Mysterious anchor warp marking

[nestawayboats]

We inherited (it came with boat) a substantial coil of nice anchorplait. Decided to check the length and marker distances. It's consistently, and very clearly, marked at intervals of... about 8m.
8m being approx 26 feet, or 4.4 fathoms if you want to confuse people.
5 or 10m, 10 or maybe 30 feet - or possibly even 6 fathoms - I would have understood.

Is there a measuring unit for anchor rodes I haven't heard of?
Or some overwhelming logic for 8m intervals?

 

[johnalison]

Probably a multiple of cubits. So far as I know, there is no international standard for yacht cable markings. We can never remember ours and always have to look it up in the little book.

 

[Roberto]

Is the original boat about 8m length? For some obscure, possibly cabalic reason, some textbooks advised a deployed rode length of X times the boat loa/lwl

 

[Martin_J]

Strangely, or maybe not so strangely, I put 50m of new chain on board last year.. The previous had been marked in 5m intervals using combinations of red and yellow groups of cable ties...

It was a lot of marking (as shown ln the underside of the anchor locker lid)... Yellow being a 5m and red being multiples of 10m.



I did want to simplify things and bought those coloured chain markers..

Now with the colours R Y B W G... Red, yellow, blue, white, green.. or often referred to as Rub Your B... With Grease...

That's all I need to mark the same length of chain but in 8m increments.. putting out 16m... or 24m.. or 32m... or 40m... that's accurate enough surely.

Oh and I did add a white that appears when the anchor is at the waterline.. White - Waterline.

Now the anchor locker lid looks like this..



I didn't think I need a marker for 48m since the chain is nearly all out then.. and if you work in computers, eights (octal) is normal for counting..

 

[Martin_J]

Maybe I should add the word 'Back' to that mnemonic above.

 

[Sticky Fingers]

We inherited (it came with boat) a substantial coil of nice anchorplait. Decided to check the length and marker distances. It's consistently, and very clearly, marked at intervals of... about 8m.
8m being approx 26 feet, or 4.4 fathoms if you want to confuse people.
5 or 10m, 10 or maybe 30 feet - or possibly even 6 fathoms - I would have understood.

Is there a measuring unit for anchor rodes I haven't heard of?
Or some overwhelming logic for 8m intervals?

Could be scope of 4 x water depth in increments of 2m?

 

[Porthandbuoy]

8 metres is as near as dammit 7 English ells. Just how old is your boat?

 

[thinwater]

We inherited (it came with boat) a substantial coil of nice anchorplait. Decided to check the length and marker distances. It's consistently, and very clearly, marked at intervals of... about 8m.
8m being approx 26 feet, or 4.4 fathoms if you want to confuse people.
5 or 10m, 10 or maybe 30 feet - or possibly even 6 fathoms - I would have understood.

Is there a measuring unit for anchor rodes I haven't heard of?
Or some overwhelming logic for 8m intervals?

25 feet. Obviously. US charts and sounders are in feet or fathoms.

Very common marking interval in the US.

---

Really, unless you are anchoring in umpteen thousand feet of water, do you really need colors? I just mark mine with a solid color band.

• First marking at 50 feet. You will never deploy less than that anyway. If you do, you can either time the windlass or estimate.
• You can mark every 25 feet (8 meters), but isn't every 50 feet enough? If you want 75 feet, can't you estimate the midpoint ... close enough?
• If I run out 250 feet of chain I need to be able to count to five. I can do that ... on one hand! If I marked every 25 feet I would need to count to 10.

[Just for fun--I'm not serious about what is below]

 

[Sandy]

I work in thingibobs. As long as you know how many thingibobs you have out and collect them all before you leave then all is good in the world.

A thingibob is about a second. Hence, I count the number of seconds that I need scope and knowing the amount of chain that the windlass drops in a second gives me amount of scope.

 

[Roberto]

• First marking at 50 feet. You will never deploy less than that anyway. If you do, you can either time the windlass or estimate

?
Chain marking is as much useful when dropping as when weighing anchor. Knowing where the anchor is more or less down below the bow is an important data when retrieving, a single marking at 50ft tells you nothing, except if you always anchor in 50ish ft of water.
I find the short distance markings more useful: mark when the anchor is just below water level, mark for tripping line, etc.

 

[thinwater]

25 feet. Obviously. US charts and sounders are in feet or fathoms.

Very common marking interval in the US.

?
Chain marking is as much useful when dropping as when weighing anchor. Knowing where the anchor is more or less down below the bow is an important data when retrieving, a single marking at 50ft tells you nothing, except if you always anchor in 50ish ft of water.
I find the short distance markings more useful: mark when the anchor is just below water level, mark for tripping line, etc.

I don't think you understood what I said.

Assume you are using 5:1 scope (and you generally need more scope in shallow water) and the bow is 3 feet above the water. If the water is 7 feet, you'll need 50' of rode to anchor (5x10=50 feet). How many people often anchor in less than 7 feet of water? In other words, you almost never deploy less than 50 feet of chain. True.

I did not say to use a single marking. I said the FIRST marking is at 50 feet. Then I discussed counting the rest of the marks as the rode deployed.

Very few (no one) uses a tripping line. In fact, in most harbors they are considered rude and a hazard to others and yourself. You feel differently. Yes, a mark just before the anchor come up can be handy, but that wouldn't be part of the regular marking frequency.

I'm just saying that I feel many of the marking strategies over complicating something very simple. It's not surgery. Others can feel differently. In my case, I anchor in very shallow water and I mark at 25' intervals. But I don't make them different colors because it is easy enough to count them. But really, I never use less than 50 feet.

 

[Porthandbuoy]

I have one yellow tie-wrap either side of a link, in case one falls off, at 10m, two at 20m, three at 30m and so on up to five red tie-wraps just before I run out of chain and warp comes out of the hawsehole. I usually anchor in 3~5m LW and seldom deploy more than 20~25m. Limiting factor is often swinging room in tight anchorages.

 

[Stemar]

For years, I've used cable ties every 5m. One green per 5m then red for 20m, so g, gg, ggg, r, rg, rgg, rggg, rr, etc. Never a problem to remember the code.

The only disadvantage is that we now have a windlass, and it tends to eat the cable ties, so I'm definitely interested in an alternative suitable for a mixed rode.

 

[Roberto]

I don't think you understood what I said.

Assume you are using 5:1 scope (and you generally need more scope in shallow water) and the bow is 3 feet above the water. If the water is 7 feet, you'll need 50' of rode to anchor (5x10=50 feet). How many people often anchor in less than 7 feet of water? In other words, you almost never deploy less than 50 feet of chain. True.

I did not say to use a single marking. I said the FIRST marking is at 50 feet.

Perfectly understood, it seems you did not understand me. You are anchored in 4-5m of water, you begin weighing anchor, you retrieve chain beyond your only 50' mark and the chain goes almost vertical: how do you know if it's the chain being stuck or if the anchor is being pulled out of the sea bottom ? Or with wind or tide pushing the boat, I find quite useful having an idea if one has still 12-10-7m left to retrieve before the boat starts moving away from the spot.

 

[B27]

How long is the rode?
It might just be marked 1/4, 1/2, 3/4 or something?

Sometimes marking in boat lengths has a role.

It's just another case of being aware that other people, including 'previous owners' do things different.

 

[cpedw]

Perhaps it's to equate to 5m of chain, based on using 3:1 chain and 5:1 rope. A bit obscure I know ...

 

[thinwater]

Perfectly understood, it seems you did not understand me. You are anchored in 4-5m of water, you begin weighing anchor, you retrieve chain beyond your only 50' mark and the chain goes almost vertical: how do you know if it's the chain being stuck or if the anchor is being pulled out of the sea bottom ? Or with wind or tide pushing the boat, I find quite useful having an idea if one has still 12-10-7m left to retrieve before the boat starts moving away from the spot.

First, at few people suggested every 10 meters (33 feet). There are many people around here that mark every 10 feet, and with all the colors they used to keep track it is even more confusing. Common practice seems to be between 10 and 50 feet, so it's just a matter of drawing a line between 50 feet or more and even less than 10 feet, perhaps. You like more, I'm hinting that less can work.

Most people recover chain with an electric windlass. Just count the seconds.

OK, I see you points. In fact, I mark every 25 feet. But my marks are all same color I have no trouble counting marks. If I am at the helm I count seconds, and we can agree that I couldn't count marks from there anyway.

Different boats, different long splices.

 

[Bilgediver]

We inherited (it came with boat) a substantial coil of nice anchorplait. Decided to check the length and marker distances. It's consistently, and very clearly, marked at intervals of... about 8m.
8m being approx 26 feet, or 4.4 fathoms if you want to confuse people.
5 or 10m, 10 or maybe 30 feet - or possibly even 6 fathoms - I would have understood.

Is there a measuring unit for anchor rodes I haven't heard of?
Or some overwhelming logic for 8m intervals?

Anchor Chain in measured in units of shackle. Each unit of shackle is made up of 15 fathoms which is 90 ft of chain . Each fathom being about 8 metres The chain is marked at each shackle as shown in an earlier message. When running out the chain the deck officer at the windlass rings the bell to signal how many shackles are in the water.. Well maybe now electronic data is exchanged with indicators on the bridge.

Seems this traditional way of measuring may still be in use

 

[jbweston]

I use short lengths of blue polyester codline, knotted through a chain link. One long tail is 10 m, one short is 5m. So, for example 3 longs and a short is 35 m. Of course you can economise on the knots by using a longer piece and after knotting use both tails, cutting to length as appropriate..

The line is soft enough to go round the gypsy and short enough not to tangle.

 

[Roberto]

15 fathoms which is 90 ft of chain which is around 8m.

That would make 8m boat owners boasting "hey, come aboard my 90 footer"