Marking anchor rode with Sharpie

[gates_cliff]

Many years ago (I mean when I was about 12) I was on a big power boat with a guy who was pretty old, so his experience would go back a really long time ago!

Anyway, his approach was to figure out how much anchor rode he needed and lay it out on deck. His boat was over 50' so he figured half of the boat was about 25'

So if he wanted 70' feet of rode he'd lay out three lengths along the gunwale. Then he'd cleat it off, or attach the snubber to the chain and cleat that off, once the anchor was set he'd back down and allow the "faked" rode to gradually run out. He never worried about marking the rode.

Honestly, I don't recall how he protected the deck, seems like it would be a lot of wear and tear

[mgphl52]

It's amazing how many seemingly great ideas turn out this way. My dad once built a beautiful replacement rudder for our first sailboat, which was a Newport 17. Problem is, he made it out of wood. It floated like a cork. Of course, being a kid, I lacked the discretion to resist busting out laughing.

Okay Carl. I’ve thought about this for three weeks. I am now willing to come forward and say “I don’t get it.” What is wrong with floating boat parts?

Are you saying the boat’s arse was sticking up in the air? Even with people in the cockpit?

Please enlighten the naval-architecture-challenged.

Confused in Tenants Harbor,

Dean

My guess would be that it floated up and out of the pintles?

[Carl Thunberg]

Dean - The Newport 17 had pintles and gudgeons with no locking mechanism. The standard rudder was aluminum that had enough weight that a locking mechanism was not needed. Without a locking mechanism to keep it down, the rudder just floated out of the pintles. We ultimately placed lead chimney flashing on the leading edge of the rudder to keep it down. I've had plenty of sailing dinghies with wooden rudders that had a gate over the pintles to keep them down. For whatever reason, this boat did not.

[Dean Abramson]

Dean - The Newport 17 had pintles and gudgeons with no locking mechanism. The standard rudder was aluminum that had enough weight that a locking mechanism was not needed. Without a locking mechanism to keep it down, the rudder just floated out of the pintles. We ultimately placed lead chimney flashing on the leading edge of the rudder to keep it down. I've had plenty of sailing dinghies with wooden rudders that had a gate over the pintles to keep them down. For whatever reason, this boat did not.

Got it. I should have thought of that. But our first boat was a heavy full-keel 20-footer; I have never sailed really small boats.

Thanks. Carry on.