How much chain is enough chain?

[tuffyluffy 76]

Thanks L’escale, yep I’ve heard of those.

I was going to use an old 20kg dumbbell weight with a length of chain and a snap shackle which should do the trick. I was planning to only use it only occasionally i.e. crowded anchorages or high wind.

 

Knotty, I’ve just looked at your fine website.

For 50m of 10mm chain, it looks like approx $1500 for Aqua 7 galv or $4300 for stainless, however the Aqua7 is a mega-tonne stronger right?

[Guest]

Nobody so far has mention kellets - I would suggest you consider a NZ made 'Anchor Buddy'

(I have no connection with them) before you go off buying more heavy chain.

 

A 13.6kg model will increase your holding power by 50 to 80%...

Utter rubbish.

 

Kellets are a waste of time with regard to anchor performance, they do very very little.

www.petersmith.net.nz/boat-anchors/kellets.php

[Guest]

That stainless is a Grade 50, or could be (trying hard to remember if he'd changed/added the G50 to the site but knows the price isn't very different) so it's also a tuff one Tuffy.

 

Anchor Buddies are damn good for tight anchorages, boat that are pushing the bottom end of rode sizing be they all chain or rope/chain combos and for when the weather goes bad using the 'chuck everything you have out and hang on tight fingers crossed' theory. And the NZ made ones are bloody gooder again as they just drop on and off without lots of mucking around.

 

Yes Aqua7 is the shizzle when talking break loads.

[wheels 543]

No Steve, you need to sign up with Pelorus Boating club. The fee is 1/3rd of Mana and Waikawa.

[wheels 543]

There are two problems with SST. One is it does not take kindly to being deformed. That can cause stress cracking. At that point, you combione with problem No2 in that it can then get Crevice corrosion. It can be deteriorating right before your eyes and yet look just fine.

Actually, now i think about it, there are several more problems. Who made the stuff and to what grade. If it is Chinese SST, I would rather trust using KM's Plastic chain. Then there is how the link is made and joined. If it is wleded link, some types of weld are better than others. One of the biggest area's of concern is the weld. The metal can be "dissimilar" to the parent metal and the actual weld will just eat away. Once again, looking just fine till it fails.

A really good Galv chain lasts a long time. As KM said, it's the stuff in the bottom of the locker that ends up rusting. The cheap Chinese Galv is utterly useless stuff and even though the chain is cheap it just aint work it econimcally.

[wheels 543]

I disagree with Craigs comment that the chain weights are a waste of time. For someone to say that means they don't understand what exactly it is doing. Craig is correct in saying that it does not increase the anchors holding ability. Nothing will increase that apart from a bigger anchor. What that catinery action does do is act as an "elastic" band in slowing the intertia of the boat as the load comes on. In light winds, the rode should never come dead taught. As I said earlier, if it does, you don't have enough scope or heavy enough chain size. If you don't have enough scope, as in a tight anchorage, then an weight can improve the tackle performance, which is what TuffLuffy was refering to.

 

I have a great little setup for when I am at anchor in a blow. Just a simple bridle that consists of two nylon lines with chain hooks on one end and loops spliced into the other. Part way back from the Bow are a good solid bollard on both sides of the boat. The loop goes over the Bollard and to the chain from both sides. I then pay out chain till the line is in the water. When a big gust happens, the actual load is taken by each bollard and the lines stretch and take up the shock. It also means that the actual pull angle is dropped dramatically lower and is like I have let out another 10m or more of chain. And the final thing is that the boat sits in the wind much better without sailing all over the place. As the boat goes sideways, the load is taken by one line more than the other and the boat straightens up faster than it does when you have a single pivot point right on the nose.

[Guest]

There definitely is a time and place for kellets but equally there is times and places they don't really do bugger all. But they are a good aid knot an quick fix for a insufficient anchoring system.

 

Sounds like a cool set up with your snubber Wheels. No chafe issues over the gunwales or stuff like that??

 

The dissimilar SS's is a issue a few are finding on some items out of the east. There is definitely Stainless and then there is stainless.

[wheels 543]

No chafe issues over the gunwales or stuff like that??

Not yet, but then I haven't been a high anchor user till now. But I am working on a SST guide to take the line over the side to protect the Gunwale. Hoever, I got a little shock today with another line that will make me protect the bridle lines a little better. The Mooring line runs over a SST roller on the bow, but I noticed today that the brand spanking new Mooring line was wearing. So I took a realy nice almost new Leather Welding glove and wrapped and tied it around the line over the area that runs on the roller. What surprised me the most was how much wear when the movement must be so small. It'd just be stretch in only 400mm of line between the roller and the Samson Post Bollard.

[L'escale 0]

My comments are based on my own experience so take it or leave it.

 

Just out of interest, try lifting by pulling on your anchor chain, in flat conditions 13.6kg when deployed say 25metres back from your anchor in say 10 metres of water, with 5:1 scope - you can't.

 

Even better watch from the bow (hang on tight) an Anchor Buddy working in 60knots plus (50lb Manson plough on 50 metres 10mm chain in 5metres depth, connected with $600.00 swivel and then 10 metre snubber attached to two bow cleats)

 

Here endeth the lesson

[wheels 543]

Oh you are absolutely right L,escale. it is the entire principle behind how a Swing mooring works with a weight on the bottom that has far less holding power than most large anchors. The weight of that initial chain is what stops the block from taking all the load for any long period. It is only once the wind has built to an extreme and everything has gone tight that the Block can be dragged.