really lets go and can cause serious injuries.

Many of us switched to Dyneema rope from steel wire and this was for several reasons, many cheaper and not so cheap wire rope replacements were not up to any standard and on one occasion we were winching and one of these ropes snapped and caught a piece of steel and whisked it straight in through the windscreen of a Toyota Hi lux and out of the back window and missed the drivers head by inches, it bent the A post where it whipped and hit it and we said never again.

 

[Rappey]

I have a 16ft centre consol boat. The anchor has about 2m of chain and the rest is rope.
Easy to launch over the side and very quick and easy to recover with minimum effort.
I wouldn't want to use electric as it would take forever compared to pulling in by hand as we are talking light weight gear.

 

[Jonny2018]

Thanks for all of your replies! I'll stick with the traditional hauling it up to be honest I was just thinking of things to keep me busy! ?

 

[BruceK]

For me the obvious one that wasn't mentioned is with a small boat you wont have the drag to retrieve the cable neatly. It will likely bunch up and jam the works before you've got it all in.