Are you kidding me! 35# manson

[Rick Westlake]

I chose a 25-lb Manson for Halcyon, which is a Bristol 29.9 (list displacement 8650 lb but probably closer to 10,000 in fact). That's the size they recommend for a 25-35 foot boat.

By way of comparison, Rocna says their model 10 (10 kgs or 22 lbs) would suit a 30-ft boat of 11,000 lbs displacement - in "50 knots wind, associated surge, and soft moderate holding bottoms into which it is assumed the anchor has set," according to the write-up on their website. And the old website for the Raya anchor (God bless and keep you, Jo?o!) said the 7.5-kg Raya Tempest 800 would be adequate for a 30-foot boat of 4.5 tons displacement, almost 10,000 lbs - in 60 kts wind.

You should have at least one spare anchor, of course ... here in the Chesapeake Bay, my spare is the Raya Tempest 800 I got for Bossa Nova, with 5 feet of chain and 100 feet of nylon rode.

One thing about the 'spade-fluke' anchors that I will note - they set deep in Chesapeake mud, and they pull up a heck of a lot of that mud when you weigh anchor. My routine is to pull in the rode until it's up-and-down, then let the anchor work itself free.

[lastgreatgeneration]

I returned the 35# and I swapped for the 25# Manson. I also just put in an order to Defender for 90' 5/16 G4 chain spliced to 5/8 three strand. I also bought a Kingston Bow roller, snubber, some chafe gear and new braided dock lines. I am still about 5 hours away from the boat at the moment, but next time I go out I will get to tinker with a few things.

I think my set up will be more than adequate for the 26' Ariel, I want to be able to get good sleep at anchor. With 90' of chain I should be able to anchor on all chain in 5-6 feet of water. That was the intention, the main cruising grounds for now will be the Chesapeake, east coast, keys and Bahamas.

I still need to add some heavy duty cleats and get some other things. At least I have enough time now to get all the gear at good prices before this spring.

Thanks for all the reply's.

[rorik]

I'm (again) changing my whole setup and in my search for new ways to keep me working on the boat instead of sailing, I ran across this:

http://alain.fraysse.free.fr/sail/rode/rode_b.htm

Thought some of you might enjoy it.

[CharlieJ]

Very interesting- thanks

[marujo_sortudo]

I've played with Alain's spreadsheets a lot find them very educational about the effects of various rode combinations under different conditions.  Not a perfect model, obviously, but you can learn a lot about how different conditions might effect your boat.  He makes a strong argument for a snubber that's at least 30' long to reduce the dynamic loads when the weather kicks up if you have a chain rode.  He also does a good job of showing the effect of scope on holding power.

[Godot]

Hmm. I don't have MS Excel and use either LibreOffice or Lotus Symphony (depending on whether I'm on my personal laptop or the corporate laptop), and while they are generally very good at running excel spreadsheets, apparently there are some macros in the listed one that don't translate. Bummer.

[Kettlewell]

Get some name brand shackles for your chain--the no-name ones are prone to failure. The general rule is you can upsize one unit on the shackle to fit the chain, so a 3/8-inch shackle will just fit in 5/16 chain. You could have used ordinary proof coil with the weight of your boat--plenty strong and cheaper. I would recommend a Fortress FX-23 as a second anchor. Much easier to handle when taking out in the dinghy, and will hold until something breaks if you get it dug in. I have used FX-23s on boats up to 38 feet in 56 knots and more of wind.

[rorik]

I talked to Mark Pocock at Rocna last week. He said that shackles are always the weakest link, but that high strength ones are available here: http://www.1st-chainsupply.com/

[Kettlewell]

Mark is correct, and the higher quality shackles also last a lot longer. They eventually pay for themselves through longevity. Unfortunately, a lot of waterfront marine supply stores sell cheap junk shackles, though strangely I occasionally find quality shackles in odd places like hardware stores.