I have 200'. Couple of months ago I had 300+. 2 years ago I reversed the chain and the old 100' that was used most became a rusted ball in bottom of lock that became a scarily thing to remove.

 

I typically lay out 100' of the total 200'

 

I carry ~250' of 3/8" chain on the main rode. I have a secondary rode with 80' of 3/8" (and then another 200' of nylon). I can join these if need be, but there's never yet been a need to be.

Typically, we lay to about 100 to 150 feet of chain (not including snubber length). Most of our anchorages are 20 to 30 feet, although sometimes we manage to get into less than 10' at low tide -- that's always interesting given our 6' draft 😬.

 

Operating from North Carolina north into the Chesapeake Bay and south into the Bahamas, we have three anchors.

The primary on the bow - 45lb Rocna, 137' 5/16" BBB chain, 170' 5/8" nylon (137 ft is 1/4 of a barrel; I bought at a great price. The nylon seldom gets wet.)

The secondary on the bow - 44lb Bruce, 50' 5/16" BBB chain, 182' 5/8" nylon (Seldom used.)

On the stern - FX16 Fortress, 25' 5/16" BBB chain, 250' 1/2" nylon (Used as a stern anchor and for extracting us from our mistakes.)

 

"On the stern - FX16 Fortress, 25' 5/16" BBB chain, 250' 1/2" nylon (Used as a stern anchor and for extracting us from our mistakes.)", Such honesty ! ! !

 

350ft of 13mm stainless steel.

 

The chain I am looking at is around US$7 per foot, while the same in stainless is US$32 per foot! That took stainless right out of the equation for me.

 

We have 100m(328ft) of 1/2” chain. Just yesterday, I was anchored in over 50ft of water. Slept like a baby. Currently in 20ft, but I expect tonight’s anchorage to be in the 30-35ft range. I also have a 55kg(121lb) Rocna anchor. I’ve wanted this set up for years! It’s like dropping my own mooring. 🙂

The best part about having deep water capability is finding a spot few others want to crowd into.

I sourced my chain from Defender, in the States. ACCO brand. I’m happy with it so far.

If you have ample fresh water, a rinse of the anchor locker goes a long way. You can eat up 10 gallons doing it.

 

Sorry but the poll is poorly formulated. I have 100', do I mark 50-100 or 100-150?

I bet many have lengths on one of the border cases of your poll and are in the same position. Why not have categories like 50-99, 100-149, or 50-100, 101-150 etc?

 

I noticed that overlap right after I posted but the Sailnet forum software doesn't allow me to change the values after the poll had started. If you bought 100 feet of chain it has probably stretched at least a millimeter so use the higher number.

 

250’ of SS …150 on primary, 50 on secondary and 50 on the stern.

 

I have 75 meters / 250 feet chain. And I use it ALL!!

I had out 65 meters in 5 meters water depth the other night in 50 knots. I would have laid out the rest but was coming too close to another boat.
There is no value having chain in the locker in a storm!!

For the rusting, I put in the bottom of the anchor locker in plastic tiles - see photo edited in. This keeps the chain off the wet floor. Note I have a little puddle permanently in the bottom of the locker.

 

More scope is better... but there are considerations such as other nearby boats and the scope they have... and you also need to consider the bottom in a larger radius.

 

Mark - in flying we used to say that runway behind you and altitude above you are useless - just like anchor chain in the locker Can you user your mod powers for good and modify the poll numbers so that they don't overlap? I am going to have put something like what you have in my locker to keep my new chain from getting infected with rust

 

Modified Poll Numbers!!

Yes, you can Edit your Poll Vote. See the Change Vote button bottom left of Poll Box.

 

Spade 44 lb. bower with 200' of 3/8" chain and 100' nylon rode, and secondary 35 lb. Danforth w/75' 3/8 chain and 200' nylon rode. Usually in less than 30' of water at anchor, design weight is 17,000 lbs.

 

We carry 125’ of chain plus another 175’ of 8 plait rode with sailing/cruising grounds from New England to the Bahamas. We’ve rarely put out more than 130’. That being said, we only draw 4 1/2 feet so we try to tuck in as close to shore as we can in most places.

 

50 feet of 1/4 chain, 150 feet nylon rode, Mantus M1 anchor on a 28 foot, 8000 lb boat.

 

My container with 360 feet of G4 chain is arriving on island tomorrow and I just got paid so can afford the bill to pay for it as well. I am going to splice another 100 feet of rode to the end of the chain so I think I'm ready for pretty much any anchorage regardless of bottom. I still need to figure out a system to keep the chain an inch off the bottom of my locker to allow for drainage. While Mark's system will work and I have the exact same mats aboard (commercial kitchen drainage mats from a restaurant supply store in St. Martin) I think I might construct something with starboard.
My neighbor at the dock has spray cans with red, green and blue paint so now I have to figure out a marking system. That might be worth a whole other thread...

 

You can but metal eggrate.... aluminum would work... plastic may crack.

 

Fill to the level you want with empty 16" plastic drink bottles..pelligrino or similar.

 

I just did my 2nd run with FSR to remove rust in the chain locker. I climb in and can almost stand upright in it and the depth is about 5 feet with a pointy end forward and about a 4 foot width at the widest end. I had 450 feet of chain originally and that didn't even fill a quarter of the locker volume. The 2 drainage holes are similar to what Mark posted earlier in this thread and the water pools at the forward section, not the aft section. Perhaps I only need a bit of "height" forward to keep the chain out of standing water. I've got some Starboard that I've never used and it is close to its expiry date (I give away or discard everything older than 3 years that I haven't used) that could do the trick.
@SanderO - I've got 10 San Pelligrino bottles filled with tapwater in my freezer right now... They might be better in my chain locker

 

The "floor" or the anchor locker should be sloped (forward) with a hole of no less than 20mm which prevents standing water from accumulating, This can be accomplished with a solid starboard shelf. The drain hole on my Contest can be seen here below. It is at the bottom of the anchor locker and as you can see maybe 15-18" above the water line. The location is very hard to get to from the inside. The bottom is narrow and solid fiberglas.

 

I've always felt that right around 100' is a sweet spot for cruisers trying to save weight but liking chain. They can anchor with no chain on the bottom at reasonably long scope in water up to about 12-15 feet (depending on the length of the snubber). Deeper than that they still won't have rope on the bottom if there is any wind. As for catenary, the first 100 feet do most of the work (better leverage on the rode).

But no one best answer.

 

I have a few boats that are used for different things. They have different amounts of chain. My little 17' fishing boat has 10' of chain & 200' of line. My little Hunter 265 has 10' of chain on one anchor & 30' on the other. My Aloha 32 currently has 30' on each of two anchors, and 50' on another. The 50 will be getting upgraded to 100 or 200 before I take her on an extended trip to the other side of the gulf stream. The most rode I have put out on that boat recently is 275' to anchor for a short time while diving in 70' of water. I didn't vote above, since I would need to enter multiple answers to be accurate.

 

Primary anchor (Plastimo Kobra II) has forty feet of chain with 200' of nylon line. Secondary anchor (Fortress) has fifteen feet of chain and about 175' of nylon. Never wished I had more (and haven't dragged) in eight years of cruising back and forth between Maine and Grenada.

I am knocking wood furiously....

Chain is heavy and expensive, and it rusts. There used to be a good discussion online by an Australian guy, I think, about how having a bunch of chain out really doesn't create any catenary in winds over about 40 knots (when you need it.) But having all chain does, in that instance, rob you of elasticity (which you arguably do need.)

So I chose to go with one boat length of chain and the rest nylon, and so far, at least, it's worked pretty well. When the wind is howling, I try not to spend a lot of time thinking about that nylon rode, except to let out a few feet every now and then so it will chafe in a different spot.