Anchor rope replacement

M

Mastercraft

Well-known member
Joined
Dec 4, 2020
Messages
307
Fluid Motion Model
R-29 S
I have 200 ft of 5/8 anchor rope and 50 ft of 5/16 chain. I believe this is stock 2017 for R29. Correct? I got a serious knot jam in windlass. Windlass did significant chewing on rope.

What brand 3 strand rope and dia should I buy? Is there ever a need to replace chain if just general light use and no apparent damage? I am willing to hand splice rope to chain in proper way.

Other than watch the rope in locker get fed into windlass, how can I prevent knot jams?
 
look into using plait instead of 3 strand, more flexible, lays better in the locket, but harder to splice
 
The line diameter needed is dictated by the windlass gypsy. They are made for specific sizes of line and chain. I recommend going with the same diameter as the line being replaced. As already mentioned, 8-plait line will lay better in the anchor locker if you have the skill to splice it or can find a rigger to do it.
 
Recently swapped out the original 3-twist rode with 8-plait. So much better! Takes up much less room in the locker and rope jams and hockles are gone. Did the rope to chain splice myself after watching some YouTube videos;, the best was from Dark Horse Marine in the Tampa Bay region:
. She is doing the splice on used rope in the video so there is an extra step of softening the rope first which would be unnecessary on new rope. The color coding makes it much easier.
 
Bsmith said:
Recently swapped out the original 3-twist rode with 8-plait. So much better! Takes up much less room in the locker and rope jams and hockles are gone. Did the rope to chain splice myself after watching some YouTube videos;, the best was from Dark Horse Marine in the Tampa Bay region:
. She is doing the splice on used rope in the video so there is an extra step of softening the rope first which would be unnecessary on new rope. The color coding makes it much easier.
Click to expand...
BSmith:

I've spliced twisted 3-strand but never 8-plait. I watched the video you recommended. Very detailed and helpful. Did the video give you enough guidance? Would you do it again or hire someone to do it for you? Thanks!
 
I used 3 strand Samson, spliced myself, easy yet takes patience, definitely color code strands
 
AG3 said:
BSmith:

I've spliced twisted 3-strand but never 8-plait. I watched the video you recommended. Very detailed and helpful. Did the video give you enough guidance? Would you do it again or hire someone to do it for you? Thanks!
Click to expand...
It is not difficult and I would not hesitate to do another splice if I needed it. The color coding helps greatly and doing exactly what the professional on the video does makes it a DIY project. The whole job took me longer than the gal from Dark Horse Marine but I had to gather all the tools and supplies, fix a drink, and watch the video step by step along the way. By the time you’ve done your third splice you will be the guy people hire to splice their 8-plait anchor rodes.!
 
Bsmith said:
It is not difficult and I would not hesitate to do another splice if I needed it. The color coding helps greatly and doing exactly what the professional on the video does makes it a DIY project. The whole job took me longer than the gal from Dark Horse Marine but I had to gather all the tools and supplies, fix a drink, and watch the video step by step along the way. By the time you’ve done your third splice you will be the guy people hire to splice their 8-plait anchor rodes.!
Click to expand...
Thanks! Exactly what I was hoping you'd say.
 
250 feet of rode and chain seams excessive for us on our R27. It would be rare if ever that we would anchor in more than 25 feet of water or in bad weather. I also don't find it common to use that much chain here in the Great Lakes. Having that much anchor chain out could be problematic in rocky bottoms. But the too small anchor locker, causing the windlass to jam up, is really what is driving this decision. Hope is that by reducing the rode and chain that it will alleviate some of this ridiculous headache of having to be on the bow to retrieve the anchor. My thoughts are to reduce the rode and chain down to 150 feet. 125 feet of rode and 25 feet of chain. If that doesn't work, then new rode will be considered. I am already considering upgrading the anchor to a Rocna. Comments please.
 
Rocna is a great anchor. We have installed one on our R 27 and had one on each of our prior two boats. Our first night at anchor in our R27, we had an anticipated front come through with 55 knot gusts. We did not drag more than about 10 feet! Chesapeake Bay mud bottom. We were anchored in about 10 feet of water and had 50 feet of chain and 60 feet of rope, total rode of 110 feet, 11 to 1 scope.
 
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