Painting marks on an anchor chain

[Neeves]

I will need to paint marks on a new anchor chain. Has anyone found, used, a paint that they think last long on a chain.

We have used cable ties and paint - neither have much of a life span.

I have been wondering about road marking paint - it s lasts well (or longer than our marks on our chain) but it is developed to be used on asphalt - not galvanising. It has the other disadvantage that it is supplied in very large drums (understandably considering the application).

Jonathan

 

[paulajayne]

Spray cans available

 

[Rafiki]

I will need to paint marks on a new anchor chain. Has anyone found, used, a paint that they think last long on a chain.

We have used cable ties and paint - neither have much of a life span.

I have been wondering about road marking paint - it s lasts well (or longer than our marks on our chain) but it is developed to be used on asphalt - not galvanising. It has the other disadvantage that it is supplied in very large drums (understandably considering the application).

Jonathan

I used whatever paint I had lying around, but also tied on coloured ribbons to match. Seems weird ? but the ribbons dont get knocked off by the windlass, last a long time and although they get dirty the colour is still pretty obvious

 

[gordmac]

Is there not plastic things that fit in the chain?

 

[Tranona]

I have a simple system using orange and yellow cable ties, orange for 5m and yellow for 10. Go twice round the link and cut the tails off. still there after 6 years. You might struggle getting 2 turns through your 6mm links though.

 

[Neeves]

Spray cans available

I did do a Google search for an answer and did note road line aerosol cans - my immediate though was that spray paint is 'thin' and does not have the robustness of road marks (and used in areas without the abrasion, say you would expect on a motorway.

I've seen thin coloured cable ties, the sort you might use on thin electric cables - but not bigger ones (maybe I need to get out more as well). Good memory Tranona on chain size (its not actually my chain - but it is 6mm (and I have agreed to mark it and then help instal). The new owner used ribbons.

I've seen the plastic push in inserts - I fear they push out as easily as push in.

During lockdown Josephine painted all our terracotta flower pots and made a large garden ornament, a gecko, from foam (fibreglass foam) offcuts which she also painted - we have used all our left over paint (and been buying test pots at A$0.5 each to supplement)

Thanks for the suggestions - when/if push comes to shove - it will be cable ties and cheap paint.

Jonathan

 

[BobnLesley]

I have a simple system using orange and yellow cable ties...still there after 6 years...

But how many times have you anchored? We used cable ties to differentiate, but were generally replacing at least some of them every month or two, so they're perhaps good for 20-30 deployments - last maybe 10-20% longer without the windlass; better than those plastic inserts though, some of those had gone within a fortnight.
By far the best paint we tried (only because the can was to hand one day) was a deck paint - for wooden house decking - from a US hardware store (Lowes?) but we only had it in white, so it was that and coloured cable ties thereafter; the same stuff - with the addition of some fine (and washed) Caribbean beach sand was also the best yacht deck paint that we've ever used too and at perhaps US$30 for a four-litre can, it soundly under-cut Interdeck on price too.

 

[ctva]

Cable ties work for us. 30ish anchor nights and after 6 years, I am only having to replace a few this winter. I find them easier (with tails left on) to see in the dark, wet, wind or mud than paint.

 

[CJ13]

I use whatever spray paint I can get. Lasts a season and then redo in the spring.
Paint is much clearer than the plastic chain markers, which inevitably fall out and the yellow ones become mud coloured for some reason.

 

[Tranona]

But how many times have you anchored?

Much the same as ctva - around 200 times in the 6 years. Did this sum to work out why the Lewmar windlass failed after such little use.. I rarely use more than 25m chain - usually only 15-20m (shallow water around here) but the first 5 sets of ties are still there.

 

[dunedin]

We use these plastic chain markers - Coloured Markers for Anchor Chains

So far 7 seasons of heavy use (must be well over 500 anchor uses, including a few gales) and I suspect may have lost one single marker. These have outlasted the galvanising on the chain.

 

[dunedin]

I use whatever spray paint I can get. Lasts a season and then redo in the spring.
Paint is much clearer than the plastic chain markers, which inevitably fall out and the yellow ones become mud coloured for some reason.

The plastic markers stay in perfectly, provided fitted carefully - which means ensuring the two edges are both flicked right through.
We must have more than 70 of these on our (80+ m) chain, and only lost one in 7 years. Yellow ones still fine.
PS. Our system is blue = 5, red = 10, yellow = 50, so mostly reds which are very visible

 

[penfold]

Road marking paint, in the UK at least, is a hot melt affair and I can't see it being suitable for marking chain. Thinking along those lines what about Plastidip coating? It's pretty rubbery when set, it might survive going over a gypsy.

 

[Mister E]

I used Nail Varnish, a brilliant pink. Has stayed on for years.
The boat was left on a mooring that dried out for a month, with the anchor deployed with no noticeable wear.

 

[thinwater]

My suggestion is not about the paint but how to make the job easy.

Get a big box, notch it 4-6 places on each side, and drape the sections to be painted across the open top. They are then easy to paint on both sides with zero mess. Throw the box away when dry. There is so little mess you can easily do this on deck, particularly with a cat.

If you need to mark more than 4-6 places, you are marking too often. Every 25 feet or 10 meters should be enough, then estimate in between. If the chain is long, there will be marks beyond that, but since they don't lie on the bottom (or not very often) they don't require repainting.

Yes, some paint wear away, but you don't need much to see the marks. Just some between the links.

Yes, a really abrasion resistant paint would be neat. More coats probably help, and the above method makes that super easy.

 

[sailaboutvic]

We use these plastic chain markers - Coloured Markers for Anchor Chains

So far 7 seasons of heavy use (must be well over 500 anchor uses, including a few gales) and I suspect may have lost one single marker. These have outlasted the galvanising on the chain.

Over the years I try everything, the one thing that works for sure is the plastic markers as dunedin said we lost the odd one and they are also reusable.

 

[Neeves]

My suggestion is not about the paint but how to make the job easy.

Get a big box, notch it 4-6 places on each side, and drape the sections to be painted across the open top. They are then easy to paint on both sides with zero mess. Throw the box away when dry. There is so little mess you can easily do this on deck, particularly with a cat.

If you need to mark more than 4-6 places, you are marking too often. Every 25 feet or 10 meters should be enough, then estimate in between. If the chain is long, there will be marks beyond that, but since they don't lie on the bottom (or not very often) they don't require repainting.

Yes, some paint wear away, but you don't need much to see the marks. Just some between the links.

Yes, a really abrasion resistant paint would be neat. More coats probably help, and the above method makes that super easy.

Some time ago 2-3 years someone, Geem?, had a picture (the cardboard box trick) of what you describe - it was part of his preparation for an Atlantic crossing - though I don't think he used his rode much during the crossing and it certainly would not have suffered much abrasion had he tried .

On our current rode I used an aerosol, yellow. This is it new, and unused chain. The new rode will be the same. Our paint has all worn off from the 'outside' of the links leaving some paint on the interior. The trouble with aerosol paint is that it is thin and I don't think admired for its abrasive properties, unless used as graffiti in which case it seems immovable (unless painted over).

I had wondered if there was something better and more abrasion resistant (hence the idea of road marking paint). I'd also wondered, idly, whether there might be advantage in use glass beads (Potters Ballotini) on the surface to aid when deploying at night.



We are belt and braces types and used paint AND cable ties (red). But the windlass works very fast, inordinately fast, and unless you are very sharp eyed the cable ties (the numbers denoting the amount deployed) pass so quickly you need to concentrate to know whether its 30m or 40m. Paint was a better indicator - but is now a bit thin (or sparse) and I'd like a chain with which I am involved to be remarked upon kindly.

I believe a rode should be supplied as a combined and complete package not as an individual series of often unmatched components that the owner has to cobble together themselves

Jonathan

 

[Sticky Fingers]

Interesting debate. I've adopted a different method which may not meet with universal approval...

I've timed the rate at which my windlass can deploy chain, which is almost exactly 2.5 seconds per metre of chain. Simple counting in units of 10 seconds is good enough to deliver a 4x scope, given that I never anchor (or even go out) in heavy weather I think that this is near enough.

So for example, 5 metres of water, 50 seconds of deployment time will deliver 20m of chain. Works in the dark and requires no maintenance

 

[geem]

We have tried every kind of plastic marker, paints of all kind and cable ties. If you don't anchor often then these work ok. If you anchor on a regular basis we find they don't last long at all. The current method we use is to cut different colours of cloth into strips and tie those through the chain. We have been using this system for about three years and it's the best we have found so far. It may not work if you predominantly anchor in mud with you chain on the seabed in which case all your markers are likely to be brown?
If you tie two or three strips 150mm long at each marker point, if you lose one, just add another as you lift the chain

 

[sailaboutvic]

We have tried every kind of plastic marker, paints of all kind and cable ties. If you don't anchor often then these work ok. If you anchor on a regular basis we find they don't last long at all. The current method we use is to cut different colours of cloth into strips and tie those through the chain. We have been using this system for about three years and it's the best we have found so far. It may not work if you predominantly anchor in mud with you chain on the seabed in which case all your markers are likely to be brown?
If you tie two or three strips 150mm long at each marker point, if you lose one, just add another as you lift the chain

Have you tried the plastic bit you put in between the link? Our been on now for 5 years and I think we lost one ,
Agree they can lost their colour