So Wilbur, do you stay up at night in your appliance box fantasizing
about catamarans? To bad you'll never get to ride one otherwise.

Frankly, you do bring up a few interesting points. My cat, and many
others of the vintage, has ground tackle on each bow, but the newer
designs generally use a center roller which is less flexible. When I
brought this up with my builder they said that's what people expect
nowadays.

Also, I use 50 feet of chain, with the rest nylon, so that I always have
the shock absorbing and don't carry too much weight. In my case I have
to bridle, with a rolling hitch from the other bow, to keep the boat
pointed straight. A very nice by-product of any bridle is that pivot
point is no long on the roller, but at the attachment point where
there's no chafe. Also, with the pivot point forward the boat doesn't
swing much at all; I consider this a major advantage over many monohulls.

As for a catenary, you can always tell when someone know nothing about
anchoring: the invoke the catenary when in reality it has little to do
with anchoring. The "buffering" that you get with chain come from
lifting chain off the bottom, not "straightening a catenary." Yes, the
chain will assume that shape, but that's not where the buffering comes
from. By the time the chain is fully lifted and straightening the curve
comes into play, there is only a few inches of extension left and the
anchor is about to be jerked free (or the bow fittings pulled out).
This is why a bridle is needed with any all-chain rode.