Are you motoring far enough forward past the anchor? Sometimes its hard to judge and the bouy looks as if its being dragged but its only the friction of the rope.

If in doubt trying going forward a bit more(100 yards or so) and you should see the bouy being nearly pulled under.

Did you change your chain or anchor when you changed set-up? using a lighter chain or a heavier anchor might also cause the anchor to drop back to the bottom(chain needs to be heavier than anchor)

matt

 

It worked before so what did you change? The chain is not passing though the ring but is catching and dragging the bouy - is there a knot or shackle causing it to stick?

 

Once you are sure the anchor is off the bottom, then try giving the engine a bit of a spurt for a further 100 yards or so. Effectively the Bouy does not slide down the rope but the drag of the bouy against the water enables the rope and chain to be pulled through the ring by your forward movement.
Make sure that there are no bulky knots or twisted chain to snag on the ring, and if you can change the ring for a nicely rounded stainless one, all the better.

 

If the rope was the only thing you changed then the new rope is just not going through this square edged ring, change the ring to a bigger round one.

If you changed anything else just lets us know what and we will try to help.

Yappo

 

I had this problem and found I was using too much chain. I reduced the chain length to about 20-25' and it cured the problem.

Good luck,

Tim R

 

ive I changed my anchor rope from a fairly stiff polypropylene to a softer nylon and was wondering if this could be causing the issue too.

(luckily i dont have to break it free) is a killer.

If nothing else has been changed, shackle, rough splice? . . . then, the soft nylon is snagging on the square edged ring, I use nylon, great rope but its fine strands do catch. A smooth round section ring will be the answer I suspect? . . . or a pot hauler . . . :whistling my preferred method.

 

Indeed, i have read on other forums that if you need things to pass though your ring, it works better if you have a smooth ring.

:roll1::roll1:

what site have you been looking at?

 

Indeed, i have read on other forums that if you need things to pass though your ring, it works better if you have a smooth ring.

Paul - You can't beat a smooth ring !!!

If all you changed was the rope then it is most likely the new knot you tied to the anchor chain is sticking in the ring, I have found the best way to attach the rope to the chain is to knot it several times leaving about an 8" tag, then lay this 8" tag along the main rope and bind it all with duck tape tapering it where you go from the tag to the main rope, now it will never get stuck in the ring on retrieval, I would also get yourself a proper round stainless Alderney ring as sold by Stainless Steve.

You should also motor forward an extra 50yds just to make sure, when I retrieve my anchor I never do it by half and always motor uptide much further than the anchor rope I let out and the anchor is always sitting just under the buoy, failure to get the chain over the ring will result in it all heading for the bottom again.

Steveh24

 

splice the rope to the chain and drive the boat against the tide . double check the chain is heavier than the anchor..

 

If you havent already try splicing as in this link http://www.bluemoment.com/warpchainsplice.html
Works for me

Martin

 

thanks for all the replies,
As well as changing the rope ive got a new anchor and chain. The anchors the same as the last (7.5kg bruce) and ive got 10m of 8mm chain.
Im not sure how long the chain used to be but it definitely wasnt as long. I think I will give it a longer run - ill mark where i drop the anchor on the chartplotter so i can be sure. If that doesnt work look to swap over the ring, is there any risk of the anchor not catching on the ring?

I could cut some of the chain off as I think 10m is a bit of overkill as the boats only 20ft, I was looking at this as a last resort though - as i have the chain I thought i might as well use it.

 

Hiya,

Don't cut the chain. The chain length is not your problem and it's good to have plenty of chain.

Agreed .. you can never have enough of the correct size of chain

More chain = less rope = easier anchoring.

 

With 10m of 8mm chain you certainly have enough weight to hold a 7.5kg anchor in place against the ring.
Maybe you are just not used to this extra length of chain and letting out too much rope.
Try setting the anchor with the minimum amount of chain and rope in shallow water say 50' and then try your retrieve. If you still have problems the rope is simply not coming back through the ring so check how rope is attached to chain and follow suggestions earlier on here to duck tape the connection for smoother run through ring or change ring.

Hope this helps.

Yappo