vyv_cox
Well-known member
Hmm, a bit sad that you did not check your gear till it got that bad.
20 Meters of chain out. Why bother. Why do folk scrimp so much on chain. It costs so little to let a bit more out. Are folk hooked on RYA minimum depths
I'm afraid your metallurgy isn't good enough. Stress corrosion is an instantaneous brittle fracture that occurs due to excessive hardness of the metal in corrosive conditions. I check my anchoring equipment on a regular basis but I could have checked it half a second before it broke and it still would have looked OK. Here's a photo of the fracture. The fracture face is bright and clearly instantaneous. No evidence of a progressive fatigue fracture, e.g. partial corrosion, it happened in one hit.
I was in a crowded anchorage in 2.5 metres of water and benign conditions. Some would argue that 20 metres was too much.