Has anyone ever broken their anchor chain at anchor?

parsifal said:
I should think it's mostly the undersized shackles that people use to attach the anchor to the chain that are likely to fail. Looking around a marina will show many examples of boats having an adequately sized anchor and chain with a puny shackle joining them; a built-in weak link.
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So what is the correct size? Stainless or glavanised?

TudorSailor
 
I have never broken an anchor chain, but have seriously bent a 120lb FOB anchor, when it got jammed, in a ballearic storm.
By the way, surely the size of shackle joing your chain to your anchor is limited by the pin size that will go through your chain, in my case 14mm, thats for 1/2" chain.
I dont use those anchor connectors or swivels, just dont think they are strong enough, also cant seem to find one suitable/large enough.
 
we broke a genuine CQR when it caught in rocks in a 2m sea. The chain was snatching so badly we dropped it off the bow roller and capstan and led it through the fairlead directly to the sampson post. When the boat dipped in the trough, one mad crewman (we had already told him to desist) would take a few more turns around the sampson post. On the wave peak the chain snapped tight and sparks flew from the fairlead. Thankfully the anchor broke after about 15 minutes and the shank popped up and we were free. It was a lee shore with an unforecast southerly buster. So a sound chain will take a lot of force before breaking. The alternative of dropping all the chain was problematic because the shackle securing the bitter end was rusted solid. Another crew member was hacksawing the shackle but the anchor locker was not the easiest place to work in. Later that day we replaced the shackle with a rope tie for the chain bitter end.
 
ccscott49 said:
I have never broken an anchor chain, but have seriously bent a 120lb FOB anchor, when it got jammed, in a ballearic storm.
By the way, surely the size of shackle joing your chain to your anchor is limited by the pin size that will go through your chain, in my case 14mm, thats for 1/2" chain.
I dont use those anchor connectors or swivels, just dont think they are strong enough, also cant seem to find one suitable/large enough.
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My chain will take a 16mm pin. A galvanised shackle with a 16mm pin is rated with a breaking strain on 2 tons. A stainless steel 16mm shackle has a breaking strain of 8000Kg. I guess it is better to have stainless even tho it is connecting two things that are galvanised steel?

Tudorsailor
 
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WLL

tudorsailor said:
My chain will take a 16mm pin. A galvanised shackle with a 16mm pin is rated with a breaking strain on 2 tons. A stainless steel 16mm shackle has a breaking strain of 8000Kg. I guess it is better to have stainless even tho it is connecting two things that are galvanised steel?

Tudorsailor
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Check the specs again, you might find that for glav the wll (working load limit ) is 2t. From memory in UK it´s a safety factor of 7 or 8 to 1 depending on which BS standard you look at, US might be as low as 4 to 1. If it´s a US shackle then that would take the MBL (max breaking load) up to 2t, same as the stainless.
When I worked in the entertainments rigging industry it was almost impossible to get stainless stamped with a wll (or SWL, safe working load which is more commonly used term in UK). Not sure why that was, possibly because it isn´t used much in the lifting industry.
 
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Conachair said:
Check the specs again, you might find that for glav the wll (working load limit ) is 2t. From memory in UK it´s a safety factor of 7 or 8 to 1 depending on which BS standard you look at, US might be as low as 4 to 1. If it´s a US shackle then that would take the MBL (max breaking load) up to 2t, same as the stainless.
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Ah ha! The GreenPin galvansied shackle with a 16mm pin has a working load limit of 2 tons. The stainless steel shackle from Baseline has a quoted breaking load of 8000kg. Do you think that they are equally strong and would do equally well for me?? In some ways I understand it would be better to have galvanised to connect galvanised chain to galvanised anchor

Learning something new every day!

Thanks

Tudorsailor
 
I destructively tested lots of connectors and shackles for an article in YM. My results are on my website. The green pin shackles I tested had a safety factor of 6 but they were not great performers when it came to their UTS. In the group that I tested stainless shackles were almost all in the upper half of the strength range, whereas galvanised ones were almost all in the lower half. I use Wichard shackles with countersunk pins for my anchors, they are a premium product that did very well in testing. In a similar thread a few days ago a poster found some good quality ones your size at Baseline.

Having a stainless shackle joining galvanised chain and anchor is not a big corrosion issue. The worst that will happen is that the galvanising on the end two or three links will go after many anchorings, probably measured in years for most people. I anchor for about half the nights of the year, my chain has been connected to a stainless connector and shackle for three years and there is still some galvanising left on it.
 
vyv_cox said:
I destructively tested lots of connectors and shackles for an article in YM. My results are on my website. The green pin shackles I tested had a safety factor of 6 but they were not great performers when it came to their UTS. In the group that I tested stainless shackles were almost all in the upper half of the strength range, whereas galvanised ones were almost all in the lower half. I use Wichard shackles with countersunk pins for my anchors, they are a premium product that did very well in testing. In a similar thread a few days ago a poster found some good quality ones your size at Baseline.

Having a stainless shackle joining galvanised chain and anchor is not a big corrosion issue. The worst that will happen is that the galvanising on the end two or three links will go after many anchorings, probably measured in years for most people. I anchor for about half the nights of the year, my chain has been connected to a stainless connector and shackle for three years and there is still some galvanising left on it.
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As you say Wichard do not have a 16mm pin size shackle so Baseline it is.

I assume that you dab some locktite on the thread for the Wichard countersunk shackle? Does this need re-doing every so often or do you just forget it once done?

TudodSailor
 
tudorsailor said:
I assume that you dab some locktite on the thread for the Wichard countersunk shackle? Does this need re-doing every so often or do you just forget it once done?

TudodSailor
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The first year I tried it I checked it a few times to ensure that it was still functioning. This was in response to suggestions in these pages that Loctite would degrade/dissolve in water. I found no degradation at all. The following year I Loctited it at launch time in May and undid it in October. I looked at it a few times during the season for evidence of unscrewing, but all seemed OK. When I undid it it was fully functioning, with no evidence that the Loctite had softened or failed at all. The version of it that I used was the blue stuff in a red tube, bought at my local car parts shop.
 
Nobody seems to have mentioned SNUBBERS.
I have always used a nylon snubbing rope on the anchor chain and, in rough conditions, I have made it up to about 20m long. You can see the rope stretching quite dramatically but I have never had anything break. I think that a snubber is an important component in cushioning the shock loadings both on the anchor gear and the boat fittings.
 
Twister_Ken said:
Never broken a chain, but have broken an anchor - fortunately in benign conditions. It was a Sunsail CQR-look-alike, and the 'loop' at the back of the plough, where it swivels around the pin on the stock, broke clean through. The stock came back aboard with just 180º of the loop on the end of it and no plough. Judging by the crystalline appearance of the fractured loop, it was poorly cast, not well forged like a real CQR.
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i saw this happen to a boat anchored near No Mans Land where we were anchored for the International Fleet Review. Fortunately, the boats were packed so tightly together, he only drifted about 10 yards before he came alongside another one.
 
I'm looking to extend my anchor chain and have just read Vyv Cox's excellent online article on chain joining links. Does anyone have any idea where I can buy just one or two of the Crosby 'missing link' type. The main supplier seems to pack in 10's according to their web site.

John
 
saltwater_gypsy said:
Nobody seems to have mentioned SNUBBERS.
I have always used a nylon snubbing rope on the anchor chain and, in rough conditions, I have made it up to about 20m long. You can see the rope stretching quite dramatically but I have never had anything break. I think that a snubber is an important component in cushioning the shock loadings both on the anchor gear and the boat fittings.
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Well batted .... saved me having to compose a post.

I'd only add - ideally, make the snubber attachment point low down: as near to the waterline as practical, especially if you have a bowsprit/pulpit type anchoring arrangement.
 
Thanks for the compliment, John! Selby Lifting in Leeds were charging very high admin and postage costs on single links, people were paying over £20 for one! They seem to have partially overcome that problem by only selling in 10s, as in this link. but postage would be on top of that, making them pricey. It might be worth enquiring locally, Chester Chain may have the Crosby ones or something as good.
 
rtboss1 said:
Its a small world I used to work at Chester Chain when it was on boundary lane Saltney. 30 odd years ago .So they still exist,Where are they now?
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Their address is Broughton Mills Rd, Bretton. My very first mooring chain and anchors were supplied by them, about 1989. Their owner (then) is a neighbour of mine, haven't seen him for years so don't know now.
 
vyv_cox said:
Thanks for the compliment, John! Selby Lifting in Leeds were charging very high admin and postage costs on single links, people were paying over £20 for one! They seem to have partially overcome that problem by only selling in 10s, as in this link. but postage would be on top of that, making them pricey. It might be worth enquiring locally, Chester Chain may have the Crosby ones or something as good.
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Thanks Vyv,

After posting the question I did find this on ebay. It does specify a good WLL and comes with a cert. of conformity but does not say who the manufacturer is. I might make further enquiries next week. Also I'll try Chester chain - I used to get mooring chain from them too, when I was in Conwy many years ago.

John
 
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