Anchor chain piling up

[richardh10]

So when you return the anchor chain to the locker, how do you stop it piling up in a mound and blocking the hole before you’ve got it all in?

 

[mick]

I knock it over with a stick. Seriously.

 

[EdWingfield]

I knock it over with a stick. Seriously.

Agreed. Capsize the bugger with a boathook.

 

[GregOddity]

So when you return the anchor chain to the locker, how do you stop it piling up in a mound and blocking the hole before you’ve got it all in?

A design flaw from which I will also suffer, 3 solutions come to mind, changing the layout of the all thing, knock it with a stick or move the windlass forward so the chain falls freely in the middle and not against a wall. Chains love to climb walls... Alternatively I curse at it in a few different languages... while I knock it with a stick or boat hook.

 

[TQA]

I use a 4 ft length of 1/2 in stainless poked in thru the deck to move the pyramid.

Works for me.

The alternative was to station the crew in the forepeak with a broom handle working thru the anchor locker access hatch.

 

[richardh10]

Thanks all. I had a feeling the answer was to whack it with a stick!

 

[Spirit (of Glenans)]

I have read on here, previously, that some people put a traffic cone at the bottom of the locker, directly under the fall of chain, forcing it to spread out.

 

[thinwater]

Carrying less chain helps. Folks often have 400 feet of chain that they will never use all of., but they are sure the rode must be all chain for safety. 200 feet backed by rope will handle anything.

Higher grade chain will also help (smaller for a given strength).

 

[Wandering Star]

I have read on here, previously, that some people put a traffic cone at the bottom of the locker, directly under the fall of chain, forcing it to spread out.

Yep, that’s rhe way to do it though I found an inverted large petrol funnel performs well.

 

[NormanS]

Yep, that’s rhe way to do it though I found an inverted large petrol funnel performs well.

I'm really intrigued by this idea of a traffic cone. It fills up the space that would ordinarily be taken by the first lot of chain, which would naturally tend to build up in a cone. So the traffic cone reduces the available volume of the chain locker. How is that supposed to help?

 

[Lon nan Gruagach]

I'm really intrigued by this idea of a traffic cone. It fills up the space that would ordinarily be taken by the first lot of chain, which would naturally tend to build up in a cone. So the traffic cone reduces the available volume of the chain locker. How is that supposed to help?

A pile of chain is not normally conical, it forms more of a really stable cylinder. Forcing a cone shape early on persuades heaps of it to go hide in the corners

 

[Jabs]

Because it stops it piling up under the windlass! Might even coil around the cone!

There are also stainless mushrooms to do the same thing!

Tony, with 160 metres!

 

[NormanS]

A pile of chain is not normally conical, it forms more of a really stable cylinder. Forcing a cone shape early on persuades heaps of it to go hide in the corners

A cylinder? How does it manage to do that? A cylinder has a flat top. My chain forms a cone, and then more chain slides down the sides of the cone, making a bigger cone. When it gets too high, I just push it over, either with my foot, or the handle for the windlass.

 

[Richard10002]

I use a 4 ft length of 1/2 in stainless poked in thru the deck to move the pyramid.

Works for me.

The alternative was to station the crew in the forepeak with a broom handle working thru the anchor locker access hatch.

That’s what we used to do. Tried a couple of footballs in the locker, which didn’t work- never got round to the traffic cone.
When single handing I used to pull in the chain until there was just enough to keep a hold on the bottom, nip into the fore peak and knock it down, then back up to wind in the rest.

 

[pagoda]

We simply stopped hauling chain, poked the pile, continued - until it was all back. That was the best combination, and helped with the boat catching up with the chain retrieval.

 

[CCJ]

So when you return the anchor chain to the locker, how do you stop it piling up in a mound and blocking the hole before you’ve got it all in?

some use a traffic cone

 

[RupertW]

We have a deck brush with long handle that lives in the anchor like and I attached a coat hook upside down to the top end so I could lift chain and distribute it as it came up. Brush was lost years ago but the handle and hook used every time.

 

[paulajayne]

https://www.force4.co.uk/force-4-chain-boy.html

 

[thinwater]

... Tony, with 160 metres!

Just curious. How often do you anchor in 30 meters of water, where 160 meters would be useful?

I'm curious about the common range of depths people anchor in. Around here that would put me either square in a ship channel or several miles offshore. I don't think I've every seriously considered anything deeper than 8 meters.

For sure I would be looking at grade 70 or grade 100 chain, or at least a rope backing.

 

[NormanS]

https://www.force4.co.uk/force-4-chain-boy.html

Did you possibly miss putting a smiley on that? At £239.95, you must be joking. Anyway, it looks like just the thing for the chain to catch on, when dropping the anchor.