CHAIN

[simonhantler]

What’s the best brand of chain money can buy.

[Clamdigger]

What will you be using it for?

What rating for service do you need it to meet?

Is it for a vessel or shoreside usage?

What is the loaded weight of the vessel with full tanks?

[Dave_S]

They say high tensile stainless steel for anchor chain (I assumed you meant anchor chain). Stainless isn't something I would think of for high load wear but I haven't looked into the grade or properties used as SS anchor chain because of the price and weight excluded it for me, it may be fine. It doesn't stack as high after bringing it in so has less feed problems............and it looks pretty.

I would use G70 grade chain if I could get it in galvanised marine grade but we have to settle for G40 galvanised here.

[simonhantler]

Really just looking for well respected chain manufacturers however it’s for an Aluminium sailing cat 15 Ton. 55 kg rocna with 100m of 10 or 12mm chain SS or galv. Haven’t got a very deep chain locker so maybe SS better as it doesn’t stack as much.

[HopCar]

Peerless / ACCO for American made chain. Titan chain made by Canada Metals in China.

Suncor for stainless but it’s expensive and only about as strong as BBB or Proof Coil galvanized chain. One good thing about stainless is that mud doesn’t stick to it very well.

Probably doesn’t help you much in NZ.

[Bruce K]

I cost is no concern; Titanium Ground Tackle; google it!

[Alan Mighty]

Originally Posted by simonhantler

Really just looking for well respected chain manufacturers however it’s for an Aluminium sailing cat 15 Ton. 55 kg rocna with 100m of 10 or 12mm chain SS or galv. Haven’t got a very deep chain locker so maybe SS better as it doesn’t stack as much.

If you're in or not far from Auckland, why not just visit Chains, Ropes, and Anchors? Grant McDuff has, I understand, retired since I last visited, but you'll always find what's available and best for your use. Fairly pointless to dream about what is not available.

See: https://chainsropesandanchors.co.nz/Chains-chain (several pages of offerings)

[simonhantler]

Alan the Aussie. Everything’s available, it’s called freight.

[noelex 77]

The first decision you need to make is 10 or 12mm. This will make a huge difference. The weight of 100m of 10mm chain is around 190kg. For 12mm chain it will be 340kg. As well as the weight, the space required in the anchor locker and the height of the pyramid of chain will be much larger for 12mm chain.

You don’t supply many details of your vessel, but a 15T sailing cat is likely to be over the limit where 10mm G3 or G4 chain is acceptable. So unfortunately I would suggest it has to be galvanised 12mm G4 or 10mm G7.

Stainless steel chain needs to be isolated from the aluminium structure and will need to be 12mm (G5 is I think the strongest stainless steel chain) so galvanised chain is the preferred option. This does form a higher pyramid than stainless chain so given the space limitations (and weight limitations on a cat) 10mm G7 galvanised chain is probably the only practical option.

Unfortunately, this option will have a shorter life than 12mm G4 chain. So you need to budget for reasonably frequent replacement. There are only a couple of suppliers worldwide of galvanised G7 chain. The only option available in NZ will probably be Maggi, but a Google search of local suppliers will show if there any alternatives.

[GordMay]

Originally Posted by Bruce K

I cost is no concern; Titanium Ground Tackle; google it!

Does Allied Titanium (Titan) sell/make titanium chain?
I know they offer a plethora of titanium ground tackle components/hardware.

➥ https://www.alliedtitanium.com/produ...dc_Results.php

[sailorboy1]

far as I'm concerned chain within a given rating is ........................ chain

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by sailorboy1

far as I'm concerned chain within a given rating is ........................ chain

The galvanizing quality is significantly different if you are using it for day to day anchoring.

[Paul L]

Originally Posted by Alan Mighty

If you're in or not far from Auckland, why not just visit Chains, Ropes, and Anchors? Grant McDuff has, I understand, retired since I last visited, but you'll always find what's available and best for your use. Fairly pointless to dream about what is not available.

See: https://chainsropesandanchors.co.nz/Chains-chain (several pages of offerings)

Chains Rope and Anchors carries good quality Maggi chain. If you stick to G40 strengths then you will have an easier time getting it regalvanized when the time comes, as compared to G70. G70 allows you go to a smaller size, saving weight and space.

[-bliss-]

I would strongly advice against SS anchor chain. Sure, it doesn´t stack as much as galvanized, but it doesn´t give you a warning before snapping either. (As we all know, stainless is brilliant on deck, but not so permanently submerged, deprived of the oxygen in the air.) The links in a galvanized chain on the other hand will not break without a warning, but stretch to the point where it will be very hard to make it fit the gypsy, which will give you plenty of time to replace before breaking.

Neither AISI 304 nor 316 SS will be nearly as strong as quality galvanized and would probably cost four times as much..

If your chain locker isn´t deep enough, my first thought on your behalf would be reconsider the need of 100 meters of chain. Sure, it would be nice on the very rare occation you could use it, but the rest of the time it´s a pain when it builds up in the locker and makes your gypsy jam.. Since you are a cat- owner, I assume you use a bridle snubber connected to the inside of the hulls quite close to the water line. This arrangement gives you a much better scope than us mono- owners who in addition to water depth, have to add the distance from the bow roller to water level x 5, in order to deploy the right scope..

In your shoes, I probably would have considered approximately 75 or 80 meters of chain spliced to a length of polyester octoplait. To be perfectly honest, I probably would skip the octoplait polyester rope and instead connect the chain to a 12 mm double braid dyneema line (dyneema core/polyeter cover.) After all, the only job for this rope would be retrieving the chain, as the bridle snubber should take the flexing while on the hook. This way you can connect the chain hook/ soft shackle/ rolling hitch at the end of your flexible snubber bridle almost to the end of the chain, and pay out as much as your snubber tolerates which still means you would have a very long chain + the length of the snubber bridle available + easily splicable, strong and chafe resistant dyneema line (with soft comfortable polyester cover) spliced to the chain for retrieving. This should easily give you approximately 85 or 90 meters of rode, which I assume would be more than enough for 98% of the time, depending on your cruising ground, of course. Clearly I don’t know your preferences or where you cruise, but just wanted to point you in a direction I find reasonable, given your vessels narrow chain locker. An obvious added bonus to a tad shorter chain is less weight, which I guess is a factor in your cat.

Personally I have a chain made by Maggi in Italy. It´s a grade 70 (or Aqua 7 as The Maggy Group call it) I have a very deep locker, so I had them make my chain 100 meters long, but have never used the whole length.. I also asked them to weld an oversized link in both ends in order to accommodate a high quality shackle with a bolt as big as possible. Comes handy in case the hook gest stuck and side loaded. The reason why I have the oversized links in both ends, is to be able so reverse the chain every second year or so to make sure the wear of the galvanizing is evenly distributed the whole 100 meters. Most of the time I deploy roughly 40- 50 meters, so reversing the chain every two years basically doubles the life expectancy of the chain. While reversing it, I also touch up the spray painted color codes every 10 meters, and replace the excellent Crosby G209A shackle. Probably not necessary, but cheap insurance anyway. After all, a good nights sleep is underrated.

The 10 mm Aqua 7 chain is 2,3 kg per meter, so by reducing from 100 to 80 meters, you save 46 kg/ roughly 100 pounds, which is almost the weight of your beefy Rocna.. The Aqua 7 is immensely strong, so anything over 10 mm seems way overkill in my opinion, even for a 15 ton cat. My chain happens to be only 8 mm (which weights 1,45 kg per meter) I´m not a racer, but I certainly don´t care for hobby horsing, so saving weight up front is imperial. Lighter stronger chain and a big heavy anchor seems the way to go. My 8 mm Grade 70 also takes up way less space in the chain locker than the rusty old chain it replaced. My mono is 20 tons fully loaded, and I never considered a thicker chain when it was time to replace. Personally I think the 8 mm should be more than sufficient for your 15 ton cat as well, but I understand this is controversial to the ones who believe in the catenary effect even in strong winds. I believe the catenary effect is real, but sadly it´s present only when you don’t need it, and absent when you need it, so in my opinion, the numbers for chain thickness and weight should be as low as possible to free up space and weight in the locker, not as high as possible to make the chain bounce in the waves.. When the wind pipes up, the chain quickly gets tight anyway..

Obviously, this is your own decision to make, I´m just sharing my philosophy, and telling that I´m satisfied with my choice after five seasons with this chain. The thin 8 mm definitely would have freed up a lot of space and weight in your locker though.. A long flexible snubber will eliminate shock loads on your chain, and adequate scope in a thin strong G70 chain would be the perfect combination to your tiny chain locker and massive Rocna in my opinion.

100 meters of 8 mm grade 70 weight 145 kg, and 100 meters of 10 mm weights 230 kg. The difference of 85 kg is considerable, not to mention your locker size limitations..

A little piece of advice regarding color codes is to paint the chain symmetric, to make sure the colors are the same before and after reversing the chain. My chain is coded like this:
10 m, red, 20m blue, 30m yellow, 40 m green, 50 m orange, 60 m green, 70 m yellow, 80 m blue and 90 m red. Works like a charm, even for a sleepwalker like me.

Enjoy the prosess of finding your perfect anchor chain!
Best regards,
-kjetil-

Disclaimer: I don´t work for maggi chain, and didnt recieve a discount of any kind. Just satisfied with the chain i bought. Customer support was pretty mediocre to be honest, but all that was forgotten when the beautiful custom made chain finally arrived.

[model 10]

If you can get Maggi down under, go for that. It is noticeably a better chain.