Marking anchor rode

[ridgy]

Been getting round to marking my anchor rode and wondered what the best way was to do it. I saw some people spray paint it but I wanted something tactile in case it was dark.

Anyway, I came up with adding webbing tabs. I was going to sew them on but seemed like a lot of effort. Then I spotted a tube of screwfix external adhesive stuff loitering in the garage and stuck them on using a clamp to maintain pressure until set.

Red markers at 10m intervals e.g. one for 10m, two for 20m etc then a yellow one at 5m inbetween.

I'll see how long they last but it seems like a good idea for now. How have other people done it?

 

[Stemar]

On my old boat, I was the windlass, so cable ties worked well, but the new one has an electric windlass, which chews them up, so I'm interested in ideas too.

 

[Sandy]

Been getting round to marking my anchor rode and wondered what the best way was to do it. I saw some people spray paint it but I wanted something tactile in case it was dark.

Do you not have a deck light or torch? The last thing I would be wanting to do is get my hands anywhere near an anchor chain on a dark, wet night in a rolly anchorage.

I mark the point where the anchor is just resting on the water, then every five metres. Duncan Wells in Stress Free Sailing suggests ribbon following the colours of snooker balls. I am sticking to painting links.

 

[vyv_cox]

Red and yellow cable ties for me. I find that if the ties are left loosely around the chain links they last much longer.

 

[ridgy]

It's just the rope I'm marking, chain is only 10m.

 

[Slowboat35]

I suspect the webbing might stay put longer if it was tucked through part of the warp rather than around it.

 

[dansaskip]

I use red and green cord ( 5mm I think it is) tucked through the strands of the warp and tied around the links of the chain. Like ridgy, one green at 5 meters one red at 10 another green at 15m then two red at 20m etc. The beauty of using a coloured cord is it is cheap, it is easy done and easily replaceable and does not interfere with the electric windlass with the cord being soft.

 

[Plum]

Been getting round to marking my anchor rode and wondered what the best way was to do it. I saw some people spray paint it but I wanted something tactile in case it was dark.

Anyway, I came up with adding webbing tabs. I was going to sew them on but seemed like a lot of effort. Then I spotted a tube of screwfix external adhesive stuff loitering in the garage and stuck them on using a clamp to maintain pressure until set.

Red markers at 10m intervals e.g. one for 10m, two for 20m etc then a yellow one at 5m inbetween.

I'll see how long they last but it seems like a good idea for now. How have other people done it?

I do not use anything that is plastic and have good experience of 25mm wide cotton ribbon 300mm long, folded onto two and then cow-hitched round either a chain link or round one strand if multiplait. Goes through a gypsy.

 

[vyv_cox]

It's just the rope I'm marking, chain is only 10m.

I also use cable ties for my kedge warp.

 

[jbweston]

I use red and green cord ( 5mm I think it is) tucked through the strands of the warp and tied around the links of the chain. Like ridgy, one green at 5 meters one red at 10 another green at 15m then two red at 20m etc. The beauty of using a coloured cord is it is cheap, it is easy done and easily replaceable and does not interfere with the electric windlass with the cord being soft.

I do the same, but with long and short tails. Each long is 10 metres, each short 5. So for example 2 long tails and one short is 25.

They don't cut the hands and are cheap and less mess to apply than paint. Also durable, the ones on my previous boat were still going strong after a decade of use.

 

[B27]

I just use a coloured whipping.
I don't see the need for lots of markings, knowing the rode length to the nearest 10m is accurate enough.

 

[MontyMariner]

A tack through the webbing and rode will help stop the marks slipping on the rode as it's now too late to do as #6

 

[thinwater]

Just my opinions:

• What runs through the windlass depends on the windlass. Some vertical windlasses are great at ripping things off the chain and jamming on ribbons. Been there, seen that. Horizontal windlass do fine with ribbon.
• Tactile. Do you really want to run your hand along the rode, near the windlass and pulleys, in the dark? This is a way to lose a finger. I strongly recommend never doing this. In this age, LED headlamps are cheap and every boat should have several, so working in the dark is a meaningless hypothetical carried over from the dark old days of oil lamps. Really.
• If the windlass powers down, all you have to do is count. A chain counters is a gadget.
• Don't over mark the chain. You need a mark shortly before the anchor so that you are ready when it comes up, one at the minimum chain you will ever put out (50'?), and then about every 25-50 feet of so after that. It's not hard to estimate between marks, and it's not a precision business where a few feet matter. I've seen chains marked every 10 feet. It looks ridiculous, but more importantly, it makes the color code or whatever system more complicated. In practice, most boaters only need about 4 markers.

BTW, paint is super easy and neat if you drape the chain over an open cardboard box at each mark, and paint the loop where it is inside the box. Then throw the box away. No mess, no overspray.

 

[scozzy]

I just painted a single band(then 2,3 & so on) for every boat length ,in my case every 23 ft or so I added a 2 inch band of paint! When i first got the boat on to the hard i deployed the lot to check its condition,running it back and forth alongside the gap between my boat and the next and discovered I had almost exactly 7 boat lengths,1 of chain,6 of rode which is plenty for my use and a simple way to gauge how much without anything that can catch a finger! head torch for evenings and if in doubt add a boat length

 

[Neeves]

If you paint your chain and then want to have it regalvanised you may find that the galvaniser will simply refuse to treat it, because the new gal will not alloy to the painted sections. You could have the chain grit blasted or you can attach it to your tow bar and drag it over a beach (as good as grit blasting) but these are extra chores and/or costs. Galvanising only adheres, alloys, to clean steel, no rust (removed by the galvaniser with acid) and NO paint (more difficult to remove reliably).

If you use 'fat' cable ties you will find the section round the link has a fair longevity but the tails soon wear off. If you follow this route try to find some 'fat' brightly coloured, or white, cable ties or use multiples of yellow thin cable ties, to make a fat plastic ring, round the length of the appropriate link.

Cheap and cheerful - simply rip old 'T' shirts into ribbons and tie where appropriate. Pink 'T' shirts work well (a useful use if you have to rip a 'T' shirt off in a frenzy .

We found that the most important marks are the ones indicating the anchor was going to clear the water surface when you retrieve, see below, and a mark to indicate when you have deployed almost all your rode. Marks in between can be useful, if you count or have an easy code - but check your windlass speed, its in the specification, and simply count the seconds (of time) to deploy 30m (or whatever) and then count (having calculated how many metres are deployed in 10 seconds).

Modern windlass can be incredibly fast and its easy to 'drive' or 'ram' the anchor into the bow roller if you are distracted. Ramming the anchor into the bow roller will do your windlass no favours (and considering the minimalist steel used in current bow rollers - might distort the roller). Its a good idea to stop the anchor 'below' the bow roller and simple retrieve the last metre, or so, of chain by hand. If you follow this practice then the rode will not be tight on the windlass (again unnecessarily stress the windlass). Owners of old and/or big yachts might find this concept impossible (too heavy) and unnecessary (dreadnought bow rollers).

I concur with the idea of using the pink 'T' shirt ribbon through the lay of the rope portion of a rode.

Jonathan

 

[Sandy]

I just painted a single band(then 2,3 & so on) for every boat length

Do you have charts that give depths in boat lengths? Just curious why you chose this method of marking your chain.

 

[Farmer Piles]

Another one for paint. As suggested on this forum some time ago; road marker paint. Very cheap, very tough and very bright. I used a Hammerite type paint the first year and found that the road marker paint is much better. I have gone for a mark as the anchor is nearing the fairlead and then every 10m.

 

[scozzy]

Do you have charts that give depths in boat lengths? Just curious why you chose this method of marking your chain.

It just fits my brain I suppose. To me it makes sense at least! .....I have a 23ft boat so if I'm anchoring in 10ft of water for example and tide rising over next few hrs I'll need at least 50ft of rode so I just let it out till I see 3 bands (and therefore 70+ft)and know I've got plenty.I see no need for a mark every 5,10 or different colours or anything like that as I always pay out more regardless so its only one thing to worry about

 

[Sandy]

It just fits my brain I suppose. To me it makes sense at least! .....I have a 23ft boat so if I'm anchoring in 10ft of water for example and tide rising over next few hrs I'll need at least 50ft of rode so I just let it out till I see 3 bands (and therefore 70+ft)and know I've got plenty.I see no need for a mark every 5,10 or different colours or anything like that as I always pay out more regardless so its only one thing to worry about

Thanks, an interesting way to look at it.

I follow the traditional, total hight of tide times 3, 4 or 5 depending on how I feel.

 

[scozzy]

Thanks, an interesting way to look at it.

I follow the traditional, total hight of tide times 3, 4 or 5 depending on how I feel.

Whatever works! It just happened by chance really that my rode is pretty much exactly 7 boat lengths so I thought to myself....."if I just mark a boatlength and give myself a healthy margin of error I'll always have enough " so like you, I use the traditional x5 calc and the result is applied directly to boat length and anyone crewing just needs to know how many bands to look out for,nothing else