bouy those anchor chains are heavey

powerskipper

powerskipper

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I have been marking up some anchor chains for peeps over the last few weeks and after some thought, came up with quite a good idea, well I think it is. LOL:cool:

I got some of those little plastic thingys Force 4 sell for marking the chain up, do make sure you measure the chain size first.

Well back to my brilliant idea.

Normally I would make it every 5 meters with say yellow for 5m and red for 10m, so you get red and yellows marks, I have done it in the past with spray paint, but marinas don't like you painting there pontoons very much !!!!! Hence the little plastic thingys.

Well My Brilliant idea, have I mentioned its Brilliant yet,mmmmmmmmm yup!!!



If you mark it every 4 meters you just have to put out the depth, so say 3 m of water you just put out 3 marks. plus one for the boat, if its all chain, and no rope.


See its brilliantly simple.



Now waiting for praise or someone to say they have done it before or for what a stupid idea. :D
 
PERFECT!

Why oh why did I not think of that on any of the times I have painstakingly marked up the anchor chain.

Two questions for you though;
1. How do you get the plastic things to stay on the chain?
2. How do you then mark the 'anchorplait' if you have that backing up the initial length of chain?

Great, thanks.
 
1. How do you get the plastic things to stay on the chain?

You use a screwdriver to push them into the links, they are semi circular on the end so they kind of hug the chain. And they did not get knocked out by the winch, which is what I thought mite happen. We just pulled the boats forward with bows in and dumped the chain and anchor on the pontoon

2. How do you then mark the 'anchorplait' if you have that backing up the initial length of chain?

I would think some very thin cable ties threaded though would work or some old lengths of a different coloured warp threaded though mite work too, not had to do that bit as normally the boats I deal with are all chain .


Hope it helped.
 
powerskipper said:
Now waiting for praise or someone to say they have done it before or for what a stupid idea.
Click to expand...
Nope, neither done it before, nor a stupid idea - quite the opposite in fact.
Btw, I've been using those plastic thingies for 5 or 6 years now, so I can confirm that they work perfectly, don't get lost, and are still almost as new after those years.

The only problem I see in your idea is that it requires too many markings.
I mean, for instance on 100m chain you should have 25 marks!
And if anyone (like myself) wants to have markings which immediately show the lenght of the chain dropped, it would be tricky to arrange (and remember) 25 different codes...
 
I use red paint and mark every 5 m with cable ties and sythetic rope 5 m from the bitter end to mark chain, trouble is paint does not last long on galvanised chain.
 
powerskipper said:
1. How do you get the plastic things to stay on the chain?

You use a screwdriver to push them into the links, they are semi circular on the end so they kind of hug the chain. And they did not get knocked out by the winch, which is what I thought mite happen. We just pulled the boats forward with bows in and dumped the chain and anchor on the pontoon

2. How do you then mark the 'anchorplait' if you have that backing up the initial length of chain?

I would think some very thin cable ties threaded though would work or some old lengths of a different coloured warp threaded though mite work too, not had to do that bit as normally the boats I deal with are all chain .


Hope it helped.
Click to expand...

Thank-you, yes.

I must look out for the better class of plastic makers. My previous try at that, some years ago, had them all break off very soon or break to leave sharp edges. Paint, whether ordinary or 'plastic' type wears off quickly.

I tried using cable ties but the cut ends cut me!

But I need to solve it as I use 50m chain and 60m anchorplait. It can lead to an awful lot to pull in if you are not sure what you have put out, so you add some more 'for safety'!

Mike
 
dmmbruce said:
Thank-you, yes.

I must look out for the better class of plastic makers. My previous try at that, some years ago, had them all break off very soon or break to leave sharp edges. Paint, whether ordinary or 'plastic' type wears off quickly.

I tried using cable ties but the cut ends cut me!

But I need to solve it as I use 50m chain and 60m anchorplait. It can lead to an awful lot to pull in if you are not sure what you have put out, so you add some more 'for safety'!

Mike
Click to expand...

Try an old pair of riggers gloves (soft leather) or yachtie type ones that are designed to get wet, left on the boat in a locker just for the occasion.
They will get a bit stiff as they dry out, but will soon push back into shape. Even the cold chain steel on your hands isn't that nice.
 
powerskipper said:
I have been marking up some anchor chains for peeps over the last few weeks and after some thought, came up with quite a good idea, well I think it is. LOL:cool:

I got some of those little plastic thingys Force 4 sell for marking the chain up, do make sure you measure the chain size first.

Well back to my brilliant idea.

Normally I would make it every 5 meters with say yellow for 5m and red for 10m, so you get red and yellows marks, I have done it in the past with spray paint, but marinas don't like you painting there pontoons very much !!!!! Hence the little plastic thingys.

Well My Brilliant idea, have I mentioned its Brilliant yet,mmmmmmmmm yup!!!



If you mark it every 4 meters you just have to put out the depth, so say 3 m of water you just put out 3 marks. plus one for the boat, if its all chain, and no rope.


See its brilliantly simple.



Now waiting for praise or someone to say they have done it before or for what a stupid idea. :D
Click to expand...

It's a great idea, but you still have to work out the maximum depth rather than the depth you're in when you first anchor. With all the maths and calculations involved in that, a X4 on the end isn't going to be much trouble I wouldn't have thought, so just as easy to mark up every 5m and count it out?

Still a good idea but perhaps not as simple as it would appear at first glance - probably not much in it either way.

Certainly worth a try though, give it a go for a season and let us know how it works in practice!
 
MapisM said:
The only problem I see in your idea is that it requires too many markings.
I mean, for instance on 100m chain you should have 25 marks!
And if anyone (like myself) wants to have markings which immediately show the lenght of the chain dropped, it would be tricky to arrange (and remember) 25 different codes...
Click to expand...

I use a similar method - different coloured cable ties - red every 2m and then (being a snooker player)

10m = white
20m = yellow
30m = green
40m = brown
50m = Blue
60m = Pink
70m = Double-white (as black is too hard to see)
 
AndieMac said:
Try an old pair of riggers gloves (soft leather) or yachtie type ones that are designed to get wet, left on the boat in a locker just for the occasion.
They will get a bit stiff as they dry out, but will soon push back into shape. Even the cold chain steel on your hands isn't that nice.
Click to expand...

When I first started boating an old wizened man of the sea, told me that whenever messing with anchor chains, both manually or with a winch, always wear work gloves as they are much easier to replace than your fingers.
 
Major Catastrophe said:
When I first started boating an old wizened man of the sea, told me that whenever messing with anchor chains, both manually or with a winch, always wear work gloves as they are much easier to replace than your fingers.
Click to expand...

You only have to watch the guys on a work-site with steel reo, star pickets etc. even with hands like the soles of old work boots, they want protection.
The gloves are also handy for trailer boaters that still use winch wire....now that's a painful sting!

Edit: Also for jammed chain, in and around winch gypsys' keep and old heavy built screw driver (15" - 400mm long) or small pinch bar coated in lanolin. Also handy for fending off pirates etc..
 
Last edited:
Trundlebug said:
It's a great idea, but you still have to work out the maximum depth rather than the depth you're in when you first anchor. With all the maths and calculations involved in that, a X4 on the end isn't going to be much trouble I wouldn't have thought, so just as easy to mark up every 5m and count it out?

Still a good idea but perhaps not as simple as it would appear at first glance - probably not much in it either way.

Certainly worth a try though, give it a go for a season and let us know how it works in practice!
Click to expand...

Let me explain,
we need 4 time dept of water for an all chain anchor.
so if we anchored in 5 m of depth showing on our depth gauge,

which is normally off set to clear the props

and on average is around a meter for a power boat.

we need to put out 4 x 5m and 4 x draft of boat,

so if the chain is marked out in 4 m lengths, we just put out 5 marks and 1 mark for the boat.


If you had a greater draft, just mark the first mark up with 4 x the draft of the boat and then in 4m lengths

does this make is clear,
 
powerskipper said:
Let me explain,
we need 4 time dept of water for an all chain anchor.
so if we anchored in 5 m of depth showing on our depth gauge,

which is normally off set to clear the props

and on average is around a meter for a power boat.

we need to put out 4 x 5m and 4 x draft of boat,

so if the chain is marked out in 4 m lengths, we just put out 5 marks and 1 mark for the boat.


If you had a greater draft, just mark the first mark up with 4 x the draft of the boat and then in 4m lengths

does this make is clear,
Click to expand...

Yes, Julie. Been doing it just like that for years. Our marks alternate red then green, so I work out the maximum depth for our stay and then just count out that many marks, so I will know for instance in 5m of water to watch for the third set of green marks.
 
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