Tripline---do you use one

[Mr. Fixit]

I have never had to use my tripline on my anchor---what is your experience--considering eliminating--trying to get closer to the kiss principle--from your experience do you think this is a mistake??--i have very heavy gear--5/16 HT chain--44lb Delta--manual windlass

[CharlieJ]

In three years aboard my trimaran,
with the last year spent always anchored,
and two years this cruise, I have never used a trip line.

I've anchored from Port Isabel Texas
to Annapolis Virginia and
all through the keys and Bahamas too.

ONCE on a previous boatmI hooked an abandoned cable,
 but I dove and unhooked.

I understand some anchorages are quite foul
and might require a trip line, but I personally haven't needed one

[okawbow]

I use a 33# Bruce with 35' if 3/8" chain, and no tripline. This year I anchored about 100 times without a problem, in all types of bottom and from rivers with heavy current to choppy bays with 10' tides.

On my trip, I noticed most others used a tripline. I always thought that if needed, I could hook a spare chain around the anchor chain, let it slip down to the anchor, and motor over to pull the anchor out.

[Amgine]

I've occasionally rigged a trip line.

The one time I really needed a trip line, I hadn't actually rigged it. In that occasion I lost my original cast bruce anchor in rock, not because the anchor fouled, but because the chain appeared to be caught, either around a rock or in a rock split. I don't know if I would have been able to save the anchor if a trip line had been rigged, but it would have been another option to try. (Cold waters and no dry suit prevented diving to salvage.)

I've anchored hundreds of times, have dragged once (and repeatedly that time.) 99% of the time there is no need or interest in a trip line, but I tend to be in remote anchorages. A few times there is lumbering slash/trash to be worried about, or an anchorage with a long history of boaters/shipping (chain or cables or wrecks on the bottom), or the milky waters of glaciers hiding what is waiting below. I'd rather be over-paranoid and rig the trip line when I think it's necessary, but being honest I cannot say it has ever specifically helped me out of situation.

On the other hand, I did have that one occasion where it might have helped, but it wasn't rigged.