How Long Should My Pendants Be

What follows is an excerpt of an email from Warren discussing how to calculate pendant length for boats moored at NBC:

It is 30 feet of bottom chain, then 20 feet of top chain, then 12-15 feet of pendant to the waterline. That gave everyone roughly the same length and scope. With a storm surge the water gets 20-22 feet deep and it still gets us the 3:1 scope we were looking for. The GOAL for allowing for the freeboard and distance to the chocks/cleats was to not loose scope on the bigger boats who were: 1) our biggest offenders and 2) capable of doing the most damage.

So for example on an Ensign with 1 foot of freeboard, anchored close to shore in 12 feet of water, with the cleats on the edge of the boat, a 10 foot is ideal, a 12 foot pendant is max. On my C&C 29, close to shore, I use 16 feet because of the freeboard and distance to the cleats. A bigger boat may go 18-20 feet. The goal is to keep the chain on the bottom, have the float carry no more than three feet of chain, and keep the polyester pendants off the bottom and living in the water, not touching the bottom. Polyester dragging the founded bottom of our mushroom fouled mooring field is bad. So do the math per boat and get pendants that will do the job.

Remember that stretch is bad and polyester is the best choice. No nylon. Good chafing gear. No rubber hoses.

*Note from Committee chair: We would like to amplify what Warren has written and also suggest that lengthening the pendants to avoid the anoyance of having to lift up 3 feet of chain (when not using a rig where the bouy stays in the water) will place your top swivel in the mud where it might not be able to do much swiveling.

Last updated 4:29pm on 11 January 2025