Warning Anchor thread (for a small ish boat)!

[aquaplane]

Carousel came without anchor so for our Clyde Cruise last year I used a spare Danforth off Chiron and a (30') length of rope, probably an ex-halyard by the look of it.

I want to do something a bit better for this year.

Considerations:
1 We will be cruising from Loch Sween and probably won't get past Mull, but may be temped to round Mull if the weather is right, so fairly sheltered.
2 It's a light boat and 60m of chain in the bow won't do it any favours. It will plane and is good to sail fast, it's not a Centaur. It's probably not the best boat to cruise the West of Scotland but it's what I have to work with this year.
3 I'm probably stuck with the Danforth too unless my numbers come up, must buy ticket!
4 I do watch the forecast and try to be somewhere snug if the weather is bad, I realise this strategy can be limiting and I could get caught out.

So I was thinking of about 10m of chain and buying a 50m anchor rope to use with the Danforth.

I'm only wanting to carry what I can get away with, if I need more chain to be reasonably safe, so be it.
Shelling out for a different anchor will be painfull if I have to do it, but if I have to, so be it.

Have I missed anything obvious?

What do you lot think?

[Nick]

.
I have no experience of Danforths, but if this is all you have then my advice is to take extra care setting it and make sure you can go full astern on it. If it holds at max revs then you can sleep soundly, if you just chuck it and hope you will lie awake worrying and leaping up and down to peer into the gloom.

[Arghiro]

I never had a moments qualm with a Danforth on my W25 in the Clyde area & W Coast as far as Dunstaffnage & I recently aquired one as a kedge for Sea Rush, a W31.

If you want a different style of anchor as a kedge, I have a 15lb(ish?) Fishermans you are welcome to as a giftie, if you can collect. I am based near M6 jcn14 if you are ever passing.

You could always get yourself an angel weight to increase the catenary, reduce swinging area & improve holding (it significantly reduces snatch).

[DaveS]

For your new rope I would recommend nylon octoplait / anchorplait rather than 3 strand or sheath construction, it fakes down and stores much more easily. You also get the fun of splicing it to the chain (an unusual, but fairly straightforward splice). You won't need a huge size, 12 mm should be more than ample. (Sometimes available at £1/m or less on offer.)

An alternative approach which I adopted with my last boat, cheaper but not so handy, is to find a tame climber and obtain a retired climbing rope which has not taken a severe fall.

Whatever you get, do have something effective to pad it with at the bow roller to ensure there's no chafe if / when things get rough. I splashed out on rather natty anti-chafes which hold round the rope using velcro, but DIY is fine.

[JimC]

I think 10 metres of 7 or 8 mm chain and 50 metres of 12 mm octoplait will be fine. I only have this length of chain myself as my boat is rather fine forward and I don't want too much weight in the bows. Main drawback is that your boat will tend to wander around at anchor more than would be the case on all chain. An angel will help as stated. Slicing 8 strand rope into chain is fairy easy, here's a good guide http://www.sw-marine.co.uk/acatalog/8_s ... plice.html

[aquaplane]

I've been looking at ready made anchor rodes and decided 10m chain and 50m rope may be a bit generous for a little boat.

Also I found 11m of 8mm chain, it came with Chiron in the stern locker presumably it was for a kedge. So I have some chain, I'll source a decent length of rope, octoplat prefered, and take it from there.

I have another Danforth in the garage too, but I think I'll save that for when the Centaur gets a salty bottom.

The link to the instructions on splicing octopat to chain looks very good, thanks for that. Something similar for doing an eye splice would be great, the one I have done looks like a dogs dinner so I didn't try to do any more.

Thanks for the input chaps.

[Alan_D]

The link to the instructions on splicing octopat to chain looks very good, thanks for that. Something similar for doing an eye splice would be great, the one I have done looks like a dogs dinner so I didn't try to do any more.

Try looking here.

[aquaplane]

Thanks for that Alan but I'm OK splicing laid rope, Boy Scout training and all that.

My instructions for octoplat are here and I didn't find them over helpfull, and very blue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_Eu_k16Z88

[JimC]

Thanks for that Alan but I'm OK splicing laid rope, Boy Scout training and all that.

My instructions for octoplat are here and I didn't find them over helpfull, and very blue:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9_Eu_k16Z88

Try this link for eye splicing octoplait http://www.sw-marine.co.uk/acatalog/8_S ... plice.html It's not as easy as splicing the stuff into chain.

[aquaplane]

I had a look at the SW-Marine instructions just after you posted the link Jim, very clear and a good resource.

My 40m of anchor plait this week so I got out my thimble, fid and sharp knife this evening and went looking for the instructions again, all I got was an error message so I had to use the less clear instructions from Jimmy Green.

The coloured flecks in the anchor plait made it easier to follow the instructions and I did a reasonable job. Once you get used to going down the same row of loops in the rope instead of going round and round like you do with laid rope it's easier to see how it works.

I was so giddy I cut my new 15m x 12mm octoplait mooring rope in half and put a nice big eye in one end.