Anchor chain/rope storage

[baz]

Last week I decided to mark my anchor line with depth markers. I purchased the PVC tapes that had 30-foot markers. That is, each PVC tape maker had monotonically increasing numbers starting at 30', then 60', then 90', etc with the last one being 300'.

My chain is 50' long and the rope is 200' long. So I started with the 60' marker at 10' into the rope section, and then proceeded to mark off 30' increment until I was 10' from the ropes end. This all went well and found myself with 240' of chain and rope on the foredeck.

OK -- so now I had to get all of that chain and rope back into the locker in such a way it would feed out without getting tangled. I decided to simply coil up the rope as best I could and then placed that into the locker. I followed this by coiling the chain until all of that was in the locker.

Was coiling the rope and chain the right thing to do for ensuring the anchor line would not jam/tangle when being feed out?

I recall reading in Chapman's that I should have coiled the rope and chain in a figure 8!

I'm quite prepared to redo the anchor line stowage if others think I stowed it incorrectly.

Thanks. 🙂

P.S. That chain is heavy. 😉

 

[captain's cat]

Do you have a windlass? If so, bring the line/chain back to the foredeck, have someone keep a tension on it while you let the windlass stow it. If you do that, it should come back out fine because that's the way you'd normally put it in. No windlass?, Same procedure except stuff it back into the hawse pipe by hand.

Charlie

 

[baz]

Do you have a windlass? If so, bring the line/chain back to the foredeck, have someone keep a tension on it while you let the windlass stow it. If you do that, it should come back out fine because that's the way you'd normally put it in. No windlass?, Same procedure except stuff it back into the hawse pipe by hand.

Charlie

What a good idea. Yes, I do have the powered windlass. Thanks. 🙂

 

[sparky]

I was warned that, particularly when the rope is new, it may not fall into the storage locker as nicely- and in fact have noticed that as the rode is pulled onboard by the windlass and falls into the locker it does tend to bunch and pile up, causing a "backup" of sorts. We typically have my husband at the helm and I stay on the fordeck, operating the windlass from there and periodically stopping to make sure the rode and chain are falling into the locker properly.

Sparky

 

[baz]

I was warned that, particularly when the rope is new, it may not fall into the storage locker as nicely- and in fact have noticed that as the rode is pulled onboard by the windlass and falls into the locker it does tend to bunch and pile up, causing a "backup" of sorts. We typically have my husband at the helm and I stay on the fordeck, operating the windlass from there and periodically stopping to make sure the rode and chain are falling into the locker properly.

Sparky

Thanks.... noted. 🙂

 

[Auklet]

Don't forget to tie down the bittter end. There should be an eye strap, or something similar, in your storage locker. Rolling out 251 feet of line could be a bit embarassing.

 

[baz]

Don't forget to tie down the bittter end. There should be an eye strap, or something similar, in your storage locker. Rolling out 251 feet of line could be a bit embarassing.

Yep, Ranger did a good job of ensuring that was done, and I did check it when I had all of the rode out of its locker. 🙂

 

[rt11002003]

Racing sailboat for 30+ plus years taught me a number of lessons, generally painful ones. :?

Always leave the lines (sheets, halyards, etc.) as they fall. They'll never get tangled as they play back out.

New crew always wanted to tidy up and coil everything. Almost everytime it resulted in a tangle.

This applies to both old and new line. The trick is to avoid having the line develop the tangle, or a chance of a tangle, as it falls.

Works for anchor rode, too.

Gene

 

[Lobo]

One more hint.

Tie a piece of line, about 10 feet long, between your anchor line and the tie down in the anchor locker. If you ever have to abandon your anchor you won't have to cut your anchor line. If you can't retrieve your anchor, you can untie the line from the 10' piece, attach your anchor line to a float/fender/bumper and toss it overboard. Then you figure out how to get it all back on board.

 

[Tom Ray]

Racing sailboat for 30+ plus years taught me a number of lessons, generally painful ones. :?

Always leave the lines (sheets, halyards, etc.) as they fall. They'll never get tangled as they play back out.

New crew always wanted to tidy up and coil everything. Almost everytime it resulted in a tangle.

This applies to both old and new line. The trick is to avoid having the line develop the tangle, or a chance of a tangle, as it falls.

Works for anchor rode, too.

Gene

I agree completely. Coiling is bad news, let 'em lay as they fell and they'll go back out nice. If you insist on coiling, learn the figure 8 coil so you don't put a bit of twist in the line w/each coil. I think just letting them fall works better than any coil, including an 8 coil.