The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site

Anchoring—Snubbers

So let’s deal with snubbers, a subject that cruisers love to debate. The good news is that it’s just not that complicated:


Login to continue reading (scroll down)

More Articles From Online Book: Anchoring Made Easy:

  1. Introduction
  2. 4 Vital Anchor Selection Criteria and a Review of SPADE
  3. SARCA Excel Anchor—A Real World Test
  4. SPADE, SARCA Excel, or Some Other Anchor?
  5. Rocna Resetting Failures and Evaluation of Vulcan and Mantus
  6. Some Thoughts On The Ultra Anchor, Roll Bars and Swivels
  7. Specifying Primary Anchor Size
  8. Kedge (Secondary Anchor)—Recommended Type and Size
  9. Third Anchors, Storm Anchors and Spare Anchors
  10. Anchor Tests—The Good, The Bad, and The Downright Silly
  11. Making Anchor Tests More Meaningful
  12. We Love The Way Our Anchor Drags 
  13. Things to Know About Anchor Chain
  14. Selecting a Chain Grade
  15. Anchor Chain Catenary, When it Matters and When it Doesn’t
  16. Anchoring—Snubbers
  17. Anchor Rode Questions and Answers
  18. Q&A: Hybrid Rope And Chain Anchor Rodes
  19. Anchor Swivels, Just Say No
  20. A Windlass That Makes The Grade
  21. The Perfect Anchor Roller
  22. Install A Wash-down Pump—And Save Money!
  23. Anchoring—Kellets
  24. Anchoring—Chain: Stoppers, Termination and Marking
  25. 20 Tips To Get Anchored and Stay Anchored
  26. Choosing an Anchorage
  27. Choosing a Spot
  28. 15 Steps To Getting Securely Anchored
  29. One Anchor or Two?
  30. Two Anchors Done Right
  31. It’s Often Better to Anchor Than Pick Up a Mooring
  32. Yawing at Anchor, The Theory and The Solution
  33. Yawing at The Anchor, an Alternative Cure
  34. How To Use An Anchor Trip Line
  35. ShoreFasts—Part 1, When to Use Them
  36. ShoreFasts—Part 2, Example Setups Plus Tips and Tricks
  37. ShoreFasts—Part 3, The Gear
  38. Gale And Storm Preparation, At Anchor Or On A Mooring
  39. Storm Preparation, All Chain On Deck
121 Comments
Oldest
Newest
Inline Feedbacks
View all comments
Max Shaw

Great post as always. My wife and I were laughing that only cruisers could enjoy a long post on how to use a piece of rope …

Most of our experience is “low latitude” other than a recent foray into Alaska up to about 61N but all pretty tame compared to your experiences. That being said we were cruising full time for seven years and almost exclusively at anchor. As we enjoy kiteboarding and visiting more remote villages sometimes we anchor in less than desirable locations from a protection perspective.

After experimenting with chain hooks and bending a Wichard anchor chain hook we simply went back to using double rolling hitches. We do keep two chain hooks in rigging stores though as they were handy when our windlass died (another story).

We do two things differently that may or may not be worthy of consideration. Firstly, we too run our snubber over the anchor roller following the chain. As we only rig one large anchor I replaced the second anchor roller sheave with one that was just cone shaped (vice the standard hourglass shape of a roller sheave) with the inboard diameter the same size as the inboard end of the anchor roller sheave that the anchor rides on so there is no ridge for the snubber to bounce/slam/chafe across as the bow shears. The second thing is we generally rig a second snubber from a different cleat but also over the anchor roller that is about half the length of the primary snubber. This line is not loaded in the calms but only takes some of the strain in the peak loads causing the snubber system together to act as if it is a bigger line in the bigger waves or gusts. It also acts as a backup if we break the primary snubber (which only happened once). Quite possibly overkill but anything to keep the family home secure and facilitate some sleep on squally nights.

Thanks again for the great work you guys do.

Cheers,

Max
SV Fluenta

Trevor Robertson

Hi John
Another objection to a water line bow eye is that on a vessel with any bow overhang the bight of the chain drops vertically downward and crosses the snubber as the snubber is attached to the vessel behind the chain. This of course chafes the snubber badly. In any but the quietest anchorage the lazy bight of the chain will chafe through the snubber in a remarkably short time – often after a few days of use.

An unmentioned benefit of a water line bow eye on a vessel with a bowsprit is that it keeps the snubber clear of the bobstay. However I long ago decided on such a vessel that it was better to put antichafe gear (usually a roller of some sort) on the bobstay and lead the snubber directly to the deck. If properly rigged, this system results in far less chafe than letting the slack chain cross the snubber and of course also allows the snubber to be let go from deck in an emergency, as you point out.

Brett Eaglen

We use a soft shackle to attach s Uber to chain.. easy to undo and will not slip. Brett

Nick Burrell

Thanks John,
Your comment about matching the break load of the chain and snubber make sense – but raise a practical question. Taking 8mm chain as an example, where 40 grade has break load of about 4000kg – this probably implies using a 14mm snubber rope? Have I got this right?
10mm chain would presumably need 18/20mm snubber?
This seems a heavier snubber line than shown in the photo.

Alissa Winter

We had a snubber fail once when the rope parted where the rolling hitch connected to the chain. We thus modified our snubber practice to:
1. A primary snubber with a hard eye, attached to the chain with a soft shackle, and
2. A short, backup snubber of heavier rope, attached with a rolling hitch and cleated to a separate bow bollard (i.e. this is intended as a windlass saver).

Alissa Winter

Hi John,

This was quite a few years ago now, so the details are fuzzy. She was a 13t mono sailboat, and the snubber we were using was approx 14mm 3-strand. I don’t recall the wind being anything more than fresh and gusty, but the achorage was a tidal passage and the boat was moving around awfully. It was also shallow.

Alissa Winter

Hi John,

That was one of our conclusions also.

We also considered the possibility that debris may have managed to get trapped between the knot and the chain as load came off and then started working on the knot against the chain. Conditions were such that we’d run over our chain in some lulls so load would temporarily come right off with chain up-and-down, then load up again.

Unfortunately, the cause of the failure remains speculation, but this was our reason to switch to the soft shackle for the main snubber; the idea that accumulated debris would be able to fall out easier, as opposed to potentially getting trapped against the chain.

Whatever the cause, this seems like a fairly infrequent issue, it seems, but this change for us came at very limited cost (we needed a new snubber anyway!) and with no real downsides.