Deep in the chain locker lurked a nasty surprize.

[TQA]

I am a full time liveaboard and anchor out nearly all of the time. As soon as my chain starts to show signs of wear it is relegated to the back up anchor. Last time around i bought some Italian chain which was a disappointment and needed replacing after only 18 months.

So I bit the bullet and ordered 200 ft of genuine ACCO BBB 3/8th chain. It arrived and I started swapping the chain around.

Pulling my current back up chain out I had a nasty surprise.
View attachment 46863

The ends were fine but the middle was a nasty rusted lump. View attachment 46864So badly rusted in fact that it was almost completely wasted away at one point. This had been genuine US made ACCO BBB chain as far as I know.

I guess I need to check my back up more often.

But why should it have gone like this?

 

[oldsaltoz]

Have ever thrown your old anodes in with the chain?

 

[Iliade]

Why? A mixture of seawater, iron and oxygen!

At a guess, there was enough bare iron in electrical contact with this in the locker to quickly use up the galvanising, rendering it what you see here. The answer includes keeping the chains electrically (galvanically) isolated from each other and if the chain is not going to be used a lot, store it somewhere dry, not in the chain locker. I guess the optimum would be immersed in grease/tallow in a plastic barrel, but you may consider that overkill :0)

It looks like you could also benefit from increasing the ventilation and drainage in your chain locker &/or reducing the amount of water ingress in the first place.
Be careful not to introduce mud into the locker as that will trap water and encourage corrosion.

If you must keep it in the locker etc, then frequently rotating which one is used might help.

 

[oldvarnish]

There must be more to this than meets the eye.

Everyone (well, nearly everyone; by which I mean me) keeps their chain in the locker all the time, doesn't rinse it with fresh water after every trip, doesn't give a thought to locker ventilation, and lives with a bit of mud unless it stinks, and doesn't often give it much of a stir - and has never seen anything as bad as this.

 

[coopec]

I guess I'm a bit "off topic" but when I get to the UK in my 43ft ketch where will I anchor/moor it? Where I am (Perth West Australia) we have a 2/3 ft tide. We have floating pens as well as fixed.
In the UK you apparently have 15 ft tides. I wouldn't want my yacht to lay down like a tired elephant !

 

[AngusMcDoon]

In the UK you apparently have 15 ft tides. I wouldn't want my yacht to lay down like a tired elephant !

15 feet tides? Pah! Not trying hard enough. There are places around the UK coast with 15m tides.

 

[Iliade]

There must be more to this than meets the eye.

Everyone (well, nearly everyone; by which I mean me) keeps their chain in the locker all the time, doesn't rinse it with fresh water after every trip, doesn't give a thought to locker ventilation, and lives with a bit of mud unless it stinks, and doesn't often give it much of a stir - and has never seen anything as bad as this.

Ah, but have you added a wet and muddy chain to the locker every day for two years?

 

[coopec]

Angus

I'll give those places a miss! Thames tide range is 7 meters and Portsmouth 3 meters. I suppose 3 meters you can easily have floating pens.

 

[rogerthebodger]

Wish we had a 15 ft tide, we only have a 2 metre tide at springs 1 metre at neeps so it makes it more difficult to give a scrub to a boat with a 2.3 metre draft.

 

[KellysEye]

>So badly rusted in fact that it was almost completely wasted away at one point. This had been genuine US made ACCO BBB chain as far as I know

My guess was it wasn't. The only way to guarantee quality is to buy test chain but it might need a new gypsy as it is usually slightly smaller.

>Ah, but have you added a wet and muddy chain to the locker every day for two years?

Our test chain was still going strong with no sign of rust after six and a half years about half of which was at anchor.

 

[rotrax]

Not quite as bad as the shock I had a couple of seasons ago when I dropped all the chain-50 metres of 5/16-and all of the rope rode onto the pontoon for a check over, clean and re-marking.

The bitter end was loose in the locker-not made off!

Its OK now..................................

 

[Stemar]

I guess I'm a bit "off topic" but when I get to the UK in my 43ft ketch where will I anchor/moor it? Where I am (Perth West Australia) we have a 2/3 ft tide. We have floating pens as well as fixed.
In the UK you apparently have 15 ft tides. I wouldn't want my yacht to lay down like a tired elephant !

The boring answer is that most yottie ports have marinas with floating pontoons and plenty of depth, but you'll probably want to have a defibrillator to hand when they tell you the price, especially on the south coast

Cheapskates have swinging moorings. They aren't so common for big boats, but they do exist and many have plenty of water. Real tightwads like me have drying moorings. Mine has enough mud for a 2m+ boat to sink its keel in and sit there fat and happy through low springs.

 

[Stemar]

My chain sits in a damp locker most of the time and hasn't done anything like that. I do pull it out from time to time and leave it in the rain from time to time to get the salt out. My current chain is about 8 years old now and I reckon I'll probably need to cut the rope-chain splice off this winter and redo it, 'cos it's pretty rusty and gettting stiff, but the rest is fine.

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

I noticed that I had problems with rusting chain because the previous owner had a warp permanently attached to the chain. Even though the warp never came out it just sat there, like a damp poultice, buried beneath the dripping chain. I removed it and that seems to have cured the problem of rusting.

 

[FairweatherDave]

I noticed that I had problems with rusting chain because the previous owner had a warp permanently attached to the chain. Even though the warp never came out it just sat there, like a damp poultice, buried beneath the dripping chain. I removed it and that seems to have cured the problem of rusting.

That's exactly the problem I discovered on my new boat. And like Stemar I have just cut the chain but I won't be remaking the splice, I don't want rope warp if it is going to cause that trouble again. I am currently considering getting more chain and getting a decent c link to join to my remaining 25metres. I was not happy when I couldn't even get the rusted chain/splice lump through the "deck hole" from the locker for my first night at anchor in the new boat.

 

[ffiill]

Try mooring in Loch Ness-about 6 weeks to strip off the galvanising and a few years to electrolytically cut through the chain.
I guess its the very acidic nature of the water that helps create this effect.

 

[charles_reed]

I am a full time liveaboard and anchor out nearly all of the time. As soon as my chain starts to show signs of wear it is relegated to the back up anchor. Last time around i bought some Italian chain which was a disappointment and needed replacing after only 18 months.

So I bit the bullet and ordered 200 ft of genuine ACCO BBB 3/8th chain. It arrived and I started swapping the chain around.

Pulling my current back up chain out I had a nasty surprise.
View attachment 46863

The ends were fine but the middle was a nasty rusted lump. View attachment 46864So badly rusted in fact that it was almost completely wasted away at one point. This had been genuine US made ACCO BBB chain as far as I know.

I guess I need to check my back up more often.

But why should it have gone like this?

That's the reason you should regularly empty all your chain out onto the ground when the boat's ashore.
Hard if you're a permanent liveaboard, but really puts emphasis on "it's doing no good sitting in the chain-locker" school of thought - perhaps it should be "it's rusting away sitting in the chain locker".
That's the reason I'm throwing away 30% of my chain and replacing it with 120% of textile anchor-rode. Nylon 8-plait doesn't react with water.
The reason is simple - an example of galvanic corrosion - old anodes MIGHT reduce the speed of the corrosion, but only if you ensure connection to the inundated chain.

 

[coopec]

Steve

Thanks for that explanation of the types of marinas in the UK. I did a "google" (image) and can now see pictures of the different types.

Thanks

 

[PetiteFleur]

Try the East Coast & Thames Estuary, marinas much cheaper than the South Coast and you can anchor almost anywhere for free! (But is is muddier!)

Steve

Thanks for that explanation of the types of marinas in the UK. I did a "google" (image) and can now see pictures of the different types.

Thanks

 

[vyv_cox]

The cause is corrosion, of course. Zinc protects steel chain while it lasts but, in addition to wearing on the seabed, it corrodes itself. When you see white deposits on your chain it is the corrosion product of the zinc, maybe the hydroxide. Once the zinc has gone the steel will corrode rapidly, especially in a warm climate.

Corrosion of the zinc can be slowed by removing the chain from the locker over winter (not if you are aboard all year, of course) and letting the air get at it to dry it as frequently as possible. Leaving it wet all winter is the best way to get it to corrode rapidly. I remove mine and hang it from a rope stretched across the cradle where it remains fairly dry. However, the rope where it is attached to the cradle is wet for most of the winter. This pic illustrates very clearly what happens to galvanised objects that remain like that for six months.