Fitting a chain boy to motorboat

[Hurricane]

I anchor a lot but have never had this problem when dropping anchor.
Sometimes had to kick the pile of chain when retrieving but it’s never reached the top of my “problems to be fixed” pile.

Sorry M - it IS a problem.
With galvanised chain anyway.
Try it with lots of 12mm chain - the difference with the bigger chain is significant but the smaller chain sizes pile up as well.

My worry is the pile building up inside the locker - believe me it DOES build up.
My concern is that it could build right up to the windlass so as to block the outflow of the chain from the windlass.
The motors on these windlasses are so powerful that they will "strip the gears" inside the windlass' gear box.
Don't ask me how I know.

We will probably do as we always do - check the locker every 20m to 30m during recovery and kick the pile if it gets too tall.

BTW - I have never had any problems with the chain "tangling" in the locker.

I'm not sure if the chain boy is the answer but it would be worth trying.
I heard somewhere that a plastic traffic cone placed inside the locker works as well.
Now - I wonder where you can get one of those!!
But this will have the same issue as explained by the OP.
i.e. you need to ensure that the chain drops directly on top of the cone.

 

[Hurricane]

This is the solution that I'd recommend. I believe it's like butter and won't form a pile at all.

If the OP only ever uses 10m of chain then perhaps just replace 10m of Galvanised with S/S.

Yea yea - where do you stop - stainless anchor will be next!!

Do you know - there is only one thing worse than loosing an anchor and chain on the bottom.
And that is loosing an EXPENSIVE anchor and chain on the bottom.

 

[danieleither]

Yea yea - where do you stop - stainless anchor will be next!!

Do you know - there is only one thing worse than loosing an anchor and chain on the bottom.
And that is loosing an EXPENSIVE anchor and chain on the bottom.

I have a stainless Ultra 21KG It was the best part of £2k with the flip swivel...! BUT, it was a massive improvement over the 16kg Delta, AND I stay at anchor all the time (never visited another marina) therefore I can justify spending money on decent anchor and chain.

 

[Hurricane]

I have a stainless Ultra 21KG It was the best part of £2k with the flip swivel...! BUT, it was a massive improvement over the 16kg Delta, AND I stay at anchor all the time (never visited another marina) therefore I can justify spending money on decent anchor and chain.

I agree with your Delta argument but the alternative doesn't have to be stainless.
My 55Kg Rocna works just as well at a fraction of the price of a large Ultra.

 

[Hooligan]

I agree with your Delta argument but the alternative doesn't have to be stainless.
My 55Kg Rocna works just as well at a fraction of the price of a large Ultra.

I have s/s 12mm chain (Rocna 55kg anchor which I wouldn’t swap for the world) and no issues as you say re coming exiting the anchor locker or tangling. Going back in someone has to sweep the anchor to stop it piling high and then worst case pushing up through the windlass which it will do if you let it pile up on way in. It is a bit of a pain to have to do this but probably a first world problem!

 

[danieleither]

For anyone interested or following the thread, I have spoken to Jimmy Green this afternoon - who were very patient and spent a good 10 minutes listening to my exact problem and the scenarios in which it occurs. In their opinion stainless chain will not fix the problem. They asked for a link for the chain boy product, and whilst they did not want to endorse or recommend that specific product, in their opinion a device that does a good job of flaking the anchor chain on retrieval is more likely to help than changing from galvanised to stainless.

 

[jfm]

Has the Jimmy Green person actually owned a boat with s/s chain, and operated it hundreds of times over 10 years? After operating boats with galvanised chain for 10 years previously?

If they had, they wouldn't have said that. S/s chain is the solution - it is slippery and flows like cream into the bottom of the anchor locker. If a mini pyramid falls over in waves, trying to trap the chain beneath, the chain easily pulls out of the jam because it is so slippery.

Sure, "a device that does a good job of flaking the anchor chain on retrieval" would mean you don't need s/s chain, but no such device exists. The solution that does exists is s/s chain.

 

[Hurricane]

This is a bit of a long video but I think it answers everything said/questioned in this thread.

If you don't want to watch it all, the obvious solution is, as JFM said, stainless steel chain is the solution.
And this is the summary chart referred to in that video



I think that is pretty much QED (as we used to say in school).

 

[jfm]

Amazing what you can find on youtube!

That's pretty convincing proof that traffic cones (and probably "boys") don't help at all, and that stainless steel chain meaningfully improves things and basically solves the problem.

The youtube doesn't look at the question of which chain is best at not getting jammed when the anchor is deployed, but I can assure you that stainless steel chain is much better on that score too. I've done a decade+ of boating with galv chain, and a decade+ with stainless, and am 100% convinced that stainless is far better in this regard.

 

[Hooligan]

Amazing what you can find on youtube!

That's pretty convincing proof that traffic cones (and probably "boys") don't help at all, and that stainless steel chain meaningfully improves things and basically solves the problem.

The youtube doesn't look at the question of which chain is best at not getting jammed when the anchor is deployed, but I can assure you that stainless steel chain is much better on that score too. I've done a decade+ of boating with galv chain, and a decade+ with stainless, and am 100% convinced that stainless is far better in this regard.

Totally agree. I have had both and wouldn’t go back to galvanized. On the way out have never had a problem with s/s and we often drop 70m plus. That said on the way back in s/s doesn’t solve the problem entirely, at least for me. As chart suggests at some point it does pile up on my boat and needs to be swept aside.

 

[Portofino]

This threads all alien / foreign language to me . Live n learn every days a school day on here etc etc .
If you have a deep enough locker and cavernous enough you never see this hassle .
laying out at full stretch , Stood up at under 6 ft my head just pops over the deck .Never had any issues with 70 M of 10 mm galvanised .You never normally see the chain anyhow so any blitz / glamour will be wasted .

 

[Hurricane]

Amazing what you can find on youtube!

Yea - just don't watch that guy's video on all the anchors that he has tested.
Lots of the anchors that we like are "rubbished" by him - Rocna included!!
Interesting guy though.

 

[petem]

The chain piling up is NOT the issue (someone else posted that). The issue is when I hit rough water and the boat slams, the chain tangles itself up and gets knotted

Isn't the sole purpose of the "Chain Boy" to avoid piling? Will it really help avoid knotting?

How old it your chain?

 

[Macka1706]

Normally LONG link chain is the culprit. Short link, in 50 odd yrs I've never had binding .
If chain locker has access and enough room. Put a sloping floor in locker. Fore to aft. The chain slides and overlaps same as when you coil ropes for feeding out evenly.
BUT Basically Your chain stacking to bottom of chain pipe. chain is too long/thick link or locker too small.
A mate with a welder would knock up a whatever from a coupla bits of scrap steel.
We knocked up my 32 ft Pugh from ship plating scraps/offcuts, working in a shipyard. back in mid '80's.
She still as good as new. hull wise today.
Regarding Picks.
I've used large Admiralty with oversized tine tips welded on since forever for unknown areas and any wind changes forecast.. I know she holds in anything. Otherwise a GOOD oversize for weight of boat Plough with extra lead in tip.
Stern anchor same one for 50+ yrs. has been my 40lb Danforth with extension side tips on her.
30/40ft of chain and NYLON rope to cover the stretch needed if you in river current and it grabs. (twang goes the silver)