anchoring San Juans - more rode?

[Cutwater28GG]

for those that anchor in the san juans have you added more nylon rode to your anchor line? many of the anchorages look to be 5 fathoms or more. = 5 foot bow height + 5 fathoms +tide change of 8 feet = 215feet of rode out at 5:1 ratio. the cutwater and I think the tugs come with 250ft anchor rode: 50ft chain and 200 feet line.

any anchorage over 6 fathoms puts the limits on the standard install.

 

[Smcavana]

We've been anchoring in the San Juans for almost 40 years, mostly in a 40 foot sailboat (30k lbs) with all or mostly all chain. Most anchorages have mud bottoms, and we rarely have used more than 3 or 4 to 1 unless the wind really came up. Our experience in our R27 Classic is more limited, but last summer we anchored several times with our new Rocna 10 in 20-30 feet with just enough scope to get beyond the 50 feet of chain so we didn't need to rig a snubber. One time, in Blind Bay in 20-30 feet of water, the wind came up from an unexpected direction, and although we had repeated gusts to the mid-30's, we didn't budge. I doubt that you would need more rode than you have, depending on your anchor.. You might end up playing bumper boats in a crowded anchorage if you used it. But your mileage may vary with a different anchor or a difficult bottom (such as the thick kelp and seaweed in Bowman Bay, for example). Good luck. The San Juan anchorage are magical!

 

[Chimo]

Same experience as Michael and Susan. The change to the ROCNA 10 was a big game changer. We do use rode as a shock absorber when it blows up and we have room but not just for scope reasons.