mcollinstn

I drop the hook in areas that are mostly 15' deep. Mud bottom for the most part.

I don't use any chain. Don't need it. Throw out 75' of line on the anchor, pull on it to set it. If it's windy, I leave all the line out, if it's dead calm, I'll pull half of it back in so I don't swing as big of an arc.

I do this with my Whaler, my Formula, and my cruiser (well, I probably put out more line on the cruiser cause I just push a button to drop it then back up and push the button again to make it grab - its easier to throw out a bunch of line when you never have to touch it).

I set anchor and tie off my stern to a chain on the shore around a big old tree with 50 feet of three strand 5/8" nylon. I pull until my windlass stalls (around 3500 pounds per the manual). I regularly have up to TEN boats rafted off my starboard side (the kids play to PORT so nobody gets to tie up there except jetskis and stuff). Some of the rafters will throw out a cheap crap anchor and 3 extra feet more line than the water depth, so basically my anchor is the only one set. We've been like that thru some stiff wind. No chain.


Rough water with rolling waves demand a heavy length of chain. I don't have anything like that on my lake.

So, here I am telling you that in water with mud bottom and no rollers you need ZERO chain.

Ocean water with the up and down elevation changes, you DO need something heavy to lay down and take the slack when the boat goes up and down.

Determine your water conditions and adjust accordingly.