deploying a chum

[MARNEN]

Whats the best way to deploy a chum ? The system I have inherited on my boat is a 32 lb lead sinker with a bow shackle that is supposed to slide down the anchor chain. I have used it but it tends not to slide down very well and not at all on the way up. I am thinking of using a short length of 100mm plastic soil pipe split to go over the anchor chain with chum and lines attached. What do other users find works well ?

 

[Searush]

Is the bow shackle BIG enough? Mine works OK but is much bigger than needed for the chain to slip thro.

The other option is to change the way you use it. Shackle it to the bitter end of the chain & tie a big warp to both Then lower it to the sea bed. You can then use the warp as a riser & the chum will lift off the sea bed in big surges & there will be little force applied to the end of your chain & anchor set up.

 

[Seajet]

I think SeaRush's Plan A sounds right, get a bigger shackle.

Not sure about the other idea; I might worry about the chum & line fouling on the bottom, then coming free & applying a sudden side load on the anchor causing it to un-set.

I know I mention it now & again, but rather than carrying around a lump of dead weight, why not use a large folding grapnel ? In folded state can be used as a chum / angel, and unfolded it's another anchor to hand; alright not brilliant as it relies on the hinge pin strength, but a good pointy shape for emergency use in weed & rock.

 

[Dockhead]

Why would you bother with a chum? You get practically the same effect with a few metres more of chain or a little heavier anchor, either of which is less trouble than a chum.

 

[Seajet]

I've tried an angel / chum sitting out very squally gales a couple of times at Studland, the effect of the angel was easily seen and felt.

Each to their own, but I'll certainly be sticking to my ( folded grapnel ) angel, Ta very much.

 

[Greenheart]

Dare I admit it? We looped a few of those indestructable webbing-straps round an irrecoverably discharged 90ah battery (tightly sealed, honest) and wired it about two-thirds of the way down the anchor chain of an Achilles 24 in Poole Bay a few years back.

Much bigger yachts were skitting around in the blow at the end of longer cables, and at least one had to reset repeatedly. Our CQR stuck fast first time, presumably because the Exide kept the pull horizontal. And, hauling the battery back aboard gave SWMBKF something to do...

(that's She Who Must Be Kept Fit)

And by the by, (I think I asked this last month, and no-one knew) does anybody still make Chum weights? If not, do they have a standard boot-sale value? And, are they made of something ordinary enough to allow the ambitious barbecue-ist to make his own? ...clay moulds on the patio, and warm up the crucible with Calor-Gas, then get busy melting down Auntie's ghastly garden ornament gifts?

 

[Searush]

I was in a local blacksmiths & spotted a cut off lump of 6" diam steel bar around 4" long. "Wazzat for?" I asked - scrap they said. "Could you weld a half a link of scrap heavy chain to it?" Sure they said and I think it cost me a tenner - but it might have been a fiver. Two coats of Hammerite & it sits in the bilge until it's needed, which isn't that often to be honest. But when it has been needed I have been well grateful for it.

 

[Greenheart]

Excellent. If you see any more similarly handy, weldable lumps of scrap iron, PM me and I'll come up with the cash, pronto. God knows what the motorcycle courier will say about 40lbs in a parcel the size of a pint milk bottle!

I wonder about my long-gone Exide saviour, now...all that wonderfully heavy lead, minus the plastic casing and acid, would've been pretty compact, for its mass.

My days of chemistry and physics are decades-gone and forgotten, but... might one make a very petite 'Chum'-style anchor-weight, by melting down old car-batteries? (A warning flag is already flying inside my eyeball) Does lead either have an incredibly high melting point, or does it just poison anything in the locality, for a century or three?

I may stick to using extra chain...

 

[Searush]

Lead melts pretty easily, a gas kitchen stove & old sauce pan would suffice. In fact the pan would make a decent mould if you knock the handle off afterwards. You could easily drop a couple of links of chain in to provide something to fasten the bow shakle too as well.

Not all that much lead in a battery tho, you would need several & there is the acid to dispose of as well as the casings. Church roofs seem to be the favoured source of lead these days.