Anchor upgrade

[Wayne]

Having drug the stock anchor this past weekend in a thunderstorm blow I'm wanting to upgrade my ground tackle to a 55lb Rocna anchor and more chain. 

Can anyone tell me if I can safely add chain to my existing chain and still use the windlass?

Regards,

Wayne

B40

[Mike Wilson]

on third year cruising the Bahamas.  Upgraded to 55 pound rocna with 225 ft of chain and 125 ft of braided rope.  our original plans were to get the the BVIs and thought we might be anchoring in 35 to 40 ft of water.  Not sure I want to put our boat thru the wave action to get there.  We like the Bahamas.  I went with 5/16" HT chain and had to change the windlass.  Found one on eBay new for 1/3 of the dealer price.  Our original ~30ft of 3/8" chain and 150 ft of 3 strand is coiled into a bucket in the aft laz.  Chain on top.  I have a medium size Fortress suspended from the stern pulpit using a slide bracket with the adapter for the fortress palm.  I can get shakle attached to anchor and deployed in about a minute.  Have had to twice in 6 years of ownership of MiJoy.

There are times when the anchorage has a few inches of sand over rock and the anchor is not really set.  If plenty of sand, the rocna buries up to the ring.  Held in well over 50 knots of wind at Big Majors one night.

Mike

S/V MiJoy

[Mike Brown]

Not sure of you've done anything yet as this post appears to be from July 2017. If you're still interested yes there are links that are used to connect two different lengths of chain. West Marine and others sell them. After connecting the two halves through the chain links you peen pins to ensure it stays together. The down side is their breaking strengths which are usually much less than chain. It becomes your weak link in your ground tackle. Not a problem in normal conditions but when the wind picks up you'll be wondering if it'll hold. Not a good feeling. Do a web search on them and decide for yourself.

Mike