How to Tie rope to your Boat Anchor

I get asked often enough by folks that are relatively new to using a boat anchor on how to tie rope to your boat anchor, that I thought I would put in my 2 cents worth.

But before I get started, I want to say that in most, if not all cases, you will want to use a rope that does not float. The last thing you want is to have to cut your anchor loose and have your rope floating on the top of the water for you or someone else to run it over and get caught in your prop or impeller, not a good day if that happens!

Most boaters will use various methods to do this, but a few of the main methods to tie rope to your boat anchor are, splicing a loop to your anchor or a link in your anchor chain, adding a carabiner, quick-link or shackle. Another method is just to tie a knot of some kind to your anchor.

If you wanted to go the splicing route and you have solid braid nylon rope for example, solid braid nylon rope does not want to splice, so when deciding how to tie rope to your boat anchor, you will have to go a different route if using solid braid nylon rope for your boat anchor.

Now, I use a Columbia River style anchoring system that incorporates an anchor puller. That means that I thread the rope through the anchor puller, which also means that using anything at the end of my rope, i.e., carabiner, quick-link or shackle won't work for me, since I can thread that through my anchor puller. Add to that, I use solid braid nylon rope, so no splicing either.

I use a Bowline knot, which for me, is easy to tie and easy to untie. So when I have a need to remove my anchor puller/buy ball setup, it's not a problem.

If you are not a knot buff and just want a simple knot, just using a double overhand knot will get the job done in most cases.

If you want to learn more about knots, this is a pretty cool place to show different types and animation on how to tie them, https://www.animatedknots.com/

Hopefully you found some of this information useful on how to tie rope to your boat anchor, and if so, pass this along to someone else that may find this helpful.