Well I found the forum and this is really an experiment to see if I can work out how to press the buttons but I have to post something so I thought I would ask about snubbers.

I had always thought that snubbers were to take the snatch out of your anchor cable and since mine is all chain cable should read chain. Since stretch was important and ultimately my boat is anchored by chain made off properly to a samson post and not riding on the windlass I tended to use light stretch nylon line until last november that is. At the end of last year I took a short trip from Lagos to Gib and found myself anchoring in some really foul weather. We had over 50knots for many hours with the storms extended over several days. I broke four snubbing lines during this time - all of them at the rolling hitch on the chain. The lines were 18mm. I use a rolling hitch because a chain hook just looks all wrong to me placing a point load on an individual link in the chain but I am very willing to listen.

Any comments?

Ta, Mark

For the past 4 years I have followed Evan 's suggestion and use 9mm climbing rope, 12 meters long. We have anchored in near 40 kt winds with a lot of chop and I think it does very good job.

But you do need to find the right climbing rope (I was a climber for many years so I have a few old ropes.) The rope you see in a climbing store for sale by the meter is usually static line and not the full stretch type. The static line does not stretch as much and is used for climbing protection points. A climbing rope is usually only available 50 meter lengths. If you are near a good mountainnering shop you may put up a note offering to buy a used climbing rope. After some point climbers "retire" their ropes usually because there is a cut or weak point. These would be cheap and work fine.

I have also used a chain hook and like the ease of removing it if we need to put out more chain. Having enough slack in the chain above the hook seems to prevent the hook falling off, even in no wind drifting conditions.

Jim