Thinking of Going to All Chain

[smckean (Tosca)]

I wrote the text below thinking about my situation which has always involved 3 ply rope. Since you have 8 ply, that's a whole different ball game. I've never tried it, but I understand that splicing with 8 ply is more difficult than 3 ply.
--------------------------------

I love that I took the time to learn to splice. Now that I can do it, I find all kinds of reasons to use the new skill.

I'd highly recommend getting some cheap, small diameter (1/4" or 3/8" or even 1/2" if you have some laying around), somewhat loosely laid line to practice with first. 10 feet of line will give you lots to practice with. You *will* make lots of errors until you get the hang of it, and come up with a few "rules" of your own to help you remember which strand goes over or under or whatever.

[thataway]

70 feet would be a good compromise. If you had ordered a rope to chain splice which would go thru a windlass, then that is what you should have gotten. No reason to pay to have them re-do it. They should have done it right the first time. Show them this thread if they hesitate to do it properly. It is not rocket science. Splicing predates rockets by several thousands of years.

[drbridge]

We have changed our anchor rode set up several times since we've have had our boat (22 cruiser) and what we have settled on is 175' of three strand nylon with 100' of 1/4" chain using a tapered long splice that I did myself.
Before that we had 250' 8 plait and 50' of chain. The 8 plait gave us problems from the start. It seemed to want to slip at times even if it wasn't at the splice and sometimes would stick to the gypsy and jam up. That is why we went back to the 3 strand. I figured that as long as I was going to do a splice I would try 100' of chain and see how I liked it. if it was too heavy and made the boat handle badly it is easy to cut some off. As it turned out, the extra weight hasn't caused any problems with handling so we still have the full 100' of chain. We have been all through the San Juan.s and Gulf Islands and as far North as Desolation Sound. We also go out in to the Ocean as far as Swift Sure Bank on fishing trips. We have done this in some very rough conditions at times and the boat seems fine with the 100' of chain in the bow. We dont have any storage compartments in our v-birth, so the chain is the only real weight that we carry in the bow. The splice on the 3 strand was pretty simple and it has never hung up once.
Quite often the anchorages we come across are very crowded and it is nice to have the chain to let out a shorter rode for less swing room. Another advantage to the chain is that it comes up much cleaner than the rope. Mud and seaweed wash off much easier.
I would think that a 25 C-Dory could handle the 100'. It is worth experimenting with. You can always cut some off if you don't like it.

[bridma]

Just my 2 cents worth, and what do I know? Not a lot says the Admiral.
Recommended length of chain is one and a half times the length of the boat. So 40 to 50 ft is plenty long enough for a light boat such as a C-Dory. Assuming that a rode is going to be spliced on to the chain (and spliced properly) why would one want extra chain hoping that the splice does not reach the windlass? Anchoring overnight, I would not want chain secured at the bow, makes to much clunking noise if a bit of wind picks up unless you are going to use rode and snubbers to eliminate any whiplash.

Now to the splicing part. I get it that a person who has never spliced before would be apprehensive in tackling the job. But honestly, it is so easy to do, as others have mentioned in this thread. Pick a nice sunny day, sit on the bow with your "How to splice book" or laptop with your YouTube video, you will have a great time. Heck, pack a sandwich and a coffee and have a splice party.

My G/son aged 11 can back splice and eye splice. I don't think he has done a tapered splice yet, but I know he could. I wished he lived a bit closer to you, then he could earn some pocket money.

Have fun,
Martin.

[drbridge]

The chain is not noisy at all if you put a short a short snubber on it. If room allows, I like to let out the 100' of chain and about 5' to 10' of rope. This eliminates the need for the snubber and the rope does not touch bottom or get muddy. Chain comes up much cleaner than a rope lying on the bottom. The tappered long splice on the three strand never fails to go through the windlass.
That has been our experience and it works for us.

[hardee]

I would go back and read "drbridge" a couple of times. Both posts. Makes 100 feet of sense. Although I don't run any rode out, just the chain, It does not clang, clunk or snap. The chain weight makes up for needing a snubber in my experience. And not running the rode out, there is never an issue in retrieval. Always comes up clean.

I didn't know Doug was using a 100 foot chain, but I remember talking with him about that. I see no reason why that would not work on a 25, (don't think the difference in weight of 100 vs 70 would be noticed, and it would give just a shade more anchoring depth choice.

My vote is for 100 feet of chain with a long taper to a length (200 feet) of nylon 3 strand. You will love it at 100 and have plenty for anchoring with extended scope when the hurricane hits.

All the best to the Daydream crew.

Harvey
SleepyC

[Pat Anderson]

Well, we have 8 plait rode purchased very recently, and we are not going to switch to 3 plait. 70 feet of chain would allow us to anchor at our usual depths, but maybe 100 feet would be better. I am not concerned about tying off the chain at the bow, it goes around the cleat pretty much the same way the rode does. The only question is whether or not to splice it to any rode at all. We may be back to 100 feet of all chain, which is certainly more than ample for anchoring in out typical 10 - 15 feet. We might try that first, pull the rode out and let Patty practice splicing. Then if we feel we need to add rode, we can do that later, We certainly don't need rode for crabbing in Birch Bay.

[Pacificcoast101]

One of the reasons I went to all chain was that I switched from three-plaid to eight-plaid rode. The eight-plaid kept slipping in the gypsy. Rather than going back to three-plaid and re-splicing all the time, I went with all chain.

[thataway]

Pat,
It would have been helpful if you had noted that you had 8 plait rope in your first post.

I would strongly advise against wrapping the chain around the cleat. Get a short piece of 3 strand, and put a chain hook on the end of it. Put the chain hook around the chain, and then tie the line to the cleat. Simple and easy to do--the line can be tied to the cleat before you put the chain out.

[gulfcoast john]

Pat,
Wrapping chain around a cleat is never advised by experts (I am not one).

PM me with your address and i'll send you a spare G43 US made chain hook that we use all the time and works very well.
John

[hardee]

On the chain hook line, I have a chain hook attached to a 5-6 foot section of 3 ply, that has a loop tied in at the other end, so it just loops over the forward cleat. No tying involved, and the line goes out through the anchor launcher, hangs just a few feet above the water level. BUT, that requires going out forward, so, I don't use it that often.

Harvey
SleepyC

[bridma]

[Pacificcoast101]

Once or twice a year. We anchor at least twice every time we go out, and we usually go out 2-3 times per week. The rode never dried and would fray after a few months.

[jennykatz]

We went from 30 ft chain and 100 ft of 3 ply line to all chain 100ft This seems to be more then sufficient for the few times we anchor out in the Gulf We have a V 700 windlass It works all the time and holds our 23 Venture with no problem. If it gets to rough we use a snubber to take the shock out of chain Jim W

[Pat Anderson]