On Saturday 15 May 2004 2:29 am in rec.boats JAXAshby wrote:

so, NON-asshole, wanna explain to us the forces of catenaries?

Of course you don't want to even try. Obviously, by your statement below,
you
don't have a clew of the forces involved. (dumb cluck that you are, you
are not even aware that the math and physics of the for forces on the
catenary of nylon rode is the very same as a chain rode).

What an asshole.
You obviously do not understand why you should pay out 4xdepth of chain.
A little understanding of force vectors then explains why the chain
cannot be pulled tight.

Please get a clue and learn not to top-post.

Chain lying on the bottom is not a catenary. It is a variable load
in equilibrium with the forces acting on the hull. It only becomes
a catenary when the last link has lifted from the bottom and the
anchor is about to break out. If this point is ever reached it means
that the chain was too light and/or too short.

Of course, we could consider the case of the idiot who pays out only
enough chain to reach the bottom and then crowds on sail in a
storm. In this case the chain may become tight or the anchor may
break out. Darwin will probably then do the world a favour by removing
said idiot from the gene pool.