Anchor snubber/chain hook re-visited -1 of-6 - 2015

Middle of September 2015 - At private slip in Nuevo Vallarta in Banderas Bay, Mexico 

For as much as we anchor (a heck of a lot) I do not know why we never spent the time and money to get\make a great and easy-to-deploy snubber? 

 From what I understand the bridle should sit about a foot under water at all times with a healthy length of chain for a loop. 


 We were talking to Alan on s\v Vivacia and he uses a bridle like the one we have and likes it a lot. I have heard that once you get the system down most people prefer this type of chain grabber, the one below the U type. I have struggled with it. We were using a chain hook that went through the old chain but with the new Grade 30 3\8 Acco BBB chain it does not fit. Alan said he puts the U on top of the chain and then lowers it. It does not come off. We will try this method. Alan is going to make a video of his snubber deployment and email it to us as he is leaving for La Paz in a week. He will return this new year. We will post the video when we get it.

  Also Alan has closed ss thimbles on his bridle. Ours, as you can see below, are spread apart. We think because they have a space that in the high winds the ss thimble compresses and allows it to spin around. We have 18' of line on each thimble. We want to change that to 25' of line per thimble. So we are going to cut the thimbles off and take them to the weld shop. We will have them pressed together and then welded making them closed thimbles. Alan also has twisted shackles on his but that is out of our budget even if we could find them here.

 We are going to research the spacing for the chain. Our ABI marine chain grabber which has 5\8 grve for chain (do we have the correct one)? The chain hook has a 1\2"' space for our Group 30 Acco chain 3\8 BBB. It seems the chain hook is more snug. The chain is .400 so 1\2 (.500) seems better.

Notice the spun thimble!

We purchased a stainless steel chain hook and plan

 on making a bridle like the one below for back up.

The following information is from Bosun Supplies:

An anchor snubber is a bridle used to take the strain off the chain rode.  This reduces wear on your boat from the chain and also acts as a shock absorber and silences the chain.  Using 3-strand nylon line, splice 2 eye loops to go around your port and starboard bow cleats (see our Deck Hardware section for some great ones!).  Splice these two lines together a distance about equal to the height of the bow above the water.  The diameter of the line depends on the size of your boat.  The following is a guide for the 3-strand nylon rope size: 

Boat Size       Rope Size

Under 26’              1/2”       26’ – 32’              9/16”       32’ – 40’              5/8”

When in doubt, always size-up for the line.

Next, splice a stainless steel thimble to the end (we carry standard, heavy duty, and extra heavy duty).  The total length should be 2 to 3 times the height of the bow above the water.

Finally, use a stainless steel shackle (we have a wide selection for you) to attach a stainless steel grab hook to the end.  Size the grab hook to your chain size... or call us to have one made for you!

We really like the Mantus chain hook and bridle but getting one here is a problem. We may have a cruiser who will sell us his Mantus chain hook if it will fit our chain. It is in La Paz and we will know in January of 16. It also has a closed ss thimble on it.