Anchor Chain Pile-Up

emandvee44

emandvee44

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A common problem on many modern yachts, and difficult to solve. The 'poke it with a broom handle' option is all very well, but short handed in a windy, tight anchorage may not be possible.
Last week-end we had the usual problem, and the windlass operator* did not notice the chain piling up until the windlass suddenly stopped with the chain completely jammed between the gypsy and the hole in the grp beneath it. After a lot of effort I managed to free it, and fortunately there does not seem to be any damage to the windlass.
However, as this has happened on both recent occasions when weighing anchor, I have decided that something must be done before we suffer damage to the windlass or have an accident.
One option is a device I saw in an on-line chandlers which looks like a mushroom in stainless steel. Installed in the chain locker exactly beneath the fall of the chain, it should distribute the chain randomly around the locker.

Does anyone know where to get one? I have been searching on line for two days without success (Actually I am thinking of having one made locally but I would like an idea of what size to make it)

Thanks,

Michael.
* name withheld to protect me:D
ps I know stainless steel chain would solve the problem, but I have just added 25m to my original 50m, and I shudder to think of the cost of 75m x 10mm calibrated :)
 
It does not need to be a road cone which are structurally fairly weak but a stainless steel pole about 1½ inch diameter with a rounded top directly below the hole through the deck head from the gypsy will give a better effect.

The randomness of the chain going into the locker will cause the chain to fall on one side of the S/S pole. As it builds up it will fall further off the centre line until it has gone too far whence it will return and find an easier place to lay.

The Stainless steel pole with a rounded top can be welded to a base plate which is held in place by the weight of the chain in the locker.



.
 
Why should a cone made out of a traffic cone, or something made specially in stainless steel,work any better than the cone of chain which naturally builds up. To my mind, all a cone does, is to reduce the available volume of the chain locker. Better to stop when say 20m still to come in, and spread the chain out in the locker.
 
NormanS said:
Why should a cone made out of a traffic cone, or something made specially in stainless steel,work any better than the cone of chain which naturally builds up. To my mind, all a cone does, is to reduce the available volume of the chain locker. Better to stop when say 20m still to come in, and spread the chain out in the locker.
Click to expand...

You have obviously never anchored?

I have 100 metres of 10mm and once the chain starts to lay in the locker, the weight of the chain tries to maintain a vertical drop and starts to pile up directly below the hawse pipe onto the chain locker. Once it lays off the centre line it wants to return and will criss-cross and carry on doing this until it has built right up to the top and no more can fall down the pipe.

No amount of heaving with this much chain in a heap can it be moved off the centre line unless it is taken out of the chin locker and returned to the deck above.

I have a four foot boat hook which remains in the forepeak berth to move the chain whilst I am getting underway assuming I have a crew member how can go below into the forepeak.



.
 
lenseman said:
You have obviously never anchored?

I have 100 metres of 10mm and once the chain starts to lay in the locker, the weight of the chain tries to maintain a vertical drop and starts to pile up directly below the hawse pipe onto the chain locker. Once it lays off the centre line it wants to return and will criss-cross and carry on doing this until it has built right up to the top and no more can fall down the pipe.

No amount of heaving with this much chain in a heap can it be moved off the centre line unless it is taken out of the chin locker and returned to the deck above.

I have a four foot boat hook which remains in the forepeak berth to move the chain whilst I am getting underway assuming I have a crew member how can go below into the forepeak.



.
Click to expand...

Your supposition is very wrong. My chain locker is, thankfully, accessible from deck, so if required, it is easy to reach in, with a foot, or the winch handle, and capsize the pile of chain, leaving room for the rest. I can understand that if your chain locker is only accessible from a forepeak berth, your options are much more limited.
 
Last edited:
lenseman
Think you will find the OP has a Bavaria so the chain locker is very different from yours, but is at least instantly accessible when operating the windlass. The chain drops directly in front of a bulkhead and the bulk of volume of the locker is forward of that. A cone does not make any difference. Nothing difficult about stopping and pushing the chain pile forward - except remembering to do it before it jams as described! Then it is a pain to clear.
 
That device to spread the change was marketed by ECS a few years back but it was an enormous sum of money and I don't see it advertised anymore.

I am experimenting with an idea I read about of using a line and pulleys within the chain locker which you use to tumble the stack every now and again as the chain is being collected.
 
I did a lot of anchoring whilst cruising recently on a boat which wasn't mine but I always operated the anchor. We also had the jamming chain but worked out that it would always jam at 15 metres still to come in. From then on we would stop at 20 mts to go and topple the pile or 5 metres before we reached the point of lifting the anchor from the seabed. It never gave us any problems after that.
 
Little Five said:
I did a lot of anchoring whilst cruising recently on a boat which wasn't mine but I always operated the anchor. We also had the jamming chain but worked out that it would always jam at 15 metres still to come in. From then on we would stop at 20 mts to go and topple the pile or 5 metres before we reached the point of lifting the anchor from the seabed. It never gave us any problems after that.
Click to expand...

Mine (like most people's, I suspect) jams at a different point depending on how much chain I have let out and subsequently recovered. My solution is to recover the chain until either it jams or the anchor is about to break out, at which point I run to the fore cabin and knock down the pile of chain in the chain locker in the forepeak, and then recover the rest of the chain. I have to lie across the V-berth in the fore cabin to reach the chain locker, which is not ideal if I am wearing wet oilskins (it sometimes rains in the West of Scotland).
 
You could try make a note of how much chain comes in each time before it jams as I would be surprised if it varied too much. When anchoring on that cruise we usually had out 40-50 mts of chain and that, as I said jammed at 15 to go.
I know the rain problem up there all too well although its not too different here.:)
 
Small cones can help if the chain enters the locker directly above it but if not the cone might cause more hassle. Even big ships have to have guys reaching into the locker with steel poles and broom sticks sometimes.
BTW, The small hole through the deck beneath the gypsy? It's called the spurling pipe.
 
I have this problem and use a piece of 1/2 in rod deployed down through the 'spurling pipe' to knock the pile over. Learned a new term today!

Always move the pile back if you can. If you move it forward then have a rough passage you will find the chain has fallen backwards and the pile is upside down. If this happens the chain will not deploy. Ask me how I know this.
 
NormanS said:
Why should a cone made out of a traffic cone, or something made specially in stainless steel,work any better than the cone of chain which naturally builds up. To my mind, all a cone does, is to reduce the available volume of the chain locker. Better to stop when say 20m still to come in, and spread the chain out in the locker.
Click to expand...

Cone of chain, surface of knobbly links, probability of sticking in one place.
I'm sorry some have to get subjective and suggest that you don't know what you're talking about.
I too doubt the efficacy of the proposal.
 
Little Five said:
You could try make a note of how much chain comes in each time before it jams as I would be surprised if it varied too much. When anchoring on that cruise we usually had out 40-50 mts of chain and that, as I said jammed at 15 to go.
I know the rain problem up there all too well although its not too different here.:)
Click to expand...

My experience the opposite - with 60m out no jams until 10m in - with 10m out it needs redeployment every 2-3m brought in.

IMHO, every boat and every locker behaves in a unique, but consistent manner.
 
cryan said:
Even big ships have to have guys reaching into the locker with steel poles and broom sticks sometimes.
Click to expand...

Indeed - yours truly on chain-beating duty while weighing anchor off Madeira:

172.jpg


Pete
 
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