"Jeff Morris" wrote in message ...
Even more important than the "droop" is the limited (almost non-existent) extension
available to an all chain system. What its really needed is enough nylon to allow for
5 or 10 feet, or more, of stretch.



See Complete Book of Anchoring and Mooring by Hinz page 113. On the ABYC
hypothetical power boat of 45 feet and 15 foot beam the cantenary has 1 foot of
"droop"per 100 feet of rode at 30 knots and 0 feet at 40 knots. If your boat is
smaller and has a smaller section it may be a little higher.

Hinz advocates the use of chain riding stoppers for all chain boats. He points out
that all chain rodes are very good at parting or destroying something in high winds.
They are also sufficiently noisey in high wind conditions to make sleep difficult.

Jim Donohue

I will look for the Hinz book. I can attest to the noise, though only
rarely is it enough to keep me up (the waves and wind, on the other
hand, keep me hopping on a breezy night.)

IMO, from my experience using a *long* snubber of 30-40 foot of small
nylon, a chain rode can be made quite springy. The only problem I had
was pitching to a single anchor when I had too much slack in the
chain. After listening to it beat up the bow for a couple minutes I
hauled in most of the slack and things were great for the rest of the
night, but the damage to gelcoat was already done and resulted in
painting the entire topsides.

Something I haven't tried, but a fellow club member does, is using an
unusually small diameter line and a longer than usual scope. I have
watched him anchor in a fairly open range with what I consider to be a
grossly inadequate anchor on 3/8 nylon at about 8:1, with no problems.
He claims the smaller diameter has a high enough breaking strength for
the job, but is stretchier in the gusts/waves and thus both gentler to
ride to and lower jerk loads to break the anchor out.

Has anyone had any first-hand experience with Kellets or Buoys?

Amgine
http://wiki.saewyc.net/