Painting chain lockers

[gtmoore]

Our boat has a chain locker without a top hatch - the chain coming through a hawse pipe on deck. I sometimes wonder why this is as you end up with mucky old wet chain and warp sitting in a pile in the bottom of the locker with no air flow to allow any of it to dry out. In addition, there is an inspection hatch in the forward cabin that you can just about get an arm into.

Tomorrow I'm going to pull the whole lot out to wash it off and also wash out the locker area as much as possible. I may be able to remove the forward bulk head plywood to get to it more easily. My question is, would it be advantageous to give it a couple of coats of bilge paint while I'm there. It's uncoated at the moment.

Our boat had some blisters in this area when we bought her - I guess this may not have been helped by the chain and rope sitting in contact with the bare inside of the hull for long periods?


<hr width=100% size=1>Gavin

 

[bruce]

you might consider coating with the 'plastic' pickup truck bed liner material, if you have it over there, is nonchip, flexible and water proof. this goes on like tar but sets up into a plastic like material.

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[Mizzenrabble]

You may consider this unhelpful, but I always try and pay someone else to do this kind of job!



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[jerryat]

Hi Gavin,

Yes, do thoroughly clean then paint your chain locker. I use standard International Paint's bilge paint, and it does a super job, making subsequent locker cleaning far easier.

You may care to consider the solution I used to an identical drainage/airing problem in my chain locker. It occured to me that even in very heavy weather, very little water actually entered through the chain pipe, but that little stayed there as you say, with nasty results.

I drilled a hole in the locker floor and inserted a 15mm brass hull fitting with a tail, and bedded in mastic, to which I clamped a shortish length of hose. This length of hose was fed down to the bilge immediately aft of the chain locker bulkhead and into the most forward 'Vee' locker under the forecabin berths, then into a large plastic Coca Cola bottle!! Yes, I know, it sounds crazy, but it really does work. We have never had more than 3/4 of a bottle full even after a long rough passage, and generally only need to empty the tiny bit in there two or three times a season!

We do, of course, seal the chain pipe as well as possible on a passage to minimise water ingress, but even if we didn't, the capacity of the bottle is quite adequate.

The final thing is to place a removable 'floor' (drilled pegboard fashion) in the chain locker covering the whole existing floor, and supported sufficiently to hold the weight of chain approx 12mm clear of the locker floor. This serves the dual purpose of preventing blockage of the drain fitting and ensuring that at least some air is able to circulate under the chain. Ours stays completely dry once it's drained, and we anchor everywhere.

Hope this helps,

Jerry


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[ongolo]

Good idea you have there, wondering also still how to best improve my system in my steel boat.

Considering what you said, trying to adapt mine.

thanks ongolo

<hr width=100% size=1>So what......... it floats

 

[oldsaltoz]

G'day Gavin,

If your chain locker does not have a drain you should install one, water laying on damaged fibreglass will cause problems like more blisters.

A drain also provides some ventilation and lets you stick a hose does the hole to wash the chain.

Coating the inside is a must to protect the glass and it's coating, be it paint or flow-coat; the simple and effective method is to stick some soft rubber to the two side walls and bolt or screw a strip of s/steel or hard wood along the top of the rear wall sheet, this will allow access thru the bulkhead in case you get a chain twist / tangle. Apply this after a fresh coating; only apply the glue [sikaflex] to the top and sides of the fixed sheets, not at the bottom to water will not be trapped, place a small grate in the bottom to keep the chain away from the drain outlet, the rubber should extend over the edges of the grate, not under it.

I hope this helps

Andavagoodweekend........



<hr width=100% size=1> Old Salt Oz /forums/images/icons/cool.gif Growing old is unavoidable. However, growing up is still optional.

 

[gtmoore]

Thanks to all for the advice.

The 'locker' as I've described is actually just the forward section of the hull from the stem back about a foot. It does have a drain into the main bilge but I don't think there is a floor in it - the rope and chain just gathers in a heap at the bottom of the hull. This far forward it's quite narrow and it stays wet for ages.

I'm just off to the boat now so I'm going to have a better look at it. I'll certainly paint and think about protecting the sides and see if I can put a false grate in at the bottom. This will allow the warp and chain to flake higher up the hull so might get a bit more air around it.

Thanks again


<hr width=100% size=1><font color=blue>Gavin </font color=blue>

 

[jerryat]

Hi Gavin,

Sorry, didn't realise you had no floor in your locker. I would strongly advise you to fit one - not at all a difficult job, though a bit messy! Decide the level that suits you and grind back the hull to help provide a good bond along a line above the floor. A width of around 75mm should be sufficient as the floor will effectively be 'lodged' in position as it meets the tapering hull. Laminate the floor into this postion running the layers of mat right across the floor and up the 75mm wide sides. Three or four coats of bilge paint will provide protection and a 'wipe-clean' surface.

Now that the chain locker is sealed at it's base, you have the option of inserting a drain as I decribed earlier or something to your own design. Certainly preventing salt water entering your bilges will be a major advance in keeping the rest of the boat drier, odor- free and less prone to mildew and the like.

Hope this helps

Jerry



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[AndrewB]

I've found Danboline (bilge paint) proves a bit soft in the anchor well of my steel boat and wears rather easily - next time I'll go back to epoxy.

Having experimented with an overboard drain which was a failure, I've now installed a system like Jerryat's, though in the form of a sump collecting water from several places (shower tray etc) with a bilge pump. Even plugging the hawse pipe with a rag, the amount of water from the anchor well can be quite large in heavy seas though nothing at all other times.

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[gtmoore]

Hi Jerry

Well, I've pulled all the chain and rope out and have removed the ply bulkhead. It's only thin and held on with 4 screws! The reason is that the rope and chain drop down quite a bit lower than this panel against a permanent bulkhead. Problem is, if I put in a false floor, the chain and rope will be laying against the thin removeable bulkhead which I don't think is strong enough to hold it.

Anyway, I've washed out the 20 odd years of accumulated salt and debris - even found the original ply circle in there that had been cut out of the permanent bulkhead to drain this area when the boat was made. Not sure it ever drained properly with this still knocking around down there.

For now I'm going to give it a couple of coats of paint, cut up some car mats and line the area with these and also connect a pipe from the hole at the bottom to a container as you suggest. My laminating attempts in the past have been rather unsuccessful so I'll try and get someone to help me fabricate a raised floor as you describe at the end of the season.

I've brought the warp home with me to wash - smells awful!!

Thanks again for the help


<hr width=100% size=1><font color=blue>Gavin </font color=blue>

 

[floatything]

"Having experimented with an overboard drain which was a failure, I've now installed a system like Jerryat's.."

What was the problem? I'm considering fitting an overboard drain - basically drilling a small hole through the hull from the locker and then fitting some sort of 'one way valve' to stop water ingress. Theres no drain at all at the moment and the locker just fills up.

Regards

Chris

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[MainlySteam]

Most modern boats that I know of the anchor locker is drained out through the side of the hull. In our own case there is a drain each side of the boat taken down to just below the top of the antifouling to avoid rust staining of the topsides.

With respect to size and your mention of a sort of one way valve, be careful what you do because even though we hose our chain with the deck washdown hose as it comes on board, our approx 16 mm dia drains with no one way valving regularly block with bits of debris off it. In seas the chain locker (the bottom of which is maybe at most 300mm above the static waterline) has water surge into the bottom of it through the drains (and cleans it out /forums/images/icons/smile.gif).

John

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[gtmoore]

I have another question related to warps and chain. My warp was spliced onto the chain but I've cut it off and was going to have it respliced but was wondering if there was an accepted alternative way of attaching the warp only when needed for example with a shackle and eye perhaps? This way, I could keep my rope nice and dry in a normal locker and only deploy it when I need more scope than my 30m of chain will allow. I only sail around the Solent area and at the moment anchoring is restricted pretty much to a lunch stop in Osbourne Bay.

I realise that anchors are also safety equipment and attaching the warp using this sort of arrangement couldn't realistically be deployed in a hurry.

<hr width=100% size=1><font color=blue>Gavin </font color=blue>

 

[AndrewB]

Yes, I had a similar problem to yours. With a heavy steel hull and carrying 100m chain, naturally the anchor well is carried well down so the drain hole was only about 15cm above the waterline. I was amazed by the amount of surge once the yacht was moving at speed with a bow wave, despite a small deflector plate outside: water seemed actually to be sucked back in and rise up within the well, possibly loading the yacht's head down further but certainly accelerating rust problems inside.

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[AndrewB]

Rapid anchor deployment.

My guess is that the need for rapid anchor deployment in water over 10m deep, particularly in adverse conditions, must be extremely rare. I can think of just one case given in Heavy Weather Sailing.

On the other hand, I don't see why you are particularly concerned to keep a synthetic warp 'nice and dry' other than for cosmetic reasons.

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[MainlySteam]

As long as you can shackle the rope cable to the chain before deploying the anchor, or otherwise manage it so that the bitter end of the anchor cable is never released from the boat, so that you do not end up with a free end to the chain with the anchor over the side with the risk of losing the lot, then it would seem a very sensible idea to me assuming normal shallow water short stay anchoring.

I assume that you have the bitter end of your anchor cable fastened to the inside of the chain locker in some way, and if you go to chain only that should be done with rope fastened to the end of the chain and long enough to feed up through the hawse pipe so that the anchor can be cut loose from on deck if needed. If your deck is strong enough in way of the hawse pipe then a ring too big to fit through the pipe tied to the rope is an effective way of securing the bitter end of the anchor cable, so it cannot run away to be lost overboard, rather than to a fastening inside the locker.

You just need to think up a way of managing the connecting of the rope cable when needed and getting it to still fit through the hawse pipe, or else by some other route, without having to fasten the rope to the chain with the anchor already deployed and for safety's sake the bitter end of the cable never released from the boat (even if the anchor cable is belayed to a cleat or bollard on deck). If a thimble in the rope and a shackle will fit through the hawse pipe the solution would be easy.

John

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[MainlySteam]

Hi Andrew

Our chain locker, although in a steel boat, is a tall approx 400mm square (in plan) glassed timber box centred under the hawse pipe on the centreline of the boat, so we are not faced with the dreaded rust problem. Due to the small cross section the weight of water in it is also never much when the bottom fills. It does mean though that the CG of the stored chain is higher than it would be with a more squat box.

John

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[gtmoore]

Hi John

Thanks for that. Yes, I was thinking about how to attach the rope to the chain without the risk of letting go of it and the whole lot going over the side. I don't think the shackle attaching the main rope to chain will go through the current hawse pipe.

I guess the rope doesn't need to be fed from the locker and the correct length could be cleated off on deck. That way I could use a small shackle to attach the short rope length (you mentioned I should cut in an emergency) that would go through the hawse pip and and connect the larger shackle for connecting the main warp to before disconnecting the shorter one.

Still a bit fiddly but I reckon with the amount of use it will get probably worth it.

Thanks again.

<hr width=100% size=1><font color=blue>Gavin </font color=blue>

 

[gtmoore]

Re: Rapid anchor deployment.

Hi Andrew

Thanks for the reply - the main reason to forego the warp is that my anchor locker design means that it sits wet buried in the bows of the ship (with the chain piled on top!) and creates quite a smell in the forward cabin. I was hoping that the chain would dry more easily and I could keep the warp elsewhere for the rare occasion I might need it.


<hr width=100% size=1><font color=blue>Gavin </font color=blue>

 

[AndrewB]

Good idea. I'm also planning on fitting a liner sometime to stop abrasion. But with that much weight, I do like to keep it as low as possible. I've taken a look at stowage systems that bring the chain back from the well and stow it in the bilge, as on the abortive YM38, but that looks too complicated and prone to snarl-ups. The alternative is to use part warp - but having experienced an anchor warp snap under extreme loading, I feel more secure with all chain.

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