[wrwakefield]

We know tons of methods to prevent chafing on mooring pennants or anchor snubbers themselves, as they pass through chocks or a shackle.

However, with either lead through a fore chock, our boat will swing enough that the line wraps across the bow of the boat during the extreme angle of the swing, before she straightens out again. This chafes the topsides paint. It usually rubs out with perfect-it at the end of the season, but I would love to prevent it.

Any ideas? Either a method to keep it from wrapping across or a method to protect the paint.

I could and sometime do run the snubber down the bow roller instead, but the sharp edges of the roller introduces its own chafe issues and I prefer to skip the bow roller, if its really blowing snot.

Minnewaska,

Will this happen if you have two snubbers [i.e., anchor bridle] and/or mooring ties? We have seen that behavior with one lead through one bow chock, but with one to each side of the bow this doesn't happen. [In our case we are keeping the line(s) and/or anchor chain(s) off of the bob-stay.]

Our bow chocks are about 4 ft apart. Less separation may not prevent the wrapping at the bow you are describing...

Or perhaps I am misunderstanding...?

If the bow chafing cannot be prevented with two lines, would something like stick-on stainless steel pads work?

In case this is helpful.

Cheers!

Bill

 

[wrwakefield]

Yes, that's our standard set up. A line back to the cleat on each side of the foredeck.

That a cool idea. Just not big enough. The front rounded nose of the bow is 6 or 8 inches wide and the protection would likely have to run back a little bit on each side.

Well shoot, I assume you have no bow-eye close to the waterline...? [That is my go-to in severe conditions- I have a special snatch block that leads the line over a bow roller from the waterline level bow eye...]

Short installing a bow eye, you could do what I did to my Valiant Esprit 37 many years ago: I had a sheetmetal shop make a large semi-circle shape [less than 180° and about a ~3ft radius] of SS bent around the bow and snugged up under the toe rails. I glued it on with 3M 4200 [or whatever the removable 5200 was at that time...] It looked great and protected the upper half of the bow from anchors, chain, and wrapping mooring lines...

If none of this is appealing, I wonder if a spreader bar attached to the two lines ahead of the bow- keeping the lines separated- would make a difference? [As an experiment use wood, so it floats and doesn't hurt anything it touches...]

Otherwise.... it's back to a riding sail if wind is what is causing your boat to horse while moored/anchored. [vs current...]

I wish you the best finding a solution to preserve the paint... and the labor to restore the paint...

Cheers!

Bill

 

[wrwakefield]

A custom stainless plate would be the real trick. It would have to be a heavy enough gauge not to dent, when (not if) the anchor were to smack it from time to time. We get a scratch or two from the anchor each year as well, that require an artist brush touch up. Can't get dents out.

I'm trying to visualize whether it would look bad.

Of course, if it were a boat buck to have made, that pays for a ton of touch up and buffing. Maybe I'm back to square one.

Minnewaska,

The plate I had made was the thickest the shop I used could shear and form. (There was only one shop where I was at that time; Valdez Alaska...) I believe it was 11 gauge- quite robust and definitely capable of inflicting serious injury if mishandled during install... [I made the template from waxed butcher paper- which was all I could get my hands on...]

The SS plate can be appealing if carefully shaped. [But everyone has their own eye for aesthetics...] To get an approximation of what I ended up with set the center point of a circle in the center of your bow at the toe rail. Attach a string there and drop down the bow the length you would like the plate to cover. Now scribe an arc to both port and starboard sides up to the respective toe rails. Adjust the shape so the arc ending at the two side toe rails is vertical- not starting to swing back toward the center of your circle.

Your choice of finish on the SS will determine how much effort you need to put into maintaining it. Polished will show every scratch and rub; brushed less so; a pattern will show little. [I ended up applying a pattern- using a hand drill. (Video of a similar technique below.) The pattern looked good, required no pre-finishing of the SS plate other than sanding, hid scratches, and was easy to touch-up if gouged...]

Back to prevention: Another approach to reduce horsing at anchor I didn't think to mention in my earlier post is using a small drogue.

When at anchor, higher winds will get us horsing at anchor too. [44 ft; 22 tons fully laden] We can sheet a stiff mizzen sail and that helps.

What works just as well is to attach a small drogue [2 ft diameter in our case] to the anchor chain so it sits just below the water line. This buffers the horsing enough to minimize any extra load on the ground tackle.

What I describe above probably won't work attached this same way on a mooring [unless the scope is long enough to allow the boat to horse...] However, I wonder if dropping a drogue [again, just below the surface to avoid fouling with rudder/prop, etc...] attached to a bridle from the transom might help buffer the swings you describe? [If there are no contrary currents to influence the drogue action...]

In hopes portions may be useful.

Cheers!

Bill

 

[wrwakefield]

The drogue could help in some circumstances, but several anchorages I'm thinking of could have opposing wind/current.

Minnewaska,

The drogue does require some experimentation. We have found that since our 'ideal' drogue size [2ft] for this application [and it happens to be the drogue we carry in the RIB...] is not influenced as much by current when there is enough wind to cause us to horse around...

Of course there is a break-even point on wind vs.current effect... This is where the drogue and riding sail are balanced against each other- or used individually.

The good news is a drogue this size is cheap and easy to manage, and can be useful in the dink.

Best wishes resolving these issues!

As we always inform our guests: Don't expect a margaritas-on-deck cruise... There is always work to be done!

Cheers!

Bill

 

[wrwakefield]

It would seem the secondary anchor rode would then chafe on the hull.

Given our windage and huge party tent bimini/dodger, we swing more than a squat full keeler, but not ridiculously. I bet the line contacts the bow in as little as 30 degs of swing. It could be the plumb bow that's really the issue.

This is what had me ask in the first place. I'm building a snubber bridle with two lengths of 3-strand, each spliced around thimbles and attached to a shackle on a chain hook. On the other end of each line, I am going to splice an eye that can be run through the chocks on either side of the bow and easily over the cleat.

To date, I just tie a rolling hitch around the chain and bring the line back to the deck and tie a cleat hitch. I've worked with all sorts of lengths to see if could limit the bow wrap, to no avail.

Now that the length is going to be permanent, I was hoping to come up with another solution to the chafing. I'm also concerned, now that their will be a hard chain hook, not just a knot, that the force of pulling the chain back toward the cleats, could pull the hook into the bow in light winds. Believe it or not, the hook for 1/2" chain must weigh 5-10lbs. I could make it long enough that it falls under the hull, but I wasn't thinking the hook should be underwater full time.

Minnewaska,

I have a couple of closing observations to share in case any have merit. I mean them to be helpful- not judgements... as what I do isn't going to suit everyone...

First, given the extra details about windage you provided, it sounds to me like you are going to have to figure out an efficient way to hoist that riding sail if you really want to keep extraneous loads off of your ground tackle [and reduce that chafe on your bow...] in a blow....

Regarding your anchor bridle, I probably won't be the only one to caution you against fixing it to the bow cleats with eyes... Under stress a knife is the only way to release a line with no accessible adjustments... [Murphy mandates that at some point the wind force will exceed your windlass' ability to pull in the chain to slack the bridle enough to remove the eyes... and your engine won't start right then either... and perhaps your windlass will fail too...]

And given your description of keeping the bridle/chain attachment hardware out of the water, with your plumb bow, I suspect you may be right about asking for trouble. This also implies to me that your snubber/bridle may be too short to do anything more than prevent the chain noise from conducting into the boat. [i.e., There may not enough length to provide the give needed to relieve stress on your ground tackle... e.g., my double bridle is 80 ft long and attaches to the chain in the middle with a cow-hitch, and in 90 kt gusts it stretches quite a bit...]

I wish you all the best getting everything sorted out.

Cheers!

Bill