Cruising we are very happy to carry 200’ of chain. Back in WA I had 250’ of three strand 30’ of chain and it all fit into a bag I carried to the bow.
Cinderella didn’t have an anchor locker before, and putting a big hole in the bow seemed like a bad idea.
The chain runs from the bow roller to the windlass, when tight it clears everything on deck. When on long passages we pull the anchor off and drop the chain down below. On short sails, there is a length of chain on deck forward not really a problem, though it has stained our treadmaster over time.
We will probably be getting a 48V windlass from maxwell to test for a bit, when that happens I’ll probably add a removeable roller somewhere on deck to allow me to anchor from the cockpit with electric controls.
For now this works great,
-P