The Jimmy Green Guide to the Best Anchor Ropes

10 Jun 2020

Updated January 2023

The Best Anchor Ropes for your Motorboat or Sailing Yacht

The best ropes for anchoring a motorboat or sailing yacht are manufactured from Nylon (Polyamide) or Polyester because they offer good value, substantial strength, the appropriate weight (they both sink), and excellent shock-absorbing properties (stretch).

What are the Main Properties to look for in an Anchor Rope?

Strength

Strength is essential because the rope will need to be strong enough to safely withstand the pulling load created by your yacht and all the equipment and crew on board.

Weight

The weight of the rope fibre helps the line to sink naturally, which improves the direction of the pull on the anchor.

Stretch

Stretch is crucial because the line needs to absorb the shock when the waves, wind and current combine to cause sudden or abrupt spikes in the strain. If the line doesn’t give, the result is an unpleasant onboard motion. In addition, there are potentially more severe consequences: jerking the anchor from its holding position, straining the fixings of the deck attachment point or, in extremis, incurring failure in the weakest component.

Durability

An anchor rope must withstand the wear and tear caused at one end by contact with the seabed and at the other by rubbing where it passes over the bow roller or through the toe rail fairleads. Part of the line may also be exposed to the sun’s harmful rays for extended periods, so good UV resistance is desirable, especially in sunny climes, e.g. the Mediterranean and the Tropics.

Handling and Storage

When dropping anchor and retrieving it again, you will need to deal with the rope, which may be very long. Knowing how the anchor line will likely behave as it passes through your hand and over the bow into the water or back into the chain locker or storage container will be crucial to satisfactory performance. You don’t want it to end in a tangled mess in either direction.

Splice-ability

The rope construction must be splice-able, i.e. capable of being successfully spliced.

Tying a knot reduces the breaking strain by up to 50%, and strength is essential, as reported above.

A well-formed splice will retain approximately 90% of the breaking strain.

The Most Important Splices for Anchoring Ropes:

Thimble Eye Splice - an eye formed around a heart-shaped thimble (nylon, galvanised or stainless steel) for attachment with a shackle.

LIROS-20mm-3-Strand-NYLON-Eye-Splice-Galvanised-Thimble.jpg

Loop Splice – a loop of any length to attach to a deck cleat or strongpoint.

Rope to Chain Splice - a splice formed around the end link of an anchor chain or intertwined along multiple links of an anchor chain - for joining the rope directly to the chain without any shackles.

Which Rope Fibres are best for Anchoring

Nylon (Polyamide) and Polyester are synthetic manufactured fibres eminently suited to anchoring because they offer all the previously highlighted properties: Strength, Weight, Stretch, Durability, and Splice-ability.

Nylon is the most commonly used of the two, but Polyester is equally suitable.

The below table illustrates at a glance how Nylon and Polyester have similar star quality ratings for anchoring:

Nylon versus Polyester for Anchor Rope
Properties	Nylon	Polyester
Strength	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Density, Weight, Sinking potential in water	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Stretch	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Resistance to salt water and chemicals	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Resistance to abrasion	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Resistance to sunlight	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Handling and Stowage	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Splicing	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆
Value	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆	☆ ☆ ☆ ☆ ☆

Star Quality Ratings:

5 ☆ = Excellent
4 ☆ = Good
3 ☆ = Average
2 ☆ = Mediocre
1 ☆ = Poor