I am in the process of purchasing a 2003 330 express. It doesn’t have an anchor rope. Assuming I use 30’ of chain. What length of 1/2” 8 plait rope will fit in the anchor rope compartment without having tangling issues? 300ft, 400ft....?
Length of anchor rope
- Thread starter Justfishing
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Legend
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I have a 282 Sailfish and I use Lewmar Premium 3 strand anchor rode with 1/2" x 300' and 15' G4 chain. This fits easily in my compartment and could handle more. I'msure a 33 Express can handle a lot more.
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You should be able to get 600-ft of good quality, 1/2" 8-plait line in there, with sufficient "fall" from the windlass to the top of the stacked rode. And 8-plait doesn't hockle like 3-strand, so much easier to deal with, and almost never tangles.
There aren't any ropes on a boat. You may buy 'rope' at the chandlery, but it is "line" once it comes aboard. Then it may get a special name, depending on the purpose, e.g. bow line, stern line, spring line. And the "line" attached to the chain that is attached to your anchor is known as a "rode". Just as Legend used in his response.
There aren't any ropes on a boat. You may buy 'rope' at the chandlery, but it is "line" once it comes aboard. Then it may get a special name, depending on the purpose, e.g. bow line, stern line, spring line. And the "line" attached to the chain that is attached to your anchor is known as a "rode". Just as Legend used in his response.
Thanks for the education and information. I plan to anchor in 120’ of water. I would like to have enough rode for a 5:1 ratio or 600’.
I anchor at different depths from time to time and all way had troubles dealing with 600' size lines, seams to tangle, hard to manage. so, what I did to fix my trouble was made manageable 100' lines with a small and big spliced loop on the ends. So, the first line haves a 30’ chain spliced on an 100' line with to a small loop splice. I take the next 100' line, pass the large loop into the first small loop, and then pass the whole 100’ bundle through the large loop, so the line lock onto each other. I have 7 100' bundles and a few 50'. This gives me a lot of options. They will not go through the windless, but I use a ring and float to pull my anchor when it's over 200 feet anyways, and it goes through the ring very easy. The system works well for me, I like to dry the lines before I stroll them so the line on the deck anyways. The lines are 3 strain very easy to splice. I don't know if this is a fix for your issue, and I might not have explained it well, but it works great for me.Hope this helped.
usmm1234
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The 2003 330 has the anchor windlass mounted fairly far forward. I know. I have a 2002. Grady didn’t correct this until 2008. You can’t move it back because the hatch directly behind the pulpit. The problem this creates is that you don’t have a nice deep drop from the windless to handle lots of line. Therefore the anchor line stacks up and jams if someone isn’t tending to it up on the bow. The older boats don’t have windlass controls on the bow either. I have 300 ft of 5/8 and it works pretty good, but I have only had about 100 ft out so far.
Our old ropes broke in a jetski incident and I have now replaced them with Airhead ropes for the boat. If anyone questions the durability of this rope, I can say that it is quite amazing after being towed in a capsized boat. It is also a good thing that it has a color combination of bright blue and black, I did not have to worry even in low-light environments.
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Polypropylene rope is not ideal for achor line. It is NOWEHERE near as durable and long lasting as traditional nylon rope. It also has no stretch (nylon does) which is highly recommended for anchoring. Poly rope will get degraded by UV, as well. It is also wears/cuts very quickly against rocks and other ground structure.
usmm1234
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Excellent reply. Poly also floats, which is a invite for it to get into the prop. Nylon twist anchor rode (line) is the standard. Top shelf is 8 plait nylon. Never Poly.
I have 50' of chain and 300 feet of mega-plait 1/2" line on my 2003 Express based in SoCal. Works great with my original Simpson-Lawrence windlass. I found the mega-plait (12 strand) worked a lot better for me than the 8-plait. The 8-plait had more stretch and would slip too much through my gypsy - no slippage with the mega-plait.
usmm1234
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Yeah, 8 plait didn’t work as well in my in my Lewmar Pro Fish. I went back to 3 strand twist. It grabs that great. It just gets hard after a few years.
You probably know this trick but here goes.
You can soften your line by soaking it in water and fabric softener. You would need a fairly big pail for hundreds of feet of rope. I soak mine in plane water for a bit, then a mixture of fabric softener and water overnight. A final rinse the next day and it should be good to go
usmm1234
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On my last boat (28' Sea Ray), the anchor locker was completely sealed from the cabin and was 3' deep and quite wide, as well. I could plug the drain holes and wash/soak it right there in place like Seasick mentioned! I like my Grady, and realize it's 4 decades old, but still... who in their right mind would think draining an anchor locker into the cabin bilge is a good idea?
ROBERTH
GreatGrady Captain
I have 600' 8 plait 1/2" in my 252 and yes, every now and then get a jamb but that has been mostly due to the chain working it's way down under the rode during rough seas. Once I get it out and use it a bit, that issue goes away.
Much easier to deal with an occasional jamb than other methods I think......
I am toying around with making the anchor locker bigger.....on my model, I can actually pull the rode through into the forward cabin hatch which I have done to store some of the rode, but it is only able to be put into there by manually pulling over a fiberglass edge forward of this locker. What I could do is trim off the ledge and fix it up so the anchor rode would just slide down into the locker giving me plenty of room.
You might look into your forward locker and see if it is made the same and if you might have this same option with some modifications.
Much easier to deal with an occasional jamb than other methods I think......
I am toying around with making the anchor locker bigger.....on my model, I can actually pull the rode through into the forward cabin hatch which I have done to store some of the rode, but it is only able to be put into there by manually pulling over a fiberglass edge forward of this locker. What I could do is trim off the ledge and fix it up so the anchor rode would just slide down into the locker giving me plenty of room.
You might look into your forward locker and see if it is made the same and if you might have this same option with some modifications.