Anchor deck chain pipe...how do you use it?

[sailorman]

And cheaper! What's the best way?

i do both hook & hitch.
i have a hook made up to a 14m/m x 1.8m long strop with an eye splice, a very simple system to use for chain.
a rolling hitch once the 20 m x 8m/m chain is payed out & im onto 18m/m anchorplait

 

[JumbleDuck]

Looking at our set up - we have a bar across the bow roller which can lock between chain links to take the strain by the looks of it? The cleats at the bow are behind the windlass so would this make sense?

Unless yours is completely unlike any other one of these I have seen, that bar (a drop-nose pin, I expect) is there simply to stop whatever is going over the roller - chain, rope, strop, whatever - from jumping out. It is not anywhere near strong enough to take anchoring and mooring loads.

 

[NormanS]

A tip is to have a small road cone in the locker, apparently the chain lays around it rather than building into a precarious cone.

People keep saying that, but surely it just displaces its own volume of chain, thus making the chain locker smaller. Letting the chain drop down into the locker through the navel pipe / spurling pipe, the first stuff is going to build up in a cone anyway, so where's the advantage?

 

[sailorman]

People keep saying that, but surely it just displaces its own volume of chain, thus making the chain locker smaller. Letting the chain drop down into the locker through the navel pipe / spurling pipe, the first stuff is going to build up in a cone anyway, so where's the advantage?

the advantage is the chain tends to drop around the cone & not bunch up in a heap

 

[NormanS]

the advantage is the chain tends to drop around the cone & not bunch up in a heap

But I'm quite happy for mine to form a heap. That's what chain does.

 

[sailorman]

But I'm quite happy for mine to form a heap. That's what chain does.

This is a Murv teach-in init

 

[LittleSister]

When securing chain to a cleat, just wrap it round a few times. If you cleat it like you would a rope,it can become extremely difficult to uncleat.

I have forgotten the name of the thing I was taught to do (and have seen in books) - after taking a few turns round the cleat, bring the inboard (unloaded) end of the chain under the outboard (loaded) end, then loop over the cleat in the oposite direction to the round turns. Never had this slip or jam.

An ordinary cleat is not 100% satifactory for chain.

Really? Why? I've never found my anchor cleats or bollards on various boats less than satisfactory for chain (see above).

 

[ashanta]

You attach rope to the chain below the bow roller and bring the rope to the cleat to take the tension of the chain that enters your chain pipe. If you have two bow cleats use two pieces of rope. You can buy pre spliced rope with anchor chain attachments for the job.

 

[Ardenfour]

Not wishing to dispute the use of chain hooks, but I tried using one and the hook and chain formed a 'kink' which looked most unseamanlike and mechanically unsound, no photo unfortunately, but anyone who's used one must be familiar. Either I'm not doing it correctly, though hard to see in what way, it's simple enough - but has no one else thought 'this just doesn't look right?'

 

[Wooden Boat Fittings]

I have forgotten the name of the thing I was taught to do (and have seen in books) - after taking a few turns round the cleat, bring the inboard (unloaded) end of the chain under the outboard (loaded) end, then loop over the cleat in the oposite direction to the round turns.

You should try to fit in a couple of cross-over turns after the round turns and before the locking hitch. The problem with a locking hitch is that, technically, it can jam (although I've never had it happen). I certainly wouldn't use such a locking hitch in chain though, only in line. (By the way, any cleat should be angled, say, 15 deg away from the line of the lead, to help avoid any turn jamming. For more on cleats and their use, see http://www.woodenboatfittings.com.au/articles/cleats-mounting.pdf.

The 'under then reverse then over' the line technique works really well on bitts, when it's usually called a 'tugboat hitch'.

Unless yours is completely unlike any other one of these I have seen, that bar (a drop-nose pin, I expect) is there simply to stop whatever is going over the roller - chain, rope, strop, whatever - from jumping out. It is not anywhere near strong enough to take anchoring and mooring loads.

Some slotted bars really are like Symondo's, and they are indeed designed to hold a chain link. They're fitted at the after end of the bow roller and hinged at one end so they can be flipped open while deploying chain, then flipped over to snub a link when the scope is sufficient. You would only use this as a temporary affair however, making off the chain to bitts (or a cleat if that's what you rely on) before disengaging the chain lock because, as you say, a bow roller is not strong enough to taking mooring loads for any length of time.

He has also purchased a bollard to fit beside the new windlass with the intention of using it on our swinging line mooring

Some people use the windlass as bitts, and let it take all the moored load. But as with the chain lock, once sufficient scope has been veered the warp should be made off to the bollard and the strain released from the winch.

Mike

 

[sailorman]

the Lightermans hitch (tug boat hitch) is also very good on sheet winches

http://www.animatedknots.com/lightermans/index.php

 

[alan_d]

A spurling pipe it is, and yes, the flap is just to stop extra water flooding your chain locker There are vertical and horizontal versions --
ETA Yes, also called a navel pipe -- but I think this is more of a slang term.

I don't think navel pipe is slang - it appears as an article heading in the Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea. Naval pipe is simply a misspelling.

 

[LittleSister]

Its called a Spurling Pipe

Also known as Navel or Naval pipe.

A spurling pipe it is. . . . Yes, also called a navel pipe -- but I think this is more of a slang term.

I don't think navel pipe is slang - it appears as an article heading in the Oxford Companion to Ships and the Sea. Naval pipe is simply a misspelling.

"NAVEL PIPES - These pipes are fitted forward of the cable holders, or incorporated in the base of the windlass, for the passage of the anchor cables to and from the cable lockers. Their upper ends stand proud of the deck to ensure smooth working of the cable and to prevent wash deck water finding its way below."
Admiralty Manual of Seamanship Vol II, 1967

 

[JumbleDuck]

"NAVEL PIPES - These pipes are fitted forward of the cable holders, or incorporated in the base of the windlass, for the passage of the anchor cables to and from the cable lockers. Their upper ends stand proud of the deck to ensure smooth working of the cable and to prevent wash deck water finding its way below."
Admiralty Manual of Seamanship Vol II, 1967

There is only one source more authoritative than the the Admiralty Manual of Seamanship, and according to that it's a Chain Pipe. Davey & Co Catalogue, p19.

 

[VicS]

There is only one source more authoritative than the the Admiralty Manual of Seamanship, and according to that it's a Chain Pipe. Davey & Co Catalogue, p19.

I would call it a "chain pipe". It saves all these pointless arguments about navel pipes, naval pipes , spurling pipes or even hawsepipes.

 

[sailorman]

I would call it a "chain pipe". It saves all these pointless arguments about navel pipes, naval pipes , spurling pipes or even hawsepipes.

I dont have one, should i fit one ??

 

[VicS]

I dont have one, should i fit one ??

I would not be without mine!

 

[LittleSister]

I would call it a "chain pipe". It saves all these pointless arguments about navel pipes, naval pipes , spurling pipes or even hawsepipes.

Then we shall call ours Gerald!

"HAWSEPIPES - A hawsepipe is a steel tube which houses the anchor in its stowed position or gives a lead for the cable during anchor work."
Admiralty Manual of Seamanship Vol II, 1967

 

[LittleSister]

The Plot thickens! Further reading reveals:

"BONNETS - A bonnet is a fixed or portable cover for a navel pipe to stop water from flooding the cable locker. The opening, which faces aft, is made reasonably watertight by a portable steel cover, slotted to slide down over one link of the cable."
Admiralty Manual of Seamanship Vol II, 1967

It would appear the original poster has the typical yacht arrangement of a navel pipe with fixed bonnet and hinged cover.

 

[Murv]

You learn something new every day. Certainly in the confusing World of boating, anyway!
So, I have broken the bonnet off of my chain pipe/navel pipe/hawsepipe/spurling pipe (I think I'll just call mine Wilf. Bonnetless Wilf)