Bruce, I'm in the process of upgrading/modifying my ground tackle in preps for a manual windlass. The PO had arranged a 35lbs Bruce claw with 20' of 3/8ths BBB chain shackled to 3/4" double braid which had an eye splice and thimble. The thimble was huge and made retrieving the anchor difficult since getting the thimble to roll over the bow roller was almost impossible. I never had to ride out a severe storm but there were a few spirited nights which held securely. Some people don't sleep well on the hook but I never had a problem.
As for the upgrade: I found a manual Simpson Lawrence Anchorman 500 on ebay for ~$200. It came with a gypsy that is designed to seamlessly transition from rode to chain. Multiple gypsies were available but this one takes 9/16th g4 chain and 1/2 rode. I'd hear good things about plated nylon rode (it doesn't twist and cause hockles in the chain) so while I was wondering Bacon Sail in Annapolis I purchased their ~150 feet. I was also prepared to buy cut chain but when I toured in the back I found a small cardboard box labeled 9/16 g4 35'. It was a little shorter than I had planned but not too much shorter. I do all my own rope splices and rigging so it wasn't too much to find the instructions for doing a chain to rode splice. It turned out pretty well. I have yet to install the windlass. This season had only necessitated anchoring for 1 single 30 minute swim call. Evidently the plated rode swells when wet so my 50' flakes jammed tight and I couldn't untie the first one. I was only able to set the anchor with the chain in 7 foot depths. It held fine and pulled up a huge clump of mud but I wouldn't have trusted it. Josh Muckley S/V Sea Hawk 1989 C&C 37+ Solomons, MD On Oct 2, 2017 8:59 AM, "Bruce Whitmore via CnC-List" <cnc-list@cnc-list.com> wrote: > Hello all, > > We have a 1994 C&C 37/40+, and the anchor chain connected to its primary > anchor, a 35 lb. Delta, is fused together with rust. The chain is also > about 20 ft. in length, which I suspect is too short, as the conventional > wisdom I think is that chain at least as long as the boat is highly > recommended in order to keep the anchor set. > > Then there is the line, which is about 150 feet, which equally I think is > a little short, though we are located on the west side of Florida where > anchoring in 20 feet of water is almost an impossibility unless we're > stupid enough to set anchor in the middle of the ICW. That said, we will > eventually want to be doing some cruising down into the Caribbean, so I'm > thinking carrying some additional rode poses little downsides. > > Finally, I've read that the recommended line size is 1/8" for every 9 feet > of boat length, but of course that is somewhat relevant as to windage and > boat weight. I consider our C&C to be relatively low both on the windage > and weight scales, especially compared to the 40 foot powerboats I've seen > out there. The 1/2" line (which is on the boat now) has a breaking > strength of 7,500 lbs., but I presume the issue is more about chafe > protection than breaking strength per se. So, the questions are as follows: > > 1). What size, type and length of chain would you recommend? We don't > have a windlass now, but may eventually put one in. > > 2). Should I go with 9/16" line vs. the 1/2"? What length would you > recommend if you were going to consider cruising in the Caribbean? > > I'm thinking of carrying 40 ft. of BBB chain and 250 ft. of rode on the > primary Delta anchor, and perhaps a little less on both chain and line for > our secondary (a Danforth), though I'm not sure that carrying the lesser > amount on the secondary is advisable. > > Thanks in advance, > Bruce Whitmore > > (847) 404-5092 (mobile) > bwhitm...@sbcglobal.net > > _______________________________________________ > > The bills have started coming in for the year 2018 and have gone up > again. October will be our fund raising month. Please consider sending a > small contribution to help keep this list running. Use PayPal to send > contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray > > All contributions are greatly appreciated! > >
_______________________________________________ The bills have started coming in for the year 2018 and have gone up again. October will be our fund raising month. Please consider sending a small contribution to help keep this list running. Use PayPal to send contribution -- https://www.paypal.me/stumurray All contributions are greatly appreciated!
