3:1 scope in 15 ft of water with 2 ft of tide

Rode to pay out

52ft

3:1 over 23 ft of rise — 15 ft depth + 2 ft tide + 6 ft bow height

Rode length	52ft
Total rise15 depth + 2 tide + 6 bow — measured from the bow roller, not the waterline	23ft
Swing radiusthe circle you need clear of other boats and shoal	46ft
Swing diameterif the wind boxes the compass	93ft
Nominal scope	3:1
Effective scopechain weight holds the catenary — less scope needed	2.3:1
Rode type	all chain
At the 7:1 overnight standardmore than you are paying out now	121ft

Charted depth: 15 ft
Tidal range: 2 ft
Bow height: 6 ft
Scope: 3
Rode: all chain

Measure the rise, not the depth

Scope is rode length divided by the rise — and the rise is not the charted depth. It is depth plus tide plus the height of your bow roller above the water:

15 ft + 2 ft + 6 ft = 23 ft

At 3:1 with all chain, that is 52 ft of rode.

The bow height is the part people leave out. The anchor holds because of the angle the rode makes at the seabed, and that angle starts where the rode leaves the boat, not where it enters the water.

Tide, before you set

A tidal range of 2 ft means scope calculated at low water shrinks as the tide floods. Anchors drag on a rising tide, in the dark, when the boat you carefully anchored clear of is suddenly much closer than it was.

The number nobody calculates: swing radius

46 ft. That is the circle you need clear of other boats, moorings and shoal water — 93 ft across if the wind boxes the compass overnight.

More scope holds better and swings wider. In a crowded anchorage that trade-off, not holding power, is usually what limits you.

Set it, then check it

Back down at low revs until the boat stops moving with the rode taut. Take a transit on shore and watch it for a few minutes. An anchor that has not been set is a heavy object lying on the bottom, and it will tell you so at three in the morning.

Notes

Measure the rise from the bow roller, not the waterline. The anchor is held by the ANGLE of the rode at the seabed, and that angle starts where the rode leaves the boat. On a boat with 6 ft of bow height in 15 ft of water, leaving it out overstates your scope by 26%.
Add the tide before you set, not after. 2 ft of range means a 3:1 scope at low water becomes 2.3:1 at high — anchors drag on the flood, in the dark, when the boat you anchored clear of is suddenly close.
3:1 is a fair-weather, someone-on-watch scope. Overnight practice is 7:1, which here would be 121 ft of rode. Short scope is the most common reason anchors drag.
All chain earns its shorter scope through weight — the catenary keeps the pull horizontal. In a hard blow the chain straightens out and that advantage disappears exactly when you need it, so add a snubber and more scope.
Set it properly once it is down. Back down at low revs until the boat stops moving with the rode taut, then take a transit on shore and watch it for a few minutes. An anchor that has not been set is just a heavy object lying on the bottom.

Nearby sizes

"Anchor Weight per Foot: The Rule of Thumb, and Where It Breaks"A pound per foot is a rule that works in the middle of its range and fails at both ends, for two different reasons.
Fluke Anchors: Where They Excel, and the Two Bottoms That Defeat ThemThe fluke anchor has the best holding-to-weight ratio in common use and two well-known failure modes. Both are about the bottom, not the size.
Reading a Modern Scoop Anchor Chart, and What Its Small Print AssumesModern anchor charts look interchangeable and are not. The difference between them is usually one line of small print about assumed wind speed.
Anchoring a 24-Foot Boat: The Questions the Chart Cannot SeeTwo 24-foot boats can need different anchors. Length is the index every chart uses and the one variable that tells you least about the load.