Lee Conventional wisdom calls for all chain rode to be terminated with a short piece of line, just long enough that if you have to dump the anchor and chain quickly you can do so with a knife and not a hack saw. I witnessed a very good reason for the line terminating the chain rode which I had never thought of before. In a couple of thousand feet of water off the east coast of Puerto Rico a buddy sailboat was making way into head seas. Nothing dangerous just rough. For reasons never determined the windlass let go of the anchor into free fall. Three hundred feet of 3/8" chain and a 45 Lb CQR went straight to the bottom at high speed. Fortunately when all the chain was out the attached 3/4" line snapped like it was thread. The anchor and chain was lost but no damage was done to the boat. No telling what damage would have been done to the boat if the chain had been attached to the boat by a shackle. Marty Campanella Bay Pelican KK42