****
UPDATE ****
I
have now added a third line, about 4 feet long, to the bridle
ring and removed the "dogbone" described below. I
now have the two lines coming from each bow cleat and a third
line (forming a "Y") with a loose bitter end.
Instead
of pressing the anchor line through the ring and inserting the
block, I use the new line as follows:
After
setting the anchor line on the center cleat, I bring the bitter
end of the third line through the bow roller bail to a convenient
spot on the anchor line. There, even with the anchor line under
tension, I can easily tie a rolling hitch with the bitter end
(4 ft) of the newly added line. I then let out the anchor line
until the two bow lines take the strain. The center cleat is
left connected, but slack. I
have used this arrangement now 4 times, two of which were in
20 knots of wind. None of these times did the center cleated
anchor line ever become taught, indicating the rolling hitch
was working perfectly.
I
spent a lot of time thinking of ideas that would allow me to
have an anchor bridle that had its normal advantages of keeping
the boat pointed into the wind and distributing loads, etc.
But I was interested in a bridle arrangement that would preserve
the center cleat attachment as a back up. What
I came up with was partially taken from some discussions I had
over on the multihulls listserv.
I
took two 35 foot nylon lines and spliced a 12 inch eye into
one end of each. At the other end of each I spliced a thimble
AFTER clipping the thimble onto the largest stainless steel
ring I could find. The result was a SS ring with two 35 foot
lines connected to it, each line having an eyesplice in the
other end. Also attached to the ring via a lanyard, is a piece
of teak block with very smooth notches cut out of it - kind
of like a dogbone.
The idea is that the main anchor
rode remains attached to the center cleat as normal. This is
also the starting position for attaching the bridle. Next, you
put the two eyesplices over the cleats on each hull. The center
ring is brought through the bow roller as shown in this picture.
Now
comes the hard part..... Pull up enough slack on the anchor
rode to allow you to put it through the ring, inserting the
"dogbone" underneath. You
then let out more of the main rode and allow the assembled ring
to go out over the roller. The resulting maylay looks like this.
Note that the "dogbone" has enough room for the thimbles
on the inboard side.
And
here is the bridle fully deployed. The center rode can stay
slack while the bridle keeps the boat centered. If there is
any problem with the bridle, the center rode is still attached
to the center cleat as normal. Now
(as expected) ..... I
only tried it out one time (shown here) and the main anchor
rode might be slipping through the ring some (the
center rode kept slowly losing its slack). I'm not sure what
I will do if this is the case - maybe trade the "dogbone"
for a third thimbled line and use a rolling hitch to the main
rode. I also might try wrapping the main rode around the dogbone
twice instead of just the one hump.