Yet another topic where jaxie can show his ignorance. NE Ropes says at 15% of
breaking strength elongation is 15%. Marlow has similar numbers. But what would
they know? http://www.neropes.com/techdata/3strand.pdf
One can debate whether 15% of tensile strength is a proper safety factor, but for a
snubber its not that critical. This works out to snubbers in the range of 30 to 60
feet. Personally, the need to rig snubbers was one of the issues that led me to stop
using all-chain and go to a mixed chain/nylon rode.
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.