Made an offer of £60 on the 30m spliced rope and it was accepted.

NB Badger Sett said
Alan

Thanks for the tips.

Ordered the anchor and chain yesterday and it turned up today.

Offered £57.50 for the rope and they countered with £60 so that’s on its way now as well.

Probably saved about £50 overall (minus the cost of a few shackles) so thanks for the tips.

We’re planning to travel around the north of England for the next 12 – 18 months so if you get up this way look us up – I owe you a cuppa.

One thing I picked up on whilst I was looking into anchors though was the suggestion that if the tie off point on the boat had only been welded that it could ‘pop’ off under presure and that it should be bolted or if not to add an additional bolted securing point. Not sure of this info’s accuracy, but it sounds feasible so I’ll probably do something to be safe.

Keith

 

Glad you found the info useful.  Anchor and chain have arrived and seem satisfactory – if a trifle heavy!  Not sure I will be able to recover if deployed!  A friend has offered me a commercial ratchet which may be useful.  Still to get the shackles – I have read they should be one size up from the chain.

I am planning to have my first trip in March to go to the Easter boaters banter at Gnosall – any chance you will make that or too far South?  I think I will then head North so may well be able to meet up.  Alternative is down to London to meet up with relatives but I am favouring North at present.  Have you seen waterexplorer.co.uk If you have a laptop and buy an inexpensive gps unit you can show your boats location on the interactive map.  Worked well when I tried it out on a hire boat in October.  Also shows you the distance to the next lock, junction, bridge, winding point etc. Nicholsons does the same of course but I like gadgets and found it great fun – and useful for a novice!

Regarding anchor I have yet to investigate securing.  As I will be single handing will probably keep on the stern when on rivers – next problem where to stow when not on rivers!  I suspect anchor on roof and chain in gas locker. Rope might be useful as an additional bow line run to the stern for ease of use, rather than just the centre line.

Alan

Keith have you completed the setup yet?  I have still to get shackles.  Due to sizes I think I will have to get either a 10mm or maybe even a 8mm to attach to the chain then attach an 11 or 12mm shackle to that to be able to take the thimble/

Any views?

Hello again Richard,

I replied on the Anchor thread before reading your post here.As you will see from my above post I have bought 8mm chain and 18mm rope so have no chance of splicing it direct.  Also as posted, I was going to use two shackles (smaller and larger) to attach the chain to the needle splice on the rope.  Do you have any comments?  TIA

Alan

richardhula said
Hi Alan

The 8mm chain will probably be adequate, though I use 10mm. Note the SWL of 8mm is only 576 Kg against 900 Kg for 10mm. Your 18mm rope whatever type it is will likely be way stronger (around 1000 Kg SWL) but as you say no chance of splicing – 10mm chain to 16mm anchorbraid works perfectly and still leaves the latter stronger.

The problem with a loop or needle splice to a shackle is chaffing. You could use a riggers thimble, a steel insert to the spliced loop, to alleviate this though. Also if you are using braid on braid (which you shouldn’t be) be very careful its done properly. With multi-strand its easier to see the integrity of the splice. Added to all, the multiple shackles you are using makes for a messy (IMO) solution with more potential for something coming loose. 

Sorry to be a tad negative but you did ask

Thanks Richard and negative comments are just as valuable as positive ones – probably more so.

Unfortunately I have already bought the gear but as it is only intended for emergency use chaffing and “messy” are not really problems.

Alan