Modern ground tackle on older 25' boat

[Jammer]

My boat has spent its recent years in a marina on a small inland lake. Ground tackle was clearly not a major concern of its previous owner, who kept a Bruce and a Danforth in one of the cockpit lockers. The existing rode is 6' of chain and 120 feet of rope, plus a shorter backup rode.

This boat has no anchor locker and has a cluttered foredeck (see photo).

I will be cruising, and need to have ground tackle that can be counted upon. I have tentatively settled upon a #10 Rocna (22 pounds) with 1/4" part chain rode as my preferred ground tackle.

The problem is how to store it. I suppose I can put it in the cockpit locker where the Bruce was, but that isn't going to be easy to deploy, and leaves me without a good way to manage the chain rode. It would also make it too easy to anchor from the stern, a dangerous practice.

Another alternative would be to install a bow roller. To do this I would have to relocate the large bow cleat and fairleads, and may need to relocate the navigation lights. I would have to build up a platform of wood or fiberglass to support the bow roller assembly. Altogether, a major undertaking.

I still don't know what I would do with the rode. Put it in a bucket below decks, I guess, and attach it with a shackle when needed.

I do not especially want a windlass. It seems to me that hauling by hand will be athletic but realistic.

Advice welcome.

[boatman61]

Easiest thing to do is drop the hook off the stern then walk the rode to the bow and tie off.

[Colin A]

Originally Posted by Jammer

My boat has spent its recent years in a marina on a small inland lake. Ground tackle was clearly not a major concern of its previous owner, who kept a Bruce and a Danforth in one of the cockpit lockers. The existing rode is 6' of chain and 120 feet of rope, plus a shorter backup rode.

This boat has no anchor locker and has a cluttered foredeck (see photo).

I will be cruising, and need to have ground tackle that can be counted upon. I have tentatively settled upon a #10 Rocna (22 pounds) with 1/4" part chain rode as my preferred ground tackle.

The problem is how to store it. I suppose I can put it in the cockpit locker where the Bruce was, but that isn't going to be easy to deploy, and leaves me without a good way to manage the chain rode. It would also make it too easy to anchor from the stern, a dangerous practice.

Another alternative would be to install a bow roller. To do this I would have to relocate the large bow cleat and fairleads, and may need to relocate the navigation lights. I would have to build up a platform of wood or fiberglass to support the bow roller assembly. Altogether, a major undertaking.

I still don't know what I would do with the rode. Put it in a bucket below decks, I guess, and attach it with a shackle when needed.

I do not especially want a windlass. It seems to me that hauling by hand will be athletic but realistic.

Advice welcome.

Depends on how much work you want to do on the boat. Simplest small boat solution is a heavy canvas bag for rode and anchor. For a 22 lbs anchor thou I think your better off finding some way to store it on deck and either attach the rode as need or add a small locker forward on the V berth with Hawse pipe to the deck.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Easiest thing to do is drop the hook off the stern then walk the rode to the bow and tie off.

So, limit the chain to about 25'? That would give manageable total weight, and would be about the minimum amount of rode I would want to let out, so that I would always be tying off rope rather than chain.

[Colin A]

Originally Posted by Jammer

So, limit the chain to about 25'? That would give manageable total weight, and would be about the minimum amount of rode I would want to let out, so that I would always be tying off rope rather than chain.

Yeah boat length of chain is kind of considered a minimum for cruising anchoring. Lots of power boats and smaller boats use less but having the boat length gets some weight to hold things down.

[Cheechako]

-You want a bow roller, put a good one on such that your anchor stores on the roller.
-Have you considered taking the bow dorade off and making rode storage down thru that hole? Would that work?
-There must be unused room in the bow, set it up to use it for rode. Remove that cleat and open a hole and cover as necessary. Put a cleat on each side as necessary if you want. Many options, easy, fast anchoring is a must.
- There are metal deck plates you could install to pass the rode through.
-On that boat I would probably use maybe 25 ft of chain backed up with 200 ft of Nylon of 1/2" or more for ease on the hands.
-It depends on your common cruising grounds. In say the Bahamas, I would maybe go with 50-60 ft of chain to allow 80% of anchoring with all chain out. You'd only be lifting 15 ft of chain at a time there.

[Bean Counter]

See the one where the roller is under the bow holding a CQR. should do for a Rocna

https://www.christinedemerchant.com/anchor_clamp.html

[Tayana42]

Originally Posted by boatman61

Easiest thing to do is drop the hook off the stern then walk the rode to the bow and tie off.

That’s my advice too. I did it that way on a Cape Dory Typhoon for years. Not as convenient as a bow roller, windlass and anchor well but much easier to accomplish on your boat without a major rebuild.

[Adelie]

For the OP’s boat I would get a Spade-60. 21lb galvanized or 10lb aluminum.

The guy that was doing anchor videos on YT did a comparison video where talked about the strengths and weaknesses of all the anchors he’d tested and Spade was his choice and it convinced me to change my plans on what to buy.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Adelie

For the OP’s boat I would get a Spade-60. 21lb galvanized or 10lb aluminum.

The guy that was doing anchor videos on YT did a comparison video where talked about the strengths and weaknesses of all the anchors he’d tested and Spade was his choice and it convinced me to change my plans on what to buy.

The Spade is a great anchor. I think it's probably better than the Rocna. I think that the available evidence suggests that it is perhaps the very best anchor.

But it is expensive. The Rocna is also a great anchor and I don't think, having read everything I can find on comparisons, that the Spade is materially better. The evidence suggests that it is perhaps very slightly better at resetting when it pulls out. In a lifetime of cruising that might mean that instead of experiencing, say, half a dozen events where the anchor pulled out through no fault of the ship's master, there would maybe only be five.

I have other demands on my budget, some of them safety related.

[Jammer]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

-You want a bow roller, put a good one on such that your anchor stores on the roller.
-Have you considered taking the bow dorade off and making rode storage down thru that hole? Would that work?

It would be a major piece of rework. The V berth is barely large enough for me to have room for my feet, and devoting the very front of the bow to an anchor locker would mean I couldn't sleep there, unless I rearrange the interior to make the V berth extend further aft.

-There must be unused room in the bow, set it up to use it for rode. Remove that cleat and open a hole and cover as necessary. Put a cleat on each side as necessary if you want. Many options, easy, fast anchoring is a must.
- There are metal deck plates you could install to pass the rode through.

..nod.. I'll ponder those alternatives. Maybe a small locker that doesn't extend all the way to the V-berth, maybe only a 12" deep, to leave room for feet.

-On that boat I would probably use maybe 25 ft of chain backed up with 200 ft of Nylon of 1/2" or more for ease on the hands.
-It depends on your common cruising grounds. In say the Bahamas, I would maybe go with 50-60 ft of chain to allow 80% of anchoring with all chain out. You'd only be lifting 15 ft of chain at a time there.

Lake Superior is, for me, the anchoring ground of greatest concern, with the upper Mississippi River being a secondary area with very different anchoring requirements. From what I've seen, Superior is rocky and at times, steep; the upper Mrs. Hip is all mud and typically shallow outside the channel.

[Cheechako]

Adding a bulkhead like this probably too much work I suppose... Boatman's probably right, get an anchor bracket for the stern, have the rode in a dedicated container so it doesnt tangle and walk it around. Buy an anchor for which there are pulpit mounting brackets available.

[TrentePieds]

For a 25 foot, 2 1/4 ton boat, prolly much ado about nothing. As others have said, just drop it over the stern. Stow the hooks and the rode in the cockpit lockers. When anchoring, slip the bitter end of the rode over a sheet winch using a bollard hitch. Nice to have a chock where the rode goes over the rail, but not absolutely essential. You can lash the rode to the foot of a stanchion with a bit of gasket to keep it coming over a transom corner. As long a the weather permits anchoring over the stern with its low freebord, the gasket and the stanchion will hold just fine. Keep your rode in a bucket. I keep mine in a "rectangular" plastic bucket that fits through a seat hatch on a cockpit locker. Neat'n'tidy.

As you say, hauling by the Armstrong patent is no trouble at all. I do it in a boat of twice the displacement. I have 40Ft of 5/16 chain on 200 feet of 1/2" nylon. To come to the hook, I haul out the rode measuring the pre-calculated required scope in my arms counting the fathoms, and belay on a winch. The bightr just lies on the cockpit sole. Make sure it has the anchor end "on top", bitter end on the bottom. I come over the spot where I want the hook to be and with a knot or so of way on the boat I drop the hook, letting the rode run through my hands so I can know what the hook is doing. When it strikes, I increase the friction to set the point in, and let the rode pay out with friction on it till it's all out. The forereach of the boat sets the hook. I "dig in" with a touch of throttle, holding her like that for - oh - maybe three minutes or so to ensure that we won't drag. Then I shut down, and we are done.

TP is a finkeeler and "hunts" abominably when anchored over the bows. The Morgan will be less of a pain that respect. Unless the weather prohibits it, I prefer being anchored over the stern.

Hauling, I just do it hand over hand. It's gotta be blowing over 20 before that becomes a trial, and you may very well be stronger than I am, so it shouldn't be a problem for you. I drop the rode in the cockpit till it's all in. Then I tidy up and stow. If I poop out hauling by hand, I just use the self-tailing sheet winch. So far, so good :-)

The only real decision you have to make, I would think, is to choose a hook that's appropriate for the bottoms you have to handle. Here in the Salish Sea a Bruce does just fine, cause where it's shallow enough to anchor, the bottom is usually sand of some description, which is what the Bruce was designed for.

Have fun :-)

TP.

[merlinuxo]

The picture below shows how I stowed my Bruce on my '67 Morgan 24.
The holder was made out of an old pool heater pipe.

[Colin A]

Here is a decent right up on small boat anchoring. Myself I think the canvas bag idea is a good one.
Anchor Stowage — O'Day Mariner #1922 "Orion"
On my families Ericson 30 we had 25' of Chain then nylon I hauled it up by hand pretty easy.