Anyone who has ever dropped an anchor more than once will usually be happy to share their method on how it should be done. Since we fall into that category, here goes:

Upon choosing the spot, which is usually a nice sandy area, we circle what will be the swinging radius checking for depth all around. After that we head up into the wind and into our imaginary circle and drop, slowly paying out chain so that it lies nicely along the bottom in a line rather than in a heap. Depending on depth, we determine how much chain to ultimately lay but usually set the anchor (by backing down) while at 60’.

Our chosen snubber system is super simple. We have been doing it the same way for two seasons now and have found it works the best of anything else that we have tried. (We found this method in Cost Concious Crusing by Lin & Larry Pardey.) We have a block mounted at the tip of our bowsprit that the snubber line leads through. From there the line attaches to the chain with a rolling hitch. The other end of the line is fastened to our samson post where we can adjust it’s length. The theory behind this method is that the weight of the chain is at the forward-most place of the boat therefore reducing pitching caused by chop through the anchorage. Also this keeps the snubber off of the bobstay with no chafe points.