What are all those anchors doing lying on pallets in the yard ?

JumbleDuck said:
I get galvanising done through my local agricultural equipment maker. They send a lorry-load to A Well Known Scottish Galvaniser every week and simply add my whatever and charge the marginal cost, which is something tiny like 50p / kg.

Is that possible? I'd have expected a dunked but of steel to come out with the same amount of zinc on it however it was done. Can they give it a good shake to reduce the amount, and isn't it the zinc-iron intermetallic which does the business anyway? I gather from postings here by someone intimately connected with A Well Known Scottish Galvaniser that there is a lot of preparation involved - cleaning, pickling and so on - to get a good interface, so perhaps that's where the skimping happens.
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1. It's a long way from Greece to Scotland.

2. Centrifuging is the way to go.
 
vyv_cox said:
1. It's a long way from Greece to Scotland.

2. Centrifuging is the way to go.
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As far as I'm aware, the "Well Known Scottish Galvaniser" doesn't use a centrifuge, but as I know from personal experience, manages to do a good job.
 
vyv_cox said:
For an anode to work it needs to be connected electrically to what it is trying to protect, and then be immersed in an electrolyte. The first seems most unlikely - I cannot imagine much electricity passing through a pile of used chain. The second is what we are trying to avoid - corrosion does not happen to dry chain.
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Very true.

Well I guess it's true, I can't claim to have any idea. I leave my anodes in winter and summer.

If you never have electrolyte in your anchor locker and don't believe a corrosion cell could exist in there then it is a total waste of time, money and effort. But not very much of each.
 
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vyv_cox said:
1. It's a long way from Greece to Scotland.
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True, but perhaps there are companies in Greece who regularly have batches of galvanising done and would be willing to include the odd anchor for a handful of euros or drachmae or whatever the negotiable currency is there this week. Beads? Fish-hooks?

2. Centrifuging is the way to go.
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Does it make a huge difference to the thickness of the coating?
 
JumbleDuck said:
True, but perhaps there are companies in Greece who regularly have batches of galvanising done and would be willing to include the odd anchor for a handful of euros or drachmae or whatever the negotiable currency is there this week. Beads? Fish-hooks?
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I suspect you have little experience of being based on a small island in the Aegean? I have some doubt that there has ever been a 'batch of galvanising' exported from Leros. I recall noelex having his chain and anchor regalvanised from there around 5-6 years ago and I have photographed regalvanised anchor chain in the yard at the other end of the island around four years ago but that might well be the sum total.
 
vyv_cox said:
I suspect you have little experience of being based on a small island in the Aegean?
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None whatsoever, which is why I was asking. How about taking it to the mainland? Or is it so hot and dry there that farmers don't need to have things galvanised? Here in sunny (hah) Scotland you can hear unprotected steelwork rusting ...
 
FairweatherDave said:
What materials would you suggest Jonathon. I like the idea of old door mat but any other ideas of recycled stuff? Obviously you don't want something the chain will get caught in.
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As suggested a bread tray, milk crate. I've seen plastic, don't know what sort of plastic, decking (our local dinghy club has some). There might be 'mats' used in industrial premises where there is lots of water to allow water to drain away (say fishmongers).

'Our' door mat only really works on an existing flat surface - in a bow locker you really need something that can be manipulated to fill, or remove, the base apex (if that makes sense!) producing a flat surface on which the chain can sit. It wants to be removable so that you can clean the covered, and hopefully empty, apex periodically.

Jonathan

Edit: Serendipity does not work like this, but - you might find if you cut the corner off a milk crate it might fit into the bottom of the locker and you can simply add a flat, from another part of the milk crate, to sit on this corner section. I'd tend to make something up from fibreglass offcut panels and drill to perforate - so that it fits neatly and is robust. One of those many projects for a northern hemisphere winter. If the locker is empty you can line the base with packing tape and make 'in situ' from piece cut to fit, then slip out and drill (to perforate).

Since the thread started I have looked more closely at the bow of yachts to discover many have no drain holes at all - so presumably drain to the bilges. This is even true of quite large yachts, there is a 50' with no drainholes. No wonder bilges get really manky. There is no pattern with drain holes, some have one, some have 2, some are quite shallow lockers (or opportunity for a big puddle) and some drain holes are not far above the waterline. Some are simple holes, some have 'deflectors' (there must be proper name?).

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So, my boat is now tucked up in her shed and I dropped the anchor, chain and octoplait onto the floor. The chain and rope were sopping wet (no, I didn't taste it!) and the ribbed mat at the bottom of the locker was thick with mud.
Leaving that lot in the locker to fester over the next few months would not be a good idea.
 
I replaced the old chain locker on a 38ft wooden boat with a GRP cloth lined plywood box with no drain holes to the bilge but with a simple grating on the bottom. The box was cleaned out and dried at each laying up and the anchor and chain sat on a pallet in the yard all winter... for twenty five years... at the end of which time the bilges were still painted white and the chain was still good.
 
Good job, Awol!:)
Thanks Neeves for your edit on materials. I am thinking about it very slowly. Obviously not all bread crates are created equal but given the weight of chain and the possibility of links hooking the plastic and/or "knotting" up so the chain does not pay out, the design of the platform is a challenge. I like the idea of a panel of old fibreglass so will keep my eyes peeled in the boat yard. A scewed up ball of holey rubber door mat will suffice in the meantime. PS I contemplated pressure washing the chain today but decided against creating a local ice rink (might not be your kind of problem Jonathon).
 
What about filling the bottom bit of the locker with plastic balls about 3" in diameter (like ball pool ones, but stronger)? They'd take the weight and allow drainage.
 
Funny that JD. I thought similar after re-reading my post. Not plastic balls though, big smooth round stones that we seem to have plenty of on the beach in Hove sur la mer....
I don't think they'd mess the trim of the boat too much (compared to my excessive anchor chain :))

Plus a few plastic French "boules" might work.
 
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Or modifying one of those Eberspcherythingies to blow warm air suitably turbocharged through the bottom of the anchor locker to 'float' the chain.

The added benefit being the pleasant odour of warm mud and seaweed being wafted back into the saloon - provided a reverse action fan is fitted to the forward wall of the locker.
 
chinita said:
The added benefit being the pleasant odour of warm mud and seaweed being wafted back into the saloon - provided a reverse action fan is fitted to the forward wall of the locker.
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I don't get this mud and seaweed business. My chain doesn't go down the pipe until it's nice and clean ... if other configurations of locker mean that the chain has to be put away filthy, that seems to me to be something which could well do with some modification.
 
Being a bit sensitive to weight in the bow - energy drink bottles, Gatorade - seem to come in rather, overly, robust bottles - dropping a few of them in the bottom of the locker might be better than cobbles or (steel) boules (maybe with a rubber door mat on top). I'd still favour a fabricated and perforated false base.

Jonathan
 
The one good DIY thing that the former owner of my boat did was to make a small platform out of decking timber which sits at the bottom of the locker and keeps the chain nicely out of the 'oggin. All other DIY of the former owner had to be removed or otherwise rectified - but that is another story.....
 
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