T&T: Anchor snubbers

[Faure, Marin]

>I've heard over and over how vitally important they are to keep the
anchor from dragging and putting the entire boat in jeopardy.

I don't think I'd go that far.  As far as I'm concerned, the main value
of a snubber in 99 percent of anchoring situations is that it lets you
take all the strain off the bow pulpit, the windlass gear train, and the
windlass mounts, as well as keeping the chain from turning over on the
bow roller as the boat moves around which makes a hell of a racket
inside the boat, particularly to people trying to sleep in the forward
cabin.  The strain on the bow pulpit may not be an issue on well-made
boats, but I've seen one broken when the skipper got too enthusiastic
about backing down on his anchor to set it, and in another case powered
forward hard in an attempt to break out what I assume was a snagged
anchor.  But I think it's important to relieve the strain and jerking
against the windlass mechanism and the windlass mounts.

Our snubbers live in a dark cabinet when not in use, so the degradation
from UV and weather is not an issue.  The 1/2" snubbers we currently use
are probably about six years old, but they have not been subjected to
heavy loads simply because we rarely get those kinds of anchoring
situations on the inside waters of the PNW.  People who anchor in
rougher and windier waters would probably want to inspect or replace
their snubbers more frequently.

We use very long snubbers because it reduces the angle of pull on the
anchor which could make a difference in some bottoms even in moderate
winds. Or not.  Anchoring is a total variable so you can only make
assumptions on how the anchor will behave in such-and-such a bottom
under such-and-such conditions, set up the anchor, rode, and snubber
appropriately, and then wait to see what happens.

______________________________
C. Marin Faure
GB36-403 "La Perouse"
Bellingham, Washington