While reading the notes on snubbers and their use, I haven't seen much mention of the need for a short, stout "snubber" for use in pulling anchors loose from the bottom. I anchor in shallow waters for hurricanes. The narrowness of the place I do this (numerous boats tied bow-to-trees with sterns anchored in deeper water, all in CLOSE proximity to one another with overlapping rodes) requires "setting" the anchors with the engines. Getting these anchors up and stowed typically takes half a day and neighborly cooperation. With no swell to help loosen these anchors when the rode is hauled in to an "up and down" condition, it takes brute force of the boat and engines to loosen the deeply embedded anchors. I am most careful to attach a snubber to the chain and slack the windlass before hogging any of these beasts loose from the bottom "glue." You don't want a bent windlass shaft - do not ask me how I know (but I wasn't the one who bent it). So I see that there is really potential application for long elastic as well as short stout snubbers on every trawler. BTW, the toughest anchor retrieval job I ever had was getting my fisherman ("kedge" to some) style anchor out of the bottom of a bayou after hurricane Opal in 1995. That sucker took an hour, two snubbers, and full engine power see-sawing back and forth over the top of it, and it was not hung on some obstruction either! Rich Gano CALYPSO (GB42-295) Southport, FL