Types of Anchor Rope Rodes

When it comes to an all rope rode, there are two good choices and one bad choice. 

The first good choice is three lay nylon rope. This material has about 20% stretch and considerable strength for its size. It is also the cheapest of all the rope options. Being three lay, it is very easy to splice and also very easy to repair. Should a segment become chafed, it can be repaired by performing a mending splice. Should you need to add length to your rode, you can always carry it out by performing a short splice or long splice. The possibilities are endless when working with three lay nylon! 

The disadvantage of three lay nylon is that it is succeptible to chafe and the section of rope that attaches to the shank of the anchor will be the most chafed section of the entire rode. Careful inspection will let you know when it is time to repair this area and prevent the loss of your expensive and precious anchor! 

The second good choice is megaplait nylon rope. This rope is made by weaving many smaller strands of nylon together in a tight and integral pattern. This line is considerably more expensive but at the same time, considerably more resistant to chafe than three lay nylon. It doesn't have as much stretch as three lay, but it is still enough to absorb the shock loads presented by a well buried anchor.  

Splicing megaplait is very tedious, as there are many small strands to deal with and it takes considerable patience to complete a splice. Repairing megaplait is also rather tricky, so it is fair to say that it is not as friendly to the user as three lay is, but still a very good option if you can afford the line. 

The last option, which is the bad option for an anchor rode is any kind of double braid line. Double braid line does have an outer core that would protect the core from chafe, but the core is impossible to inspect from the outside to evaluate its strength and it does not have anywhere near the needed stretch characteristics of regular megaplait or three lay. This means that the shock loads on the rode will be higher, putting the rode at much greater risk to cause damage to the ground tackle system and possibly snap the rode.  

While all rope rodes are an option for an anchor rode, they are far from the ideal setup. The rope is rather light and will not provide the catenary curve needed to create the lateral pull the anchor requires to set and hold properly. All rope rodes require much longer scope to achieve the same holding power and are at risk of chafing through and breaking.  

If you anchor for a few hours on a weekend when the weather is nice, a rope rode will serve you well. if you plan on cruising and spend almost every night on the hook, it will be worth the investment into an all chain rode. 

Types of Chain

In the world of anchor chains, there are a few key players. All of these chains will be labeled with a number or letter stamped into the links metal. If you do not see any markings, the chain could be a cheap knockoff that might not be built to the same rigorous standards. 

Chain also comes in a few materials, mainly consisting of galvanized or stainless steel. We will be focusing on galvanized chain in this post. 

There are three main types of chain: Proof Coil, BBB, and High Tensile strength chain. 

Proof Coil is by far the cheapest and weakest of the chains. The links in this chain are made from carbon steel and covered in a protective galvanized coating to ward off corrosion. Proof coil is identifiable by the markings PC, PC3, G3, or Grade 30. Upon construction, the chain is stressed to its breaking strength and then inspected every 10 links. It is not calibrated to work with the wildcat on windlasses, so it might not be as easy to retrieve as you might have hoped. 

BBB is the next step up. Also made of carbon steel, it is inspected at each and every link upon testing. This means that the chain is strong and checked throughly before it reaches you, the consumer. The links in BBB are uniform and it will work with a wildcat on your windlass! Identifying marks on BBB chain are: BBB, and 3B. It tends to have the same weight per foot as PC chain, but it will work in your windlass and it was inspected more throughly before you bought it. 

Hgh Tensile chain is made from heat treated and high tensile strength carbon-manganese alloy. It is much stronger than regular carbon steel, so a chain of the same strength can be made of much smaller links. This means that the chain will weigh less per foot and will upset your displacement and balance much less when fully loaded.

HT chains are marked as Grade 40, G4, and G43. These are manufactured under the same rigorous testing of BBB chain, but you get a much lighter product with the same strength. Higher strength chain is marked as Grade 70, G70, and G7. This chain is very light and very strong, offering the best strength to weight ratio. This will allow you to carry hundreds of feet of rode in your bow without weighing your bow down into the water. 

While HT chains are favorable with their weight reductions, they do have one draw back over BBB, and that is the heat treatment that gives it strength. When a chain needs to be re-galvanized, the heating of the galvanization can damage the heat treatment of the chain. Grade 40 and 43 chain is more resistant to the process, but Grade 70 is very delicate and can loose its strength by regalvanizing. 

Anchor Rode Materials

When you think about anchoring, you probably just picture the anchor falling to the bottom and grabbing on with its flukes, and then the anchor rode holding the boat to the anchor. The anchor doesn't move, and neither does the boat! Simple!  

The truth is very far from this ideal mental image of anchoring. There are materials and calculations that need to take place for the anchoring to work successfully. 

While the anchor itself is an important topic for discussion, we will ignore the different brands and styles of anchors out there and simply picture the perfect anchor (whichever anchor you wish that to be) and simply focus on how the anchor is connected to the yacht. 

Boats have ropes on them! So naturally, the first material of thought for an anchor rode would be nylon line. It is both stretchy and strong, so why not tie the anchor rode to the anchor using an "anchor hitch" and all it a day! Nylon rode has the advantage of stretch, but it is very succeptible to chafe. There is little chafe as the line runs through the water, but considerable chafe as the line meets the anchor.  

The anchor lives on the bottom of the sea floor, and the shank is usually in very close proximity to this area. This means that the rode will be laying on the sea bed as well and will rub against many items that can chafe through the line. 

To alleviate this issue, a length of chain can be added between the anchor and the rope, this will take the brunt of the chafe like a champion, and allow the rope to complete the journey up to the vessel. Chain adds considerable weight to the system as well, and weight near the shank will help pull the shank parallel to the bottom and aid the flukes to dig in and hold well. 

If a little chain is good, why not make the entire system out of chain! This would be by far the strongest system, and also the heaviest. The weight of the chain suspended between the bow and the anchor will form a catenary curve that will help pull laterally on the anchor and keep it dug into the bottom. 

Chain is not elastic though, and the only elasticity in the system will come from the catenary curve being consumed as wind and waves push the bow back in a surge. As the bow pushes aft, the curve will flatten out and then the weight will pull the bow forward again until the curve is re-established. This works well for moderate to light conditions, but in heavy conditions, this curve will be blown straight and the shock loads will be transmitted to everything in the system. To prevent the cyclical and damaging shock loads, a nylon snubber can be tied between the bow and the rode, taking the force of the last few feet of the rode and offering some much needed elasticity. 

Your choices are very simple when deciding what type of rode to employ. You can either use all rope, rope and chain combination, or all chain. Naturally, the longevity and price will go hand in hand. Rope is the cheapest and will last only a number of years, while chain will be the most expensive and will last decades if well cared for. 

Cruising Dinghy

You may feel like you need to have the best dinghy in production on your boat when you go cruising, because this dinghy will be your dinghy from now until the end of time!

The truth is, your dinghy now may not be your dinghy in a short amount of time. We set out cruising with a 13 foot wooden dinghy named "Tooth" in tow and a partially constructed wooden dinghy named "Tooth II" on the deck. Once Tooth II was completed, we were going to retire Tooth because towing a dinghy is awful on a long passage! The sea trial of Tooth II was comical! I had built Tooth II to fit in the space available and hold our life jackets in a locked box integral to the hull. I forgot to account for the fact that we needed to fit in this boat with all of our bikes and groceries! Tooth II was very tipsy and didn't make the cut to be our next cruising dinghy.

We then searched Craigslist and stumbled upon our next dinghy, Tooth III. This was a 7 foot fiberglass catamaran dinghy and it was for sale at a price that was within our budget. A few months later, my dad decided he didn't want his inflatable dinghy anymore so he sold it to me since it was still new and it its original package. We carried the inflatable because it would serve as a crude anti theft device.  

A boat that is anchored has a huge giveaway to potential thieves that tell them if anyone is home or not, the dinghy! If the yacht has a dinghy tied up behind it, then someone is home and they should go visit another boat in the anchorage. If the yacht has no dinghy, then the people must be on shore and the boat is alone and vulnerable!  Our plan is to leave the inflatable locked to the boat while we go to shore on the rigid dinghy. 

In the ICW though, we quickly learned how easy it is to launch an inflatable and paddle the short distance to shore, so we have begun using both. 

My point is, we set out with a dinghy under construction that was going to take us to shore everywhere we went and ended up switching to two dinghies that we didn't even know existed in a few months of cruising. Rather than contemplating what dinghy you should get before you set out cruising, why not get anything that will get you to shore and go cruising! 

Dinghy

Your cruising yacht may be a capable piece of machinery that will get you from here to your dreams, but it won't get you to shore in a dry manner. Sailboats need underwater appendages to grant them the ability to sail to windward, and these appendages create a requirement for draft of the yacht. This means that your yacht might be able to get close to shore, but it will always require some water to float in and will never get "on" shore. 

If you simply anchored and jumped off your boat, you could technically swim to shore, but you would arrive soaking wet! If you have a shallow draft boat, you might be able to wade from yacht to shore, but you would still need to get into the water to make the distance. 

This is where a dinghy comes into play. A dinghy is a small craft that connects your yacht and shore in an easy and dry manner. A dinghy will have a very shallow draft, allowing it to get right up to the waters edge. This decreases the distance you will need to jump and will allow you to jump from the dinghy onto a dry beach! 

Dinghies come in various styles and materials, offering different options to those who use them. The most popular dinghy of choice is the inflatable dinghy! 

Inflatable dinghies are light weight, very stable, and can carry a lot of weight for their size. They are called inflatable because they are made of large tubes that are filled with air. The air displaces a lot of volume which gives the dinghy its bouyancy and stability with nearly no weight. The problem with inflatables though is that they rely on keeping the air in them to work and if they were to form a hole by which air could escape, they would soon begin to deflate and sink. 

Inflatable dinghies have a rather short lifespan, but their life is filled with ease of use and plagued by fears of leaks. Being such popular choices leads to inflatables having a very high demand which then summons a high price as well! This makes inflatable dinghies rather expensive for what you get and highly prized on the black market since they will sell quickly, leading to a lot of dinghy theft. 

The alternative to inflatable dinghies is to get a rigid dinghy. Rigid dinghies are made out of wood, metal, or fiberglass, and have a lot to offer even though they are wildly unpopular. 

Rigid dinghies can be rather expensive to purchase new, as they do cost a considerable amount in raw materials to create. While new dinghies are expensive, they will loose their value almost instantly as no one else wants to purchase them. This increases the supply of used rigid dinghies and with nearly no demand for them, drives the price way down! We recently purchased a used rigid dinghy that could fit on our deck for $300. The dinghy cost $1,700 a few years ago when it was new! 

The low demand for rigid dinghies also means that there is a low risk of theft, as the thief would have a hard time selling the dinghy to earn some fast cash.  

While the durability of a rigid dinghy is vastly greater than the durability of an inflatable, so is the weight! Our inflatable dinghy is 8 feet long and weights less than 50 pounds. Our 7 foot rigid dinghy weighs around 120 pounds!  

The choice of which dinghy to purchase is ultimately up to the individual cruiser, but we have found a few key differences while cruising with both. 

An inflatable dinghy will weigh almost nothing so it will also blow off the deck in a light wind if not tied down. It can be launched and recovered by hand by one person with no need for assistance. It is very stable and will not tip over. It needs to be pumped with air every few weeks as even new, air will seep out. It doesn't row very well, so we have to each take an oar and paddle like if we were in a canoe. 

A rigid dinghy will be heavier and will need the assistance of a winch and hoisting mechanism to launch and retrieve it. It will not blow off the deck in a light wind. Stability depends on the design, some being very stable while others being very tender. You will never need to worry about air leaks again, but you still need to worry about hull punctures, just like with any boat. They row very well and can be rowed long distances efficiently, even into strong winds and waves.  

We currently use both dinghies, each for the purpose that we find them best suited. The inflatable is wonderful in the ICW where land is always very close and the ease of launching and retrieving the dinghy is worth it. We do feel like we are sitting in an inflatable pool toy though, as it doesn't feel very solid when we stand in it. We use the rigid dinghy when we are in more open areas and need to row farther distances. It is a bit troublesome to launch but makes the rest of the journey with ease. 

If you have the space for a rigid dinghy, I would suggest getting one used and carrying it with you on your deck. Inflatables are for sale everywhere, but I would try to get the smallest and most affordable new inflatable you can, that way you get the most time out of your investment since a used inflatable will cost close to the new price. Our new inflatable was around $700 from West Marine, while our used dinghy was around $300. Having both lets you use the one that is best at that moment, but if budget doesn't permit, then get which ever dinghy you can afford at the moment and go cruising! You can always change dinghies along the way as you stumble upon great deals!