Ah, a subject near and dear to my heart – coming from a cruising background, it’s something integral to our activity – while you can always be leery of someone claiming to be an expert, I can tell you we have spent the last 25yrs, several weeks a year, winter included on the hook – last summer was our second go around the island – 8wks, and only on a dock twice.
A few things to consider (and yes, entire books have been written on the subject);
- “where” is probably the most important factor – what is the wind forecast to do – that will tell you what side of the bay, how much scope, how paranoid to be, how close to others etc. Is the wind going to shift (SE to NW, inflow to outflow) – that tells you what direction to set in. Where are the other boats facing, how crowded is it, depth profile etc.
- Once you determine where, you then think about the how – what is the tide doing – more importantly, what will it be at 0 dark 30, what’s the bottom profile like- all that tells you roughly how much scope to put out. Drop the anchor to the bottom, then slow reverse in the direction you want to face, slowly paying out the required amount. Once you reach that, increase the revs (how much depends on the power available – with our sailboat, we go to 75%) – the idea is you want to find out if the holding is acceptable and you are trying to simulate a 25kt wind – better to find out now that the holding is poor, than in the middle of the night.
- Scope – ballpark is 5:1 – but keeping in mind that is just a starting point – wind forecast to blow hard? Let out more. Calm forecast, crowded, you can bring some in – the idea with scope is that all anchors achieve max power when the chain is parallel to the bottom – and as the wind blows, a certain amount gets lifted off, until finally in a real blow the line is bar tight and a 45deg angle – so more gives you a better margin of error.
- Stern tie – used quite often up in Desolation – i.e areas with lots of boats and if everyone needed their own “circle”, not enough room – having the butt end tied to a tree reduces the space needed. Or, most commonly since we have steep rugged shorelines, you don’t as often find the nice flat bottom that allows you to swing – with a steep shore profile, with a certain scope, if the wind shifts around and you are pulling into deeper water, now all of a sudden your 5:1 scope becomes a 1:1 at best – being tied to the shore ensures you are at the correct scope – there are MANY more tips/tricks to this, so I can add later if anyone wants.
- Conflicts with other boats – happens in 2 scenarios – wind blows up (ALWAYS in the middle of the night when you have just fallen asleep) and someone drags – back to scope/setting. But most common ironically is when just around dusk the wind dies – now everyone starts drifting around on their lines – and boats on all chain move differently than all rope – and now you find that guy who came in later is drifting into you – back to choosing the location. Which leads to one last point – common courtesy (and naval law actually) states that whoever was there first, has the right of way in a conflict – so last in has to move.
Oh, and to the OP and the cleat location – you 2 bow cleats are fine – the idea with the snubber is to reduce shock loading as wind gusts yank on the anchor – so again more is better than less – in your case make up a min. 25’ piece of 3 strand, put eyes in both ends, a chain hook in the middle – once set you hook onto the chain, put the ends on the cleats, then let out anchor chain until all the weight in on the snubber – now the lines should be hanging down at an angle – no issue. If you try and go straight off the anchor roller – as soon as the wind picks up and you yaw around a bit (as ALL boats do to some degree) you run the risk of it jumping out of the track and then chaffing against something.
The main thing is this is one of those subjects were you can read as much as you like, take tests, courses etc, but the only true way to learn is to get out and do it – and make mistakes, that is the real classroom.
