Gofirstclass
Well-Known Member
One of the many emails I get from a variety of boat companies is one from Active Captain. They send it out periodically with tips on a variety of boat topics. This information below is from their newsletter that I received today.
It discusses using your bow eye when anchoring in a crowded area to reduce the amount of scope needed, thus reducing the amount your boat will swing on its rode if the wind changes. I thought it was interesting so I'm passing it on to you.
Tell me what you think. Good idea, or useless information.
Which brings us to bow eyes. Putting a bow eye on your boat down close to the water line provides a wonderful advantage when anchoring. In general, a three-stranded line is attached properly to the bow eye and brought up to the bow ending with some type of chain attachment device.
Chain hooks, locks, and gadgets would easily make another newsletter topic. When you've put out enough rode, you attach the line to the chain and release chain until the line is holding the chain fully. The chain on the bow should also be locked in case the line breaks.
In this setup, the line is acting like an elastic snubber while making the bow attach point as low as possible. This will greatly reduce rode distance especially if you have a high bow.
Here's an example with Red Head and it's 10 foot bow. Let's say we're anchored in 6 feet of water at high tide and we want 5:1 scope. In our setup today without a bow eye, the amount of rode to release would be: (6 + 10) * 5 = 80 feet.
But if we had a bow eye 1 foot off the water line, our 5:1 scope requirement would change to: (6 + 1) * 5 = 35. That's less than half the rode needed to provide the same level of holding. Note that scope includes the 15 or so feet for the bow eye line so only 20 feet of chain would be let out. 20 feet!
This is why many trawlers have a bow eye with a line running up to their bow. They're trying to be better citizens to use less anchor swing when anchored in proximity of other boats.
Bow eyes require some engineering. You're not going to attach one with 2 wood screws and some 5200. It takes a significant backing plate and analysis to make sure the bow eye will hold the full weight of the boat in the wind.
And speaking of 5:1 and 7:1 scope, yes, we know that this is an east coast and Caribbean thing. In other places where anchoring is done in very deep water, putting out 5:1 scope would be ridiculous. Imagine anchoring in 90 feet of water which is not uncommon in the Pacific Northwest.
It discusses using your bow eye when anchoring in a crowded area to reduce the amount of scope needed, thus reducing the amount your boat will swing on its rode if the wind changes. I thought it was interesting so I'm passing it on to you.
Tell me what you think. Good idea, or useless information.
Which brings us to bow eyes. Putting a bow eye on your boat down close to the water line provides a wonderful advantage when anchoring. In general, a three-stranded line is attached properly to the bow eye and brought up to the bow ending with some type of chain attachment device.
Chain hooks, locks, and gadgets would easily make another newsletter topic. When you've put out enough rode, you attach the line to the chain and release chain until the line is holding the chain fully. The chain on the bow should also be locked in case the line breaks.
In this setup, the line is acting like an elastic snubber while making the bow attach point as low as possible. This will greatly reduce rode distance especially if you have a high bow.
Here's an example with Red Head and it's 10 foot bow. Let's say we're anchored in 6 feet of water at high tide and we want 5:1 scope. In our setup today without a bow eye, the amount of rode to release would be: (6 + 10) * 5 = 80 feet.
But if we had a bow eye 1 foot off the water line, our 5:1 scope requirement would change to: (6 + 1) * 5 = 35. That's less than half the rode needed to provide the same level of holding. Note that scope includes the 15 or so feet for the bow eye line so only 20 feet of chain would be let out. 20 feet!
This is why many trawlers have a bow eye with a line running up to their bow. They're trying to be better citizens to use less anchor swing when anchored in proximity of other boats.
Bow eyes require some engineering. You're not going to attach one with 2 wood screws and some 5200. It takes a significant backing plate and analysis to make sure the bow eye will hold the full weight of the boat in the wind.
And speaking of 5:1 and 7:1 scope, yes, we know that this is an east coast and Caribbean thing. In other places where anchoring is done in very deep water, putting out 5:1 scope would be ridiculous. Imagine anchoring in 90 feet of water which is not uncommon in the Pacific Northwest.
