Stainless steel anchor chain

[sarabande]

Lewmar and Princess are illogical. Neither of them makes their own chain. And there are bound to be other third-party provided bits of kit on board, too. Will Princess not accept responsibility for the cooker bursting into flame or the watermaker going yukky ?

You're an experienced owner, if you want the chain painted pink, that's up to you; tell them to provide an operational spec for chain, and then get Maggi and others to quote to that spec. It will be more work for Princess to cosy up to Lewmar and provide an impossible spec. I bet they are miffed because you are going through the build process and getting involved, but as you say, that's part of the fun for an experienced owner when buying a big boat.

 

[Magnum]

On the basis that Princess supply all their boats with Lewmar windlasses and Lewmar supplied chain, I'm going with this option. Life's too short to argue over sample test certificates!

 

[Neeves]

Reports of failure of G30 chain are, basically, non existent. In fact reports of G30 stretching are non existent. It appears G30 if sized correctly for the vessel (and builders define the size) is more than comfortably safe.

I find it interesting that Maggi only make a G40 and not a G30 and that Americans move from G30 to the same sized G43 - there seems no basis for this idea of moving 'up-strength'.

I am interested in why Lewmar quote a G30 specification for a G40 chain. Its wrong!! and as you suggest they sell at the same price as Maggi - its even more wrong.

But its not the specification that is important but the actual strength and the knowledge that they do Proof Test and batch test to break

But - its only money - and you will be quite safe anyway

The life of your chain will be determined by how often you use and care for it (rather than its strength) and the quality of the galvanising is not part of specification (to you the consumer) anyway.

 

[Hurricane]

Hurricane, any pics of your chain stopper in situ please?

Sorry for the delay - I forgot.

This pic was last year when I was working out how to fit the chain stopper.
In fact, in the pic, the chain stopper is the wrong way round.
This was with the old 40Kg Delta anchor and 12mm chain.

You can see that there was also room for the old "Twist" banana shaped swivel.

The actual setup doesn't have a swivel at all and doesn't seem to need one.
I'm off to the boat tomorrow so I will post a pic of the actual set up when I get there.

 

[Magnum]

Thanks. That's great

 

[RobWales]

Thanks. That's great

Magnum...if Princess aren't prepared to butcher a chain stopper allowing it to fit...Machining to suit available space I mean, drop me a PM as happy to help out with any Engineering/Machining requirements foc.

 

[Magnum]

Magnum...if Princess aren't prepared to butcher a chain stopper allowing it to fit...Machining to suit available space I mean, drop me a PM as happy to help out with any Engineering/Machining requirements foc.

Thank you.

 

[Asm]

Thank you.

i think this is more like your winch/anchor arrangement, it's not a flat plate like Mike's, it's a shallow U channel.

 

[jfm]

Magnum, the chain stopper does not have to have its own bit of space on the foredeck. If you want to avoid seeing chain on the fordeck, or if space is tight, you can, for example, weld the chain stopper onto the cheeks of one of the rollers, or indeed to the winch body. You do not have to have a clear rectangle of deck on which to place the foot print of the chain stopper.

See below - the stopper has no base of its own (chop it off) and is welded to the top of the metal cheeks of the first anchor roller, and looks neater imho

 

[Hurricane]

This is my final solution.
Note that I changed the top plate to fit the Lewmar chain stopper and also added a substantial plate underneath inside the anchor locker.
Large bolts go right through so that the chain stopper can take the whole load.

However I think that Asm might be correct if Princess have now moved to that kind of installation.

 

[Magnum]

Thanks for the pics.

Princess Motor Yacht Sales are saying a stopper cannot be fitted on my 68 due to limited space and location of a bulkhead.

 

[Neeves]

One has to ask - what do they suggest as a sensible alternative.

Do they warrant the windlass installation to take any and all the load?

 

[Magnum]

They recommend a snubber.

 

[RobWales]

Thanks for the pics.

Princess Motor Yacht Sales are saying a stopper cannot be fitted on my 68 due to limited space and location of a bulkhead.

The stopper is 90mm the channel is 90mm, machine a couple of mm off the stopper say down to 87/88 mm radius the uderside to account the welds in the channel, place in channel nearest to windless, spot through fixings holes, drill and bolt in place.....where is the problem?

 

[Neeves]

Its not entirely clear but the base plate of the chain lock might be sufficiently high, if installed as suggested by RobW, to constantly abrade the chain and remove the gal. Otherwise its an option.

I'm surprised that there is no fall back to the snubber, other than the windlass.

 

[MapisM]

They recommend a snubber.

While I agree with RobWales that based on the pics the stopper installation seems feasible, my bet is that eventually you will use a snubber anyway, in any windy anchorage.
The problem of the stopper is that it does nothing to avoid the load on the bow roller side steel plates, which is what creates an awful grinding noise when the boat is swinging.
And noise aside, depending on how solid the bow roller is, the lateral pull can even bend it - I actually saw that happening! :ambivalence:

 

[tico]

either as RobW suggests or lop 150mm off the end of the channel and fit the chain lock in it's place.

 

[jfm]

I agree with Rob and tico - of course it can be done with a bit of thought. This illustrates is Princess's big problem and the reason I haven't yet signed an order despite wanting to - once they've got your deposit they won't do anything beyond buying catalogue parts and nailing them on.

You could do either of the suggestions above, or you could make a custom stopper (like the one in my picture above which is not catalogue) and weld its two side cheeks onto the existing channel, or replace the whole channel component with a new one whose sides rise up at the aft end to create the cheeks for the chain stopper mechanism. This is so easy - would take a s/s craftsman a few of hours. Princess just don't want to.

Rather disappointing that they have used screws to attach the teak deck panels (no doubt they are glued as well) rather than vacuum bag glued them without screws, and then not got the grain of the plugs parallel to the grain of the plank. And they have attached that anchor chain channel with slot headed screws (FFS, Princess!) and not even polished the screw heads. And they have used those little 60mm dia Alibaba/Aliexpress Chinese $10 latches on the anchor locker hatches rather than proper www.monitor-marine.co.uk latches. I realise you couldn't control any of this because it was half built before you bought it but it still worth watching them like a hawk as much as you can for the remaining build.

 

[Neeves]

Don't be so quick to knock Chinese sourced product. Its the build company who chooses the equipment, if they choose based on the price and not quality it is not the fault of the Chinese. Xenophobia comes to mind.

Oscalati source from China, most anchor chain (except Maggi) comes from China, most cast stainless components come from China, your Rocna anchors come from China - if 'western' sourced components were used your vessel would be considerably more expensive. Much excellent quality comes from China - its the buyers who are at fault.

 

[jfm]

Don't be so quick to knock Chinese sourced product. Its the build company who chooses the equipment, if they choose based on the price and not quality it is not the fault of the Chinese. Xenophobia comes to mind.

Oscalati source from China, most anchor chain (except Maggi) comes from China, most cast stainless components come from China, your Rocna anchors come from China - if 'western' sourced components were used your vessel would be considerably more expensive. Much excellent quality comes from China - its the buyers who are at fault.

Erk. I didn't knock china or the latch manufacturer nor was there any xenophobia. I merely stated the fact that Princess use a low price component sourced from AliEx. The Chinese maker of that component is doing a perfectly fine job and indeed they are excellent value at $10 and they do what they promise. They meet a requirement for little GRP locker lids towards the aft end of many boats and I fwiw have several of them in that application on my boat. What's more, I specced several components in the build of my boat replacing the builder's standard spec, knowing specifically they were made in China and were best in world, at an upgrade price of over £10k that I can think of while typing - there may be more. I've spent an hour today trying to get organise a freight forwarder to collect for me a 20foot container load of stuff made in China and ship it to me in Europe, so my builders can install it in my house refurbishment. And so on. But we are looking here at an anchor locker that will see green water etc and those latches are for lighter-weight applications (no criticism of the latch manufacturer). A much more appropriate fitting is a Monitor Marine latch as used by very many yacht builders. I think we are very much agreed that it is the buyer (boatbuilder) at fault