New braided anchor rope. Snapped.

[The Shafter]

Went and tried out the new anchor system last night and the braided line snapped on the second retrieval. The anchor was snagged on the bottom in 32mtr of water and we tried to drive it off with the ball system as usual. The braided anchor line didn't even put up much of a fight and snapped at the bow roller.

Now in the past 20+ years of fishing I've never had a normal anchor line snap like this. I may have run over one or cut one loose in the past. But this was ridiculous. It snapped so easily.

This was no cheap braided anchor line. $300 for 140mtr of 6mm braided line spliced to 10 mtr of normal anchor line plus chain and ss swivel. Also the loss of a $200 plough anchor.

So if this is the case that the braided lines can't pull stuck anchors from the bottom now means I've got a new Sav Winch 1500 EFF which will now be useless as I usually fish in 70 mtr of water. It would not have the line capacity if I refit with nylon anchor line.

Was I just unlucky.
Do I risk another $500+ and try again.
Or have I wasted nearly $4000

Anyone got any ideas?

Steve.

[Pazz01]

I know of a couple of blokes using these systems in the 650 classic and never heard of it breaking. So I am wondering whether you where just unlucky. But we just use the old silver rope and never had one break except for running over it or chaffing off on the reef.

The rope may have been damaged or something perhaps?

Pazz

[Triple]

Post a pic of the broken end (the end you have not the end on the bottom) and someone on here with a bit of expertise may give you an idea of the cause..

And contact the manufacturer and let them know.. They may have known issues or may even replace it???

[Aussie123]

It sounds like the bow roller may have cut the rope.
Does the bow roller have protruding side plates on it?

[cormorant]

Also depending on what it type was it may float so depending on current and if you have marked your gps position it may be easy to recover your tackle at low tide change.

Obviously check the bowsprit for sharp edge or if it has escaped the bowsprit other areas it could have cut up on. Is it possible that it jammed between roller edge and bowsprit as it is not the bowsprit supplied by winch manufacturer or was there so much angle on the drive off that it has spread the sideplates on the bow roller and pinched the rope?

Was the anchor set up to trip and do you think the chain wrapped under reef or rocks and did you drive up onto it on the same compass bearing you set it on?


That stuff should be so strong that you may wish to cut a couple of m off and send back to seller , winch people ( if it was through them) and get their opinion as it may be a rope manufacturing fault and they may do the right thing and sort you out with some more at the right price from a different batch. as above it is sometimes easy for a rigger to see why a rope failed

I'd be checking the rest of the rope on the winch for other manufacturing faults as well or give it a towball to towball test of a few hundred Kg as 6mm should have a working load of 400 to 700kg or less depending on quality. Not that hard to put that much weight on a rope depending on your boat and what exact rope it is. . ?????

edit
Last one - did you tie it off to a cleat before driving off or let the winch take all the load? Not sure what sav winch suggest or how they are built but I never like to see stuff stressed with high shock loads - yes I know that is not the reason for rope failure I just don't like equipment broken doing stuff it wasn't designed for

[Back In Black]

Steve,
I run 6mm braid on an electric winch & if the anchor is ever fouled & you kept your finger on the retrieve button, it would pull the boat under, its that strong, so there may be another issue as suggested,

Tony

[hilta1]

Would be interested to see what brand and type rope it was, I had same thing happen to me, put a stressfree winch on,put good quality Donaghys braided rope on and first outing off Mooloolaba rope snapped on stuck anchor, thought I had done something wrong, went to set it up again, ordered the same rope, then the guy came back and said they had sent the wrong rope the first time, so had a shit fight with them cause I thought they should replace anchor swivel etc.in the end they replaced the rope and anchor etc, turns out the rope they replaced it with is far superior than original and haven't had a problem since, the stuff I have know has 4 odd tonne of braeking strain but the original stuff only had about 600kg.the stuff they supplied wrong only about 300kg

[cormorant]

Summary of rope types assuming they are brand name to start with not cheap nasty.

Tried to post web site but it is blocked. If you go to the stress free website that have a table showing rope types and typical breaking strains

[soulfish]

I bet you have a sarca bow roller...I have lost 2 anchors the same as you mention
The fix was a piece of round stainless bar welded to the outside edge of sarca bow sprit where it has a sharp edge ....I broke 10mm nylon rope

[The Shafter]

Pazz. If I put silver rope on it I think it will limit me to about a 50mtr fishing depth. Did you get out on the weekend.

Triple. I'll put up photo later to see if anyone knows. I'll see what Sav Winch have to say.

Aussie123 & Cormorant. The boat is a brand new Haines 680 Patriot with a new Haines designed HD 3 roller bow sprit. No sharp edges but the front roller has up to a 4mm gap and the line can get jammed in it. When the braid snapped right at roller the line was straight up and down and sitting in the middle of roller. I had not set it up to trip yet as I was keen to give it a test run. The wind and current where running in different directions about 90 degrees. So chain may of got wrapped around something. It was rubble with small scattered rises.

Back In Black. It had no strength at all, as soon as it pulled on bow it gave way.
Do you know what brand you're using?

[Pazz01]

Pazz. If I put silver rope on it I think it will limit me to about a 50mtr fishing depth. Did you get out on the weekend.

Yeh that's the problem its so big. Hit up the dealer/supplier and ask them for a refund or a significant discount on new roll of rope. Doesn't sound right if it will snap like that.

Na I didn't get over the weekend. I did 3 trips in a row over the previous 3 weeks. Got more than enough fish. Need to stay home and make some money from my business so I can continue to go fishing, otherwise all of clients will go somewhere else. But I know the trout are on the chew and we've caught a few reds as well even though they have been a bit difficult to catch.

How'd the new boat go other than the failed anchor rope? Did you catch any fish?

Pazz

[Aussie123]

Different brands of braid have very different breaking strains.
If you were motoring forward and winching at the same time and with the bow lifting with the waves/swell it sounds like you may have exceeded the B/S of the braid and she just snapped.

[Si]

If you were motoring forward and winching at the same time and with the bow lifting with the waves/swell it sounds like you may have exceeded the B/S of the braid and she just snapped.

yep, i agree.....she just snapped.

[tunaticer]

What material was the braid??
Braid simply refers to the weave of fibres, those fibres could be anything in fact.

[Back In Black]

Pazz. If I put silver rope on it I think it will limit me to about a 50mtr fishing depth. Did you get out on the weekend.

Triple. I'll put up photo later to see if anyone knows. I'll see what Sav Winch have to say.

Aussie123 & Cormorant. The boat is a brand new Haines 680 Patriot with a new Haines designed HD 3 roller bow sprit. No sharp edges but the front roller has up to a 4mm gap and the line can get jammed in it. When the braid snapped right at roller the line was straight up and down and sitting in the middle of roller. I had not set it up to trip yet as I was keen to give it a test run. The wind and current where running in different directions about 90 degrees. So chain may of got wrapped around something. It was rubble with small scattered rises.

Back In Black. It had no strength at all, as soon as it pulled on bow it gave way.
Do you know what brand you're using?

Shafter- I have a stress free winch & use Dyneema braid, scarily tough!!

Tony