On
our boat we currently have two anchors mounted at the bow. One is a 25
pound S1600 Danforth which is a little undersized for our boat. It's
attached to a 20' long 3/8" chain lead and 230' of 3/4" rope (rode in
sailor speak). Actually, according to Wikipedia, "rode" is a term for
both rope or chain or both when it's attached to an anchor. The rope is
marked off in 30' lengths with green flags that are woven into the
braid. This is a nice set-up that is easy to clean when pulled up off
the bottom and when it's set it holds well. We've used it to hold us in
30 to 40 knot winds that blew all night from all points of the compass
and it never broke free. This anchor has served us well in most
situations on the Chesapeake Bay where the bottom is mostly mud. The
few times it's failed, just wouldn't bite in, was when the bottom was
covered with dead leaves over clay and oyster shells. Our other anchor
is a 44 pound Bruce attached to 300' of 3/8" chain. The chain was
originally marked in 30' lengths with different colored wire ties but
they got brittle and fell off and then you couldn't tell how much chain
you had out. While the boat was on the hard at Hinckley last Winter I
painted 1' lengths of chain with florescent yellow and green every 25',
one band of yellow for every 25' and one band of green for every 100'.
The Bruce has been very dependable and always digs in. The only reason I
don't use it all the time is because the chain drags up mud that has to
be washed off before being stowed in the chain locker.
We
have a deck wash-down system that includes an anemic water pump that
feeds a hose up to a deck fitting at the bow. We plug a plastic 50'
coiled hose into this and use it to rinse off the anchor and chain as it
comes up. It's a pretty wimpy system though and I've been eyeballing a
pump that's rated at 70 psi and 7.5 gpm. When we build our water maker
we'll tie into the same thru-hull that supplies the wash down pump and
set it up so we have a choice of using salt or fresh water for washing
the boat. This'll come in handy when we're ocean sailing because
everything gets crusty with salt and you really need fresh water to
clean it off. I also plan to go to a regular garden hose instead of
that crappy coiled plastic tubing. Within one season the tubing
develops pin holes and you get water spraying all over the place. The
fittings on it restrict the flow too. A garden hose would take up more
room but would flow better and last longer.
La
Vida Dulce is designed with a chain locker that takes up about the
first 7' in length of the boat. This is in the bow so the space below
decks is V shaped and pretty tight. It's divided up into two bins
side-by-side up forward and one bin behind. The chain and rope drop
down through two open holes in the deck so any water that gets in here
drains overboard. We've buried the bow in waves so a good amount of
water must get in there. The rope connected to the Danforth is on the
port side, chain for the Bruce is starboard. There's a board with a
divider down the middle that lays across the front of the two forward
bins and it's purpose is for when the chain (or rope) is dropping down
into the bin it will slide down this board first. This prevents the
chain (or rope) from piling up and creating problems during anchoring
operations. The divider ensures the chain (or rope) goes into the
appropriate bin. The third bin stretches across behind the front two
and creates a nice wet locker with plenty of room for rain gear, mops,
etc.
As
long as we've had the boat we've had trouble with mold and mildew up in
the chain locker. It's always damp up there and air circulation is
pretty poor. We checked it this Spring and found it had gotten out of
control and this is what instigated our boat bombing that I mentioned a
few weeks ago. The mildew bomb did a great job of killing all the mold
and mildew on the boat, including up in the chain locker. You still
have to clean up the dead mildew though. This past weekend Cheri and I
spent hours scrubbing down the chain locker with bleach based cleaners.
This is not a comfortable space to work in, let me tell ya. There is
no flat surface to stand, even if you could stand in there, which you
can't because there's only about 3' or 4' of headroom. You have to lay
across the tops of the three bins and reach into spaces that were never
meant to be touched by human beings. This is a job for an Orangutan!
After we scrubbed it down three times we painted it white with a mildew
resistant bilge paint. It looks really great now and our boat smells
fresh and clean. It'll be really nice if it lasts for more than just a
few weeks.
Before
we take off for shores unknown we plan to move the Danforth anchor to
the stern and attach it to 300' of 3/4" rope mounted on a spool in the
cockpit locker. We'll replace it with the Bruce on the chain and rode
up in the bow along with a new Rocna 33 (73 pound anchor) on 300' of
3/8" chain.
Update 11-12-14:
Last week I
took our two anchors, Bruce and Danforth, into Baltimore Galvanizing which is located in a heavily
industrialized area near Essex. They had a minimum charge of $250 but I
couldn't get them to divulge whether that was for weight or volume or
what. I figured I could get a few other boat owners to go in on it with
me and we could split the cost. This is a bad time of year to inspire
folks to galvanize their anchors though. Seems that most everyone is
concentrating on getting their boats pulled and having them winterized.
OK, so $250 is still not so bad. That's about what I'd pay for new
anchors and it doesn't make sense to just throw them out and replace
them with pretty ones. I can get my 20' of chain on the Danforth
re-done at the same time. The shop called me on Monday and said they
were ready to be picked up. I drove out there on Tuesday in the fog and
loaded them in the trunk. I talked to the dude for a few minutes about
the cleaning process. He said they acid dip them first, fresh water
rinse and then put them in the galvanizing bath. He said the chain took
two days in the acid bath because it had paint on it and they need it
to be bare steel for the galvanizing to work properly. I asked about
the minimum charge and he said it really depended on the job, the size
of the parts, weight, etc. He thought I coulda thrown in a few more
anchors though, no problem. The anchors and chain look brand new. I'm
really pleased with the results and feel it was money well spent. Now
we'll see how long it lasts and if I still feel the same way in another
year or two.
Update 10-3-15:
That part up there where I said we wanted to add the Rocna 33. We did that. Best move we ever made. This anchor digs in and stays in all kinds of situations, including strong currents and reversing tides.
