8 Responses to 3/10/2013 – Snubber

1. vic says:

   March 10, 2013 at 2:50 pm

   Put some Ospho on that Thimble with a toothbrush & it will take the rust off! :

   • sryoder says:

     March 10, 2013 at 2:55 pm

     Won’t the rust come right back when I dunk it in saltwater again?

2. Chuck says:

   March 10, 2013 at 3:54 pm

   We stopped using thimbles with chain hooks about 20 years ago. Now we just tie a rolling hitch and it allows us to end for end the line and shorten it when it starts to show signs of wear.

   But if you want to continue to use the thimble / hook approach then a few $ more will buy you a SS thimble and no more rust
   Cheers
   C

   • sryoder says:

     March 10, 2013 at 4:19 pm

     I used a rolling hitch originally but ultimately opted for the hook as it seemed so much simpler to deploy and, more importantly, to remove. I tried to buy stainless thimbles and chain hooks when I first built the snubber. But unfortunately, they were not to be had at the time. Maybe by the time the rust has done enough damage to warrant replacing, which will probably be a long time from now, I’ll switch to SS.

      
3. Tate says:

   March 11, 2013 at 9:42 pm

   Interesting idea the way you have it setup. After not being able to get our snubber right and always seeming to sail back and forth at anchor due to it being uneven, I gave up and ordered the giant d-shackle that fits through the eyeband. I plan to put a big block on it and run a snubber through that tied to the posts. Hopefully that will straighten us out.

   • sryoder says:

     March 11, 2013 at 10:37 pm

     I suspect that you’re still going to dance around at anchor. Our original setup was a nylon line, rolling-hitched to the chain and run out over the anchor rollers. Worked fine, though we still sailed around at anchor. Then I decided that I didn’t really want all that yanking happening halfway out the bowsprit so I ran the line through a hawse pipe and out to the anchor, still using a rolling hitch to fasten it to the chain. Worked fine but we still sailed around at anchor. Then I replaced the rolling hitch with a chain hook after I had the rolling hitch get kind of jammed up a couple times making it hard to untie. Then, I decided to split the work between two cleats and maybe, just maybe reduce the sailing at anchor by using the setup that I have now. It probably reduced the sailing at anchor a little but, judging by our experience as well as watching all the other boats at anchor at Santispac during the northers, I think the only way to really reduce the sailing at anchor is to deploy a stern anchor along with the bow anchor and that introduces a whole new set of issues. Now we’ve learned to just enjoy the constant change of scenery that swinging at anchor provides. The current setup, with the chafe gear permanently attached, gives me a known spot to cleat off my snubber. As long as the chafing gear is about halfway through the hawsepipes on both sides of the bow, I know that both sides are the same length.

     BTW, a lot of Westsailors like to fasten their snubber to the extra hole in the bowsprit chainplate at the waterline. Besides the inconvenience of trying to attach it and remove it, I read somewhere about how the sideways pull can cause leaks on the chainplate. Made sense to me and I’ve never chosen to pursue that path.

     Even with all this, there still comes a time when the slack anchor chain rubs on the bobstay. When that happens, down below it sounds like one piece is hacksawing through the other. On deck I have a line with an anchor hook at the end. When the anchor is stowed on the bowsprit, I use this line to hold the chain in place so there’s no strain on the windlass. Now, when anchored, I run this line through one of the hawsepipes, hook into the slack chain, and pull it away from the bobstay. It’s cut down a LOT on the unnerving metal-to-metal sawing noise.