F-Ribs And Sibs - Inflatable Boat Community

I recently brought a new anchor and rode to use on my Frib 430. It’s an 11lb lewmar claw with 150’ of rope and 5’ of heavy chain. Everything fits nicely in a cheap cooler bag from Walmart for only $6. It is a little oversized on purpose for use on swift rivers where dragging anchor is prohibited. I can say without a doubt that it works great and really puts on the brakes fast! The way we deploy it could use a little help though.

I’ve read through everything I can find here on attaching and deploying an anchor on a Frib. I’m not a fan of the tube base solutions and need to be able to adjust my scope on the fly for different bottom conditions and depths.

I think I know what I want to do but I’m in need of a little assistance from the group. I’d like to attach a stainless cleat to the backside hardware for the bow ring. The rode will be let out to the desired length and then secured to the cleat. The bitter end will be attached to an M12 “D ring nut” or lifting eye nut on the forward hull section bolt. (This is already an established mod.)
Shown here: Can anyone tell me what size the bow ring is? Specifically the center to center distance between the two bolts that come through the hull. Also the size of the thread? I’m several thousand miles away from my boat or I’d check it myself. Trying to order the proper cleat and have it ready when I get home. Thanks!

Depending what you mean by 'heavy chain' but 5 ft is a little short IMHO for a 14 ft boat. If that's all the chain you have, I'd set it up as : anchor then 14 ft of rope, then your 5 ft of chain, then the rest of the rope.

11 Lbs ! Bloody hell, what are you anchoring Take a look at Cooper Anchors - their 1.5 kilo is more than enough to anchor your boat

Take a look at this link :

Ha! Yes the Cooper’s are a great anchor, but at £50 for the 1kg and £85 for the 1.5kg jobbie, firmly in the luxury item class and not something I’d want to cut loose if stuck in a rocky seabed....realise can rig to trip!

Back in the real world a cheapo galv. Bruce type anchor either 1 or 2kg with between 2 to 4m of 6mm short link chain and 30m of 8mm warp will be more than adequate for most sibs/small ribs for short term stops in relatively protected waters.

My anchor setup is essentially what Harrison mentioned: a 2 kg cheapo galvanised Bruce with 4m of 6mm chain and 30 meters of warp.
I used it the other day and was very surprised at the performance of it. When pulling it up I had to pull until I was lifting the chain from the seabed before the anchor let go.
My whole setup cost about £35.

When my parents had the Draco, that had a Bruce anchor, so I'm very familiar with them

Awesome bit of kit and works well in various seabeds. Nearly lost it once when it got jammed - since then all my anchors are set to trip & I never anchor with less than a 1:5 scope. Running a ringed anchor buoy also aids recovery in certain seabeds though they can be a bit of a faff and if its set to trip, why bother

I can't comment on the bigger Coopers, but the small 230 gram one works great on my canoe

Bruce's also come in a polished version that goes well with stainless chain ...... no, I'm not a boat whore, honest

My Bruce is rigged to trip using a cable tie. Handy things!

ChrisParish wrote: ↑

11 Jul 2019, 18:49

My Bruce is rigged to trip using a cable tie. Handy things!

Zip ties, duct tape & a knife ..... 90% of my tool box

I attach my anchor to the d ring under the bow, (rope chain and anchor stored in large bucket in the bow, already attached to d ring) pay out the rope then clip on a caribiner on a shortish additional rope which is tied to the side grab rope. When retrieving, just pull the anchor rope to hand using this clipped on length.

Found this so much easier, no wet arms/sleeves in the winter, lower anchor, tie up on cleat, job done.

That system looks like it is easy to use and protects the tubes from rope wear. I need to review the folding process on my f-rib to insure there is no issue folding.

Thanks for the picture!