Marking up an anchor chain

[doris]

All these anchor postings have made me get my arse into gear and think about marking up my chain. Having only just started to regularly use the hook, I have never bothered in the past. Plan is to put paint stripes at the appropriate intervals. What is the best paint to use on galvanised. Does any old paint work or should I get scientific? Thought about using nylon tie wraps but I can’t see how they last long.

Any input chaps.

 

[Poignard]

Lyn and Larry Pardney [authors of various books on cruising] recommend using short lengths of plaited line, doubled round a link and stitched in place. One for 10 metres, two for 20 etc. They also suggest starting to mark from each end so that you can end-for-end the cable without having to re-mark it. Seems sensible to me. [One of these days I'll get around to doing it]

My twopenn'orth is to mark the cable in some way so that you can tell when the anchor is just below the surface so that you can leave it there whilst you clear the anchorage and let it wash most of the muck off.

 

[snooks]

Any input chaps.

A previous owner marked the chain, a green stripe for 5m a florescent orange for 10M

So it goes:

Green
Orange
Orange, green
Orange, orange
Orange, orange, green
Then rope at 30M

It's easier to see the bright orange than the green and as long as there is some paint on the chain it's easy to work out what's where

It's also good to know I'm getting somewhere when I'm pulling it up and when I get to the single green to slow down, so it's worth doing

 

[emandvee44]

anchor chain markings

We bought the little coloured rubber inserts, marked the chain, made a laminated card table as below which is stuck to the underside of the anchor locker hatch......


ANCHOR CHAIN LENGTH MARKINGS


RED 10 metres

YELLOW 20 metres

BLUE 30 metres

RED / YELLOW 40 metres


Maximum Length is 50 metres
=======================


Note: wanted green but the local chandlers don't sell them because it's supposed to be bad luck (at least in the Westcountry)

Cheers,

Michael.

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Coloured Cable Ties Mark My Chain

I use coloured cable ties: -

1 x 5 m
2 x 10 m
3 x 15 m

etc. etc.

They have been on for at least 3 seasons and are now fading in colour and becoming brittle. Easy cheap, reliable and can be fixed with the minimum of fuss.

I use a 60 lb CQR and electric windlass to haul the chain up and they don't snap off on the gypsy or stem head roller / cheeks.

 

[vyv_cox]

We have tried most of the possible marking methods. We anchor for most of six months every year.

Paint - a bit tedious to do, fades after a while when anchoring frequently, needs etch primer on galvanising.

Rubber inserts - colour fades quite quickly, they fall out.

Tie-wraps - best we have found. B&Q sell a plastic pot with 500 of them for £10. I use 1 red for 10 metres, 2 for 20 etc, with yellows between for each 5 metres. On average I change about 10 per season when they break,

 

[lumphammer]

We bought the little coloured rubber inserts, marked the chain, made a laminated card table as below which is stuck to the underside of the anchor locker hatch......


ANCHOR CHAIN LENGTH MARKINGS


RED 10 metres

YELLOW 20 metres

BLUE 30 metres

RED / YELLOW 40 metres


Maximum Length is 50 metres
=======================


Note: wanted green but the local chandlers don't sell them because it's supposed to be bad luck (at least in the Westcountry)

Cheers,

Michael.

I've done the same thing, obviously southern Chandlers are not superstitious so I've got red, yellow, blue and green. I thought they might fall off, but they've been there now for a whole season.

I've marked the chain at 4m intervals starting at 8m for a 4 x depth scope, so when anchoring in 5m I just count off the colours as they go past 2 red, 3 yellow, 4 green 5 blue, and then repeating the sequence for 6, 7, 8 and 9m etc.

 

[Chris_Robb]

They fell out

We bought the little coloured rubber inserts, marked the chain, made a laminated card table as below which is stuck to the underside of the anchor locker hatch......


ANCHOR CHAIN LENGTH MARKINGS


RED 10 metres

YELLOW 20 metres

BLUE 30 metres

RED / YELLOW 40 metres


Maximum Length is 50 metres
=======================


Note: wanted green but the local chandlers don't sell them because it's supposed to be bad luck (at least in the Westcountry)

Cheers,

Michael.

I bought some of these, and they fell out the first time I used the anchor!

I now have marked up with 2 types of Cable ties - large black and white ones.

10m = 1 white
20 m = 2 white
30 mtr = 3 white
40m = 1 black - larger variety
50m = 2 blank
60m = 3 black
70m = 1 white plus 1 black
80m = if I have not tied off the bitter end - i have lost the chain.

I did paint my last chain using red and blue hamerite spray, worked well, but no easier to see than cables ties.

Advantage of cable ties is you can feel them go out in the dark. - much easier to fit too,

 

[Quandary]

Marking chain

I know paint is not supposed to work but about five years ago I flaked out the chain on the lawn and every 5m. dropped about 6 links in to a old tin of red Toplac. When it dried I put on coloured cable ties to distinguish the marks. ( and mowed the paint off the grass)The colour code was written on a piece of white duct tape inside anchor locker lid. (Don't do it permanently as you will want ro reverse the chain.) I don't bother to mark the reel of nylon rope on the end as it is rarely used. The same with the second anchor, even though it is stowed in a cockpit locker it is going to be deployed from the bow. I have also marked links by coiling coloured electrical cable round them this also stays on and keeps its colour but the paint is still needed to draw attention to the reference points as they go over the roller.
It has lasted well though we do not anchor every day.

 

[Stemar]

Cable ties
5m 1 red
10m 2 reds
15m 3 reds
20m 1 green
25m 1 gr 1 r
30m 1 gr 2 red

etc.

Been on for about 3 years now, still fine.

 

[rivonia]

we are live aboards and anchor a lot. We have the plastic coloured pop in grommets at every 5 meters. We dont put them in any particular order just every 5 mts. As we anchor we count the number of times some colour goes down. Works for us. Good luck.

Peter

 

[webcraft]

Ribbon

.
When we bought Fairwinds over six years ago the chain was marked with thin red, white and blue ribbon at 11, 22 and 33m. They are highly visible, obviously very long lasting, go over the gypsy easily and don't tear your hands.

The white one finally came off last time we anchored, so time for replacement after six years.

- W

 

[Ubergeekian]

All these anchor postings have made me get my arse into gear and think about marking up my chain. Having only just started to regularly use the hook, I have never bothered in the past. Plan is to put paint stripes at the appropriate intervals. What is the best paint to use on galvanised. Does any old paint work or should I get scientific? Thought about using nylon tie wraps but I can’t see how they last long.

Any input chaps.

I don't like cable ties - no matter how carefully fitted, they always seem to rotate to a position which shreds your hands. I use a splash of paint every fathom ... it's no trouble to count them and even if you miss one it doesn't really matter.

 

[AlanRD]

All these anchor postings have made me get my arse into gear and think about marking up my chain. Having only just started to regularly use the hook, I have never bothered in the past. Plan is to put paint stripes at the appropriate intervals. What is the best paint to use on galvanised. Does any old paint work or should I get scientific? Thought about using nylon tie wraps but I can’t see how they last long.

Any input chaps.

At the beginning of the summer I flaked out the chain on the pontoon and used some old car aerosol paint left over in the garage. I applied three coats with twenty minutes between coats. It is still there and looks as if it will last several more seasons.

The only preparation was to wash the chain with fresh water where it was going to be sprayed and lay old newspaper under the chain to avoid painting the pontoon.

Simple, no cost, and effective. Just wish all maintenance was like this.

 

[snowleopard]

Does any old paint work or should I get scientific? Thought about using nylon tie wraps but I can’t see how they last long.

Most normal paints will flake off galvanizing quite quickly, aided by being ground off when running over the windlass or dragging across the bottom. A couple of alternatives that should stick better are International Zincolor and Hammerite Special Metals Primer.

I have seen cable ties used with reasonable success. You need to replace ones that break off now and then.

FWIW I have 23 metres of chain and always put all of it down. For deeper water the rest is nylon, marked with black indelible felt tip, one band per 10m and a wide stripe for 50m, a bit like naval officers' arm bands.

 

[sarabande]

SL

the use of permanent markers rings a bell. Some solvents used in pen markers (toluene, xylene, e.g.) can affect plastics adversely. I'm not sure whether they might have a weakening effect on say 14 mm nylon warp.

I'll try and find out.

 

[geoid96]

I have put bands of black self-amalgamating tape around octoplait anchor warp to mark lengths.

So long as you slide them on before splicing to the chain, the correct size heat shrink tubing should also work.

 

[andygc]

Spray paint - coloured enamel - comes in small cheap cans. Spray onto dry chain - no other preparation needed. Lasts for about three years.

If you have ever played snooker:

units are 10 metres or 5 metres, whatever suits you and your chain.
1 unit - red
2 units - yellow
3 units - green
4 units - brown
5 units - blue
6 units - pink
7 units - black

if you need more

black + red = 8
black + yellow = 9
black + green = 10
etc

 

[tcm]

yep, I'm at anchor all but four months a yer, and use the snooker method. I won 25 quid for it being in PBO somehow. first ten metres from the anchor is left blank, then next 10m red, then yellow, green brown blue pink and that's enough for me.

The advantages of painting (badly) the whole anchor is that
1 - you can tell at a glance how much chain is out, even hours/days later
2 the system isn't reliant on every single bit of cable tie etc being in place - since a few metres of chain is always visible, there's bound to be some colour visible somewhere along that bit.
3 Even if they don't remeber any marking system or play/watch snooker, complete numptie crew (oops er hello darling) can easily be told to report/shout the colour of the anchor chain.

 

[dovekie]

Sounds like whatever colour sequence will be easy for you to remember makes sense. We use the snooker colours.

We mark the chain with small coloured cable ties (from Maplin I think - bought a bargain bag of them). Five or six of the relevant colour, on adjacent links, at the relevent point on the chain. They ride over the bow roller and the windlass gypsy easily, they last a lot longer than paint, they are very quick to put on and they are as cheap as chips.