Snubber Failures

[thinwater]

I'm building a data base of cruiser-proven snubber dimensions. While it is all well and good to hear what folks use, the real question is how thin is too thin. This will include both short snubbers (unload the windass) and long snubbers (reduce impact force), which are very different animals.

What failed?

* How long in service?
* Wind speed at failure?
* Diameter
* Length
* Boat length
* Displacement
* Construction (3-strand, brait, climbing rope, etc.)
* Anything else relevant. Getting caught in the breakers, chafe, crushed it under the chain; these all happen and are different subjects.

[JPA Cate]

Thinwater,

We once broke about a 2 yr old, nylon double braid 16 mm snubber line. Wind shift (I don't remember the strengh), with increased sea state, but only ~ 1 m. waves. It turned out the anchor was snubbed on a boulder, and the loads must have been teriffic. I watched the chain running out of the windlass following the break. It made a very loud noise. There were about 7 m of snubber deployed. The boat is 46 ft. (13.7m) and displaces about 12 tons.

We have some friends who subscribed to the small diameter snubber line, who used about 10 mm 3 strand nylon for a 34 ft. steel boat. During the 10 yrs. we were in the same areas, they never broke it, and as far as I know, they used the same one for the whole 10 yrs. They always deployed quite a bit of it, did not use it "short".

Ann