anchor chain marks

[Guest]

Is there a convention for marking up an anchor chain? If not, how does anyone painted or mark theirs?

Previously I've painted the anchor chain but then forgoten whether I painted it every five metres or every three. Later, it wore off so it doesn't matter if can remember or not.

This has left me with only three settings of anchor chain lengths which are "a fair bit", "quite a lot" or " all of it". I don't want anchor chain counters cos they seem so unreliable.

 

[Deleted User YDKXO]

You used to be able to get plastic tie-on markers which have worked for me in the past but I have'nt seen them in chandlers for a while. On my last boat I used a simple paint system of red 10m marks and yellow 5m marks but it was'nt simple enough for my wife so now we have a system whereby she stands on the bow and lets out as much chain as she thinks fit and when she stops, I let out a bit more just to irritate her. Its infallible

 

[byron]

The conventional method was to mark it in Fathoms. Now however with the environment agency, the EEC and some sprouts in Brussels, I think you mark it in metric minutes using a straightened banana.

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[ArthurWood]

Have mostly rope on my boat but it is marked in different colours for different lengths, eg red: 10-30ft, green:30-60ft, blue etc etc or something like that and I have a small ref list at the helm so I don't forget which colour means what. It came with the boat/windlass/anchor rope. V. useful when controlling windlass from helm. However, you would probably need binocs from the helm of the L23

 

[Boatman]

Byron does that mean you mark every minute in yellow or have Brussels change the colour of the banana as well

 

[byron]

It means that you take the diurnal variation of the versine of the banana's confluence then using a slide rule calculate 6 feet. According to the Brussel Sprouts this is better than putting a white paint mark on the chain every 6 feet (Fathom)

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[jfm]

We have never bothered, though keep meaning to. The boat I did ICC on a few years ago had red paint evry 1m, worked fine I thought. But as someone said, you will never see it from helm of LS23. You need digital chain counter, don't worry about reliability, captain will fix it for first 6mths, after that it will only work for 50% of time but heck that's better than nuthin

 

[Guest]

Re: how about...

up to 10m/or feet - no mark.
10+ is all red - the whole chain - bound to see some of the colour
20 + is yellow
30 + is green
40+ is brown
50+ is blue
60+ is pink
70 + is black (or again no mark)

Nice and easy to remeber, I think, snookerishly. Gawd, I'll get a beating for this...

 

[paulineb]

Re: how about...

green baize decks then?? mmmm ...nice. And remember, you have to keep one foot on the floor at ALL times.

Pauline B

 

[jfm]

That \"get stuffed\" threshold again....

Go on then, tell Rodriguez to do it....!!

 

[Guest]

Re: That \"get stuffed\" threshold again....

have done so - cheaper for them than anchor calibration with everlasting snagging, and has that lightly crazy Italian feeling about it. Digipics within a week or two mebbe.

 

[stewart]

Doesn't the Leopard come with a diver to go down and check with a tape measure each time as standard. If not you could always try asking?

 

[hlb]

Our anchor chain is marked every fathom with red paint.
Course the depth sounder is in metres so then without getting the abacus out, call it two metres.
Wife who's in charge of anchor winch and actualy studies all surounding boats and makes knowing comment on anchor arangements. But I digress. She always diligently asks. "What depth is it." But she never counts the red marks, but only the big red mark at the end of the chain. So whether 2metres of water or ten. Its always 10 fathoms of chain out. We could let out more but then it go's to rope and the stuff gets caught
in the anchor winch so we hardly ever use it.
So never mind the length of chain just motor around to find correct depth for all of it. Its a lot easier!!

Haydn

 

[KevL]

I'm glad someone bought this up coz I was thinking of how to mark mine in a "wifey frendly" manner as she is the one who has to understand what the marks mean. Now bugger what the norm/standards are I need something easy to use and I had decided that the best way to do this would be to mark the chain in anchoring depths. So if I need six times the depth of anchor chain/line out and I normally anchor in depths of 10 to 30 feet then I was thinking of putting marks on the chain at 60", 90", 120", 150" (oh I haven't got that much) etc. Then all I need to do is check the depth sounder and tell wifey to stop at the first, second, third etc mark which could be different colours.

Or is this too "newbee revolutionary" for this forum

KevL

 

[Guest]

I've got little bits of coloured rope (red and green) tied to mine. They're about three inches long, and don't seem to get stuck in the windlass. Sadly, I have no idea how far apart they are. So I guess ho much I need, then hold the button down for another 5 seconds, then add abit for good measure. If she drifts, I let out some more.

One day, I plan to measure the distance between the little sods.

 

[stewart]

Mine's marked in mtrs but let out what seems reasonable based on depth and then jump in with mask, have a swim round and look at how much is on the bottom and what the sea bed is like. Not sure I'd do the same on the south coast though........

 

[Col]

I was given a very good tip by an RYA instructor.
You should aim for a 4X scope of chain (ie) depth 1mtr (X4 scope) equals 4mtrs of chain down,depth 2mtr=8mtr of chain and so on.
All that is required is to mark your chain every 4 mtrs,then all you need to do is look at your depth gauge, say 4 mtrs, let out chain untill you've counted 4 marks,hey presto 16 mtrs chain down
-spot on.

 

[hlb]

Complicated!!

Well you can try all the other ways.
But in the end just do like me. Twenty metres of chain so anchor in 4 or five metres or less. Then no strain on wifes brain and less rows. They dont teach you all this on the courses!! Or if yours is clever type how about Blond,
brunet and then her favourite nail varnish colours.
Haydn<P ID="edit"><FONT SIZE=-1>Edited by hlb on Thu Nov 1 19:17:12 2001 (server time).</FONT></P>

 

[Guest]

I do that too!

I am hoping that my half-baked snooker-coloured anchor will settle any disagreements abouthow much is down, but of course will continue with final adjustments. Cheers.

 

[adrianbarker]

These are the beez neez, they work.

They come in nice pretty colours too, the only thing is that you need to remember the colour code your'e using !!