Rick Beddoe wrote:
>
> I'm curious what some Baba 30 owners use. Anyone using all chain?
> 300'of chain is going to be over 300lbs. That sounds like an awful lot of
weight to have up there in the nose.

Hi Rick,

Mandisa has a 33lb Spade with 120' of 5/16 BBB (?) chain and 200' of
three strand (I don't remember what size). The PO's anchor was a 25lb
CQR, but we felt it was way too small for the Baba 30.

As others have said, anchors and ground tackle are a religion and should
probably not be discussed in mixed company. However... I would say that
30ft of chain is probably not enough. I would think that at least twice
that much would be a minimum. The weight of the chain really helps the
anchor to work - especially in poor bottoms. In your defense, soft mud
is supposed to be one of the worst bottoms to anchor in. The CQR is a
"plow" and it will, in fact, dig a furrow in a soft bottom just as if
your boat was an ox. (The Chesapeake guys can tell you a lot more about
that than I can!!) Probably your danforth would have been a better
choice. But either way, more chain would be a good idea.

Regarding your rope/chain problem, a lot of people use a rope/chain
splice. (It ties a lot like a 3 strand eye splice - except without the
eye, of course.) That should go through your gypsy better. (You might
want to check and make sure you have the correct gypsy for what you're
doing.)

As far as technique goes, I have to confess that we are not anchoring
experts. We've only done it a few times with very good bottoms. What we
do is lower the anchor to the the bottom and then slowly back the boat
(or let it blow back) letting out scope. We don't put any pressure on
the anchor, we just lay the chain on the bottom so it won't foul the
anchor. When we have about 4:1 scope, we'll stop and wait for a bit.
(Apparently the Spade likes to settle in on the bottom.) If the bow
blows down, it's ok, we just wait for the boat to straighten out. Once
things seem ok, we'll back down on the anchor. Slowly! If it holds,
we'll let out the rest of the scope we want and back down again.

We've learned our techniques from talking with others who anchor in the
same area. We've also found a very good book - "Staying Put! The Art of
Anchoring" by Brian Fagan - which is much easier to understand than the
Earl Heinz book. There are people on this list with a zillion times more
experience than we have. Hopefully, they will come in with some more
(and better) info on technique.

Cindy

--
Cindy Ballreich
S/V Mandisa
Baba 30 #218
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Received on Fri Jul 15 09:16:46 2005