Securing rope anchor rode on Cutwater

[sjreib]

On my C30 the bow pulpit is in the way of accessing the rope rode when anchoring. How do I use a snubber or similar to take the load off the windless? The small cleat just in front of the windless is inadequate. The big cleats off to the side and in front are poorly positioned for this purpose-they would pull on the windless. I think Rangers have a different set up.
Thanks for your input.

 

[Tim Porter]

Great question. Thinking the same. Then big cleats seem to be the solution but poor leads. Gotta be a better way.

 

[CruisingElvinRay]

This is how I do it on our R-23.

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[SJI Sailor]

I do it the same way as mooring buoy line -- using the side cleats and chocks with lines going down over the sides and joining the anchor line. The hard part is tying them on -- I sometimes lie on the pulpit and reach over, other times pull the anchor line up to the side and tie on there.

It would be nice to have a real clear at the windless!

 

[CruisingElvinRay]

On one of the webinars, they said the use the windlass clear to hoist the deck onto the hull in manufacturing. It’s not a weak point.


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[Wee Venture]

On our R-31, a different boat but with a similar small cleat by the windlass, I just let out a little extra rope road and use it to tie off to that small cleat. It looks to me like it was made for that purpose and a single cleat hitch fits just right. If this is incorrect procedure I would like to know. (I also have a snubber bridle that I use at times.)

John

 

[SJI Sailor]

That is good to know about that cleat! It just looks so small 🙂

 

[Jfrano]

The only thing I use that small cleat is to tie the chain when not in use, to prevent anchor deployment while underway.

I utilize the Mantus pendant, tying off to both larger cleats.

 

[SJI Sailor]

I looked at it again yesterday and still have to agree with jfrano: there is no way I would feel OK to trust that small cleat for anchoring. I understand that may be technically incorrect but I don't mind over engineering 🙂

Here's part of my reason for skepticism about it: if a single cleat that size can hold the boat adequately, why are all the other cleats, which are used in pairs or more, so much larger? (Yeah, I know scope and how anchors work come into the picture. Still, I think I'll stick with a bridle.)

 

[CruisingElvinRay]

Are you thinking the cleat would break? More important to me is the strength of the surrounding material and the backing used behind the fiberglass.


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[sjreib]

I just bought a couple of Davis line grabbers that I'll attach to the rope rode inplace of a rolling hitch and then run a line from the other loop to the large forward cleats to take the strain off the windless. If they don't slip or break under pressure should do the job.

 

[it4llc]

I'll preface my comments by saying I'm a newbie, so take with the salt shaker, but on our C28, the small cleat between the windlass and anchor seems very small to hold under any kind of load. it might be sufficient to hold a few hundred pounds of fiberglass that is producing a smooth load inside the shop, but I'd be concerned about the jerking at anchor from waves/wind/etc. I'm not even sure I could get the anchor rode tied off around it. That being said, I think different models (and maybe years) have different set ups so on some boats that cleat may be larger and perfectly adequate. On top of that, our boat does tend to sail a bit at anchor when there is some wind and we are just using the windlass. Based on a prior post, I have tried a snubber tied to both forward cleats and it does seem to reduce the sailing at anchor effect a lot, so even if the little cleat might hold the load, I'd most likely still use the 2 larger cleats to reduce the sailing at anchor.

 

[SJI Sailor]

@CruisingElvinRay, my concern is not with the cleat itself but with the mounting as you note (and lack of backup other than the windless itself).

+1 to sjreib and it4llc -- nice point about stability at anchor.

 

[Cutwater28GG]

Rolling hitch to anchor rode led back to main cleat over the gunwhale.

 

[Sandro]

I think we are all overthinking this. The cleat in front of the windlass is through bolted to the deck. Your anchor would drag WAY before that cleat pulled the deck apart.

 

[bluestreak]

With the 8 plait anchor line on our boat, the cleat is too small to hold more than a turn or two.
Not enough to hold for peace of mind.
I use the outboard cleats with a Mantus snubber.