A note on securing anchor chain (or "Daddy's just done a John!"

[Mirelle]

A note on securing anchor chain (or \"Daddy\'s just done a John!\"

The received wisdom is that the bitter end of the anchor chain should be secured in the locker with a length of rope which will pass through the hawsepipe and emerge on deck so that, case need, you can cut it if you need to get out of somewhere in a hurry.

Well...

That's what we've got.

Scene: 0200 am, anchor has dragged a bit so I veer more chain. In the dark, I fail to observe that I have in fact veered ALL the chain. I notice this at the point when the length of rope has emerged on deck and passed over the windlass gypsy, so that the last link of chain is halfway to the bow roller.

So the whole strain is now being taken by a bit of rope and a none too impressive eyebolt, rather than a bullet proof windlass and 7/16" chain.

At which point I grab the end of the chain and yell for assistance. hence my son's remark (see "We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea") and we manage to get a rolling hitch on the chain and drop it back on the gypsy. Not funny, with 10 tons of boat in a two knot tide!

MORAL:

Have the bit of rope of a length such that the chain stays on the gypsy.

Come to think of it, if the bit of rope stays in the locker, is it such a big deal to go below and cut it?

 

[Ships_Cat]

Re: A note on securing anchor chain (or \"Daddy\'s just done a John!\"

Did the same one dark night in about 20m of water - a real pain, I could not even lift the vertical weight of the chain, let alone move the boat as well.

Our bit of rope has a ss ring on the opposite end to that the chain is on - whole lot is stopped from disappearing over the side when the ring hits the bottom of the chain pipe - does give a nice warning thump and shake of the deck when it hits but by then it is too late.

Have been meaning to paint a white warning marker on the chain just before the end but have never gotten around to it. Maybe this winter.

I wonder how many have actually put the cutting the rope trick to use?

John

 

[Kristal]

The Patent Chain-Saver (C) Crystal Enterprises 2005

I have added this to my lengthy "cunning improvements" list, so at this rate, will get around to it next decade. I'm envisioning a nice strop of rope, just the right length to keep the chain on the gypsy, but enough exposed should a knife be needed, and eyespliced at either end (so it looks nice).

Which puts me in mind of a cracking idea. Imagine, if you will, a gadget attached to the chain at the same place as the rope: it is a very long thin cloth sausage that will come out of the hawsepipe easily, and has a hydrostatic release on it. As soon as it is immersed (i.e., in an emergency you've cut the rope and abandoned your anchor) it inflates into a small buoy with 60m of reasonably thin, strong twine on the end of it.

Thus, once you are safe again, you could return to this impromptu buoy and use it to get your anchor back.

/<

 

[Mirelle]

Re: The Patent Chain-Saver (C) Crystal Enterprises 2005

You could market that, BUT:

a) it cannot be activated by moisture cos the inside of the chain locker is often wet

b) if activated by pressure, it must be in such a way that weight of chain does not set it off.

l

 

[DRW]

Re: A note on securing anchor chain (or \"Daddy\'s just done a John!\"

I had to cut an anchor away once. We had been sitting on a big Bruce and chain off Boracay in the Philippines for a week or so and had a couple of small blows. then middle of the night the boat felt wrong so I went up stairs and we have dragged, the boatboy on anchor watch fast asleep. We had drifted over the reef and the chain wrapped around a coral head while we tried to recover it.

I got the boys to tie a fender onto the chain and then let it run out and cut the rope. Moved back into the anchorage and ran out a storm anchor for the night. Took all the next day to recover the gear we had dropped, a coral lump had somehow jammed into the mouth of the bruce making it as much use as a football. we lay to a two anchor mooring after that.

Also had to make ready to bouy and dump three anchors one night in a harbour (Puerta Galera) in a typhoon when an anchored barge broke free unwind of us. The tug master was brilliant, he broke free from his anchors and collected his barge and reanchored it and then lay behind it He had come in and initially set his stall about a mile upwind, now he was about half a mile away. We were playing the engines all night to take some of the anchor strain, he must have been going ahead all night behind his barge.

I would not like to be shackled to the spot when something goes wrong. Just have to remember to keep a knife in your pajamas /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif


But you are absolutley right that the chain should stay on the gypsy and the chain stopper, don't think that is part of the normal understanding of the concept.

 

[Plum]

Re: A note on securing anchor chain (or \"Daddy\'s just done a John!\"

Thanks for passing on your experience, Mirelle, and making me smile, too.

 

[Mirelle]

Re: A note on securing anchor chain (or \"Daddy\'s just done a John!\"

I should add that the scene was Felixstowe Ferry at 0200 on a spring tide, with a dead engine the reason for anchoring in such a very silly place!

A ten year old boy who can make a rolling hitch, in the dark, in a hurry, is well worth carrying aboard!

 

[Kristal]

Re: A note on securing anchor chain (or \"Daddy\'s just done a John!\"

Very useful crewmember indeed, although now in grave danger of being pressed by CB forumites in any East Coast port you care to visit. I for one will certainly be dropping a coin into his apple juice...

 

[Peterduck]

Re: The Patent Chain-Saver (C) Crystal Enterprises 2005

You might like to consider using a rope-to-chain-splice for the upper end of the rope. It'll go through the navel pipe so much easier.
Peter.

 

[Kristal]

Re: The Patent Chain-Saver (C) Crystal Enterprises 2005

Yes, this is indeed very true. To tell the honest truth, I have never actually got to the end of the anchor chain, having only had to throw out lots of it after engine failure in the Thames - very aware that I might not know what's on the end of it.

A job for the weekend, I think, I have been meaning to do it for months and months. Even more shamefully, the only other time I've used the anchor full stop was in Oare Creek after going aground, and then, of course, I forgot to pull it up when we floated and chugged off.

I WILL get over the "can't sleep at anchor" psychosis, when I've got over all my other ones, honest!

/<

 

[milltech]

Re: The Patent Chain-Saver (C) Crystal Enterprises 2005

Very true, many's the time, on many boats, that I've peered into that dark recess and seen some bit of elderly Manila tethered to an even more elderly bit of green metal and wondered....

 

[milltech]

Re: The Patent Chain-Saver (C) Crystal Enterprises 2005

Could it not have a toggle release fixed to the ring in the dungeon by some snapable twine so it would activate like a manual release lifejacket?

 

[Mirelle]

Re: The Patent Chain-Saver (C) Crystal Enterprises 2005

Boundless ingenuity!

 

[burgundyben]

Re: The Patent Chain-Saver (C) Crystal Enterprises 2005

John

You could just find the end of the chain and tie it on with a new bit of string?

Seems by far the simplest solution...

 

[Kristal]

Re: The Patent Chain-Saver (C) Crystal Enterprises 2005

We're rich, rich, rich!! And, of course, very sensible to have developed our award-winning innovation on an open-access internet bulletin board...

/<

 

[Ships_Cat]

Mirelle\'s Influence on My Life

I can now proudly claim to have a nice white section of chain just prior to the bitter end (that is the end that proves to be the bitterest should the ropy bit appear around the gypsy). Something I have been meaning to do for years.

Not sure if the epoxy primer I used had time to properly dry before I had to get all the chain back in the locker - that may be an excitement lurking for another dark night.

John