Proper way to mark anchor chain?

[Twister_Ken]

wee meter thingie that\'ll tell...

how much chain you've laid.
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Do they do one of those wee thingie thingies that'll tell me how many tables I've laid? Hurts like hell, BTW.

Or how many of anything else I've laid, come to that (nudge nudge, wink wink).

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[snooks]

Cable ties

You've got to be carefull with cable ties...they can rip your hand something nasty, make sure you cut the tail flush, any little bit sticking out can hurt like hell when you're pulling it in or letting it out....

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[Guest]

All this talk of the risks in handling anchor chain reminds me of when we were sailing in Majorca some 15 years ago and were moored in a harbour know to be largely "topless" (mainly because there was no easy road access for sightseeing tourists). Along came a large-ish (50'?) Swiss flag boat with at least half a dozen posing bimbos, hanging off the shrouds as they do, some with G-strings and some not. The sole visible male on board was at the helm. When time came to drop anchor, skipper goes forward, very tall thin balding fully-tanned chap with lotsa wrinkles, not a pretty sight with not a stitch on, but visibly well endowed in more than just the financial way. He proceeds to squat over the anchor well and feed chain out, hand over hand between his legs with all swingy-dangling. SWMBO can confirm this story as we had two pairs of binocs on board! The sight still brings a lump to my throat to this day, and I am always extra careful of fingers and things when feeding chain out!

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[snowleopard]

hands?!

me soil my delicate little pinkies? no way, i sit at the helm and let 'er indoors do that sort of stuff.

(seriously though, she has an electric windlass to do the job for her)

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[qsiv]

Ooh. I dunno. Ive got the fancy plastic link marks, and we anchor pretty regularly through the season, as we tend to prefer the quieter spots to marinas whenever possible. We havent lost even one of the markers in three seasons so far, which is certainly more long lasting than painting.

I mark as R, W, B, RR, WW, BB. RRR, WWW, BBB, RRRR, WWWW at 5 metre intervals. I also have a short end of thin stuff (what is the modern equivalent of cod line?), seized on at the markers, as I find the bit of string easier to spot than either markers or paint. The idea of the seizing is that it will pull off if it snags on something!

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[qsiv]

Re: Great till yer power goes! ;-)

Powers not alloowed to go AWOL on our boat, and the fuse is circuit breaker so it can be reset. If the windlass did fail, we'd have to rig tackles back to the primaries or possibly the two speed winch on the mast - there's just no way we could lift the gear by hand. My guess is that it could weigh beween 250 to 500 Kg - with the boat surging it would be unmanageable.

I have to say that the windlass gets stripped, greased repacked and pawls checked every season as the thought of failure in unpleasant conditions doesnt bear thinking about. We'd be more likely to drop it on the sea bed with a marker than recover it in bad weather.

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[onenyala]

I use blue, three or four stranded polypropylene parcel twine. I tie pieces of the twine on to the chain with cow hitches and tie 1/2/3/4/5/etc knots in the tails of the pieces of twine at 5/10/15/20/25/etc metres. The same twine has been on for about four years and apart from losing its colour serves the purpose. You can count the knots by touch in the dark as the chain goes out or of course see them in daylight.

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[Peppermint]

Re: It\'s all balls really

In snooker Red is 1 Yellow is 2 Green is 3 Brown is 4 Blue is 5 Pink is 6 and Black is 7.

I place mine at 5m intervals.




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[coachone]

Thanks...nothing like advice from someone who has the same kit.I'll go with your suggestion.

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[snooks]

Re: Great till yer power goes! ;-)

You could always take it in turn on the primaries!

One person could winch up one side of the boat, when the rolling hitch gets to the winch, another is tied at the bow and the other person winches it up their side . The 1st rolling hitch could be undone, allowing the chain to slide round and then tied at the bow ready for the next turn on the winch. you'd have it up in no time at all

You'd have to rig something to keep the chain off your shrouds tho....hmm, might need thinking about before the dreaded happens

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[steve_cronin]

My VERY FIRST post on the old Scuttlebutt...

said exactly the same thing. However a bunch of knowalls told me that my hands didn't bleed and also that the seawater DIDN'T soften the skin and compound the injury.

Cut nylon, particularly if it's executed with side cutters leaves a sharp edge. In the early 70's the RFU (Rugby Football Union) banned the use of nylon studs because the damaged easily on stones in the pitch and caused horrendous injuries to other players. Aluminium on the other hand was less prone to damage and soon bluntened in the abrasive earth. Seems now though that they are allowing nylon again (& have you seen some of the injuries at club level?)

Steve Cronin



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[qsiv]

Re: Great till yer power goes! ;-)

I think one woul have to use the mast winches - thats how lots of older boats used to do it any way. The advantage would be the reasonably fair lead, both from the stemhead roller and also back to the navel pipe.

I still think taht if conditions were bad one might have to drop the cable to the sea bed, bouy it, and come back when conditions were quieter, as it would be very, very slow to recover, abd probably need at least two people to coordinate it. In calm weather/slack tides it wouldnt be a problem - but then nothing ever breaks under those conditions!

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[snowleopard]

love to watch people manhandling chain

on the Lord Nelson the anchors are of course retrieved with a hydraulic windlass but then the cable goes down into the bilges and has to be flaked down in the chain locker by hand.

the implement of choice is a big steel hook with a long rope attached. as the chain comes in, the bosun's mate hooks onto the chain, 4 'volunteers' run backward till the loop reaches the aft end of the locker then run back for the next loop..

sounds innocuous but the chain locker is in the fo'csl, just forward of the main mess deck. it's easy to choke on your dinner when you see 4 grown men doing a reverse conga into the mess then disappearing again, every 10 seconds

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[hylas]

Does anybody know the chain markers manufactured by Osculati Forniture Nautiche in Italy and called the "chain rainbow" (www.osculati.it) I believe this is the most convenient way to mark a chain (and the system I use on my own boat)
They have a great choice of colors..
Fair winds and peaceful anchorages,

Alain

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