Anchor Chain Castling and Solutions

[ronf]

Hello everyone,

I have a Fleming 55 that I ordered new in 2009, with a question about anchor chain castling, windlass hawse pipes to the chain locker, and chain spreaders. At the time I ordered the Fleming there was an option with the Lofrans windlass for an integrated chain spreader that would flake the chain out in the locker. After lots of chain castling problems with a previous boat, I opted for that in a heartbeat. It’s worked beautifully, without a single chain castling problem in seven years. This past summer, though, an electrical short somewhere in the windlass/spreader mechanism ruined the control board for the spreader, and for the rest of the cruising season I could hear the various chain castles falling over as I stood on the foredeck while bringing the anchor up.

Now I’ve found that Lofrans quit making the spreader shortly after my boat was built, and consequently it’s impossible to replace, and spare parts for the one I have aren’t available. I’ve also had zero luck in finding any other manufacturer who makes a spreader.

My repair yard is now working to install a hawse tube that has a different angle and length than the factory provides, in the hopes of reducing the chain castling – and for the upcoming cruising season I’m faced with being the “manual chain spreader” to see how it works.

I’ve queried other Fleming owners about this problem, and they agree that it exists. They’ve solved it (to some degree) by squirting a can of WD-40 onto the chain pile in the locker twice a season, and they report this increased chain slipperiness helps a lot (although I’m not wild about dumping this oil into my chain locker – but maybe it’s just not a big deal). Another suggestion is to place a highway safety cone in the chain locker, forcing the chain to spread around more – but there are lots of potential problems that I see with that.

Lots of you must also suffer from chain castling and the resulting chain overlayment when trying to let out chain during anchoring, as well as chain clogging up the hawse chute. I’d very much like to hear about others’ experiences and solutions.

Thanks in advance,
Ronf

 

[pcatterall]

Bit crude but I hear many reports from folk who use a traffic cone or similar!

 

[Neeves]

We found the traffic cone solution a waste of time (simply took up more room) and we use smaller chain with smoother galvanising now and its not an issue. In the past we knew how long it took for the chain to castle, how many metres - when we had retrieved that amount of chain we would stop the windlass and topple the castle with a broom handle - and then carry on.

Jonathan

 

[NormanS]

I think the traffic cone idea is an urban myth. After all, what is it achieving? All I see is it taking up space in the chain locker, in the shape of the first lot of chain.
The secret of good chain stowage is to have a deep chain locker, which comes back to designers. Our chain locker is pretty good, and has a hinged access hatch on deck. My wife, who attends to these things keeps an eye on it, and when/if necessary kicks the pile over with one of her little feet.

 

[Neeves]

My knowledge of Fleming is that it is a rather desirable, traditional looking, motor yacht. As Norman says having a deep locker is a good start - but it is unlikely you will want or be able to rearrange the existing locker. Ensuring the hawse pipe focusses the fall of the chain to the deepest section of the locker will help. I have this nasty fear, now that I think a bit more, that your chain might be quite beefy and maybe not be very accessible and knocking the tower over with your feet or hands might not be very easy. There are lots of Flemings around there must be some owner information on this (or ask Fleming) - but the broom handle, or something similar seems the best short term option.

Your chain must be quite old now - if it is rusting that will encourage towering as it is much less smooth - frequent use of chain keeps it polished. But if it is rusting maybe consider regalvanising (the corrosion will not stop) and after some decent use you will have chain as slippery as you can get (excepting an investment in stainless chain).

Good luck

Jonathan

 

[pcatterall]

I think the traffic cone idea is an urban myth. After all, what is it achieving? All I see is it taking up space in the chain locker, in the shape of the first lot of chain.
The secret of good chain stowage is to have a deep chain locker, which comes back to designers. Our chain locker is pretty good, and has a hinged access hatch on deck. My wife, who attends to these things keeps an eye on it, and when/if necessary kicks the pile over with one of her little feet.

I have no practical experience with using a cone but there was a long thread here at one time. Some said US and some said great ( after all this is the PBO forum!!) I can see that it would work in some situations and there were a number of users who agreed with this. Cheap to try at least.

 

[Jabs]

I have a similar problem, largely because I have a lot of chain.
I use the boat hook to push the 'castle' over.

There is a stainless mushroom available which mounts below the chain drop and causes it to wind around the mushroom. Not tried it and its a couple of hundred pounds so I 'put up and shut up'!

Or send the crew up to sort it!!

Tony

 

[TQA]

I have this problem. My set up allows me to poke a 4 ft long 1/2 dia stainless steel rod into the chain locker to push over the castles from the deck while lifting the anchor. This works for me.

NB Push the first 2 castles towards the stern. This prevents the later chain piles being covered by the early ones falling back on passage.