Fun fact. It's not the anchor that keeps large ships in place, it is the weight of the chain.

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That’s a good saying to have on hand for a lot of situations. 🤙

that's not true, it's not entirely accurate. The anchor itself is what holds a ship in place, but the chain plays a key role in keeping the ship in place, it's a team effort between both.

Given a long enough chain, his statement would be true.

No need to dwelve into catenary physics, though.

Correct. Which for large ships, you need extremely long chains.

Anchors alone just slide in the seabed. It's the weight of several meters of chain close to the soil that holds the anchor in place.

Actually, it’s the anchor, not the chain, that holds the ship in place. The anchor’s flukes dig into the seabed to grip it, while the chain adds weight to keep the anchor set. Without the anchor, just the chain wouldn’t stop the ship from drifting. I know this because I own a ship an I have to use an anchor to keep it in place

I said large ships. This is not about small boats. Read about the catenary effect in the procedures large ships need to calculate in order to correctly do it. The anchor is simply too light for them.

I'll have to research this 🤔

Yes, saw that video too, very informative.

I went in the rabbit hole 😅

As one does

The anchor definitely contributes

Begs the question: why have an anchor then? ⚓️

To keep the horizontal stretch of the chain from sliding at sea bottom.

Another fun fact about chains:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_dQJBBklpQQ

On all ships, it's the two that hold them in place. Even on large ships, an anchor is necessary.

But the weight contribution between anchor and chain changes for larger ships.

I imagine it's because they require longer and stronger chains, which makes them much heavier.

Em sistemas de ancoragem por catenaria (que foi o que ficou implícito), a âncora serve para fixar o movimento da corrente no fundo do mar. Teoricamente, uma corrente bem longa faria o mesmo papel sem âncora.

Mas a força restauradora é da barriga da corrente, a catenaria; a âncora não vê isso.

A frase dele foi simples e acabou imprecisa