We recently got a 34 CHB Europa. Our first non-trailerable boat, so we’re new to anchoring. I pulled the rode out and laid it on the dock to measure and learned that we have 150’ of chain and another 150’ of rope.
Putting it back in was an adventure! The rope kept binding in the windlass (maybe/hopefully it would work better when wet and more slippery?) and the chain kept piling up at the deck pipe, requiring us to manually push the rode around in the locker every 20 feet or so. That’s sure not going to work when actually bringing up the anchor….
The comments about having to hand-spread the chain caught my attention. I’d like to learn what your technique is for that. I figure we’d have to somehow just let the chain collect on the deck when retrieving and then hand-feed it into the anchor locker once it’s all up and we’re again underway. Otherwise how do you manage things once the anchor is halfway up and you have to keep running down to the anchor locker to knock the rode down every 20 feet while simultaneously having to run the boat now that it’s no longer anchored.