Caring for your anchor rode

DIY BOATING

Arecent trip out on my buddy’s boat we anchored in deeper water than usual, and it transpired his anchor line was slipping on the chainwheel. Instead of the winch’s teeth gripping the rode's sides, the hard, stiff line simply slipped over the chainwheel without engaging into the slot. Almost no holding power and, left unchecked, all of the rode would have slipped out.

This was easily dealt with at anchor – we simply put a few wraps of warp around the bollard – but raising the anchor did require some additional manual assistance. This is a risky business for fingers – we had to try and push the line into the chainwheel slot without snagging line or fingers. Luckily, we managed it while keeping all our digits.

Back at the marina we