Anchor chain fall

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by wanderlust42

Looks like somebody's filed a patent for that: CHAIN FLAKER SYSTEM, TO DISTRIBUTE ANCHOR CHAIN EVENLY IN ANCHOR CHAIN LOCKER - Sierra Madre Marine LLC

Well, maybe we will see a new product soon!

You would think that a fixed wedge or cone would do the trick in many installs...just enough to cause the stack to collapse.

[tomfl]

Sounds like a first world problem to me. I do have to knock down the pile if I really let out a lot of chain, but since I am a Florida and Bahamas guy mostly anchoring if 20 feet or less; often 10 feet or less, easy enough for my chain locker to handle that.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by tomfl

Sounds like a first world problem to me. I do have to knock down the pile if I really let out a lot of chain, but since I am a Florida and Bahamas guy mostly anchoring if 20 feet or less; often 10 feet or less, easy enough for my chain locker to handle that.

Like every single other problem on this forum...anything to do with a cruising boat is a first world problem.

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by Pacey16

It seems I am not alone with this issue, what i have experimented with so far is a prism shaped deflector that sits just under the chain entry hole and deflects the chain to either side of the locker, as my locker is wider than it is deep it works quite well. I haul 100ft of chain in then move the chain that is hanging over to the other side of the deflector and the last 100ft just about stowes itself, I need to widen the deflector on one side and it should hopefully work. As we normally dont anchor with more than 100ft of chain it should manage itself most of the time.

Got a pic of your deflector?

[belizesailor]

Originally Posted by UNCIVILIZED

There are a few designs with a roller on each bow, that stow the chain in the hull. The PDQ's maybe??? But otherwise I'm thinking it's tough to get around this problem. Maybe a hawsepipe which runs from underneath of the windlass over to a purpose built chain locker in one hull or the other. But I'm not sure if it'd be steep enough, especially on a wide cat with skinny hulls. It's worth looking into though. That & you might query some yards which build custom cats, & the designers who draw them up. As there must be some sort of solution.

My experiences with bow mounted ground tackle systems on cats have been poor at best. These while running Nautitec's...really dislike that arrangement...would much prefer to manualy flake chain into locker every single time.

[Bean Counter]

Lagoon 450. We were running 80 meters of metric chain at 13mm (1/2" approx) at 6 years old it would bunch at around the 30 meter mark, the rustier it got the worse it became. We have replaced with 7/16 (11 mm) G4 Hi Test, it is lighter, uses less space and we have not a jam yet in 3 months. It runs on the same gypsy.

[cptcptcpt]

friction being an issue means that ospho and paint would be a simple solution, reducing chain size is risky

[UNCIVILIZED]

I've heard of folks spraying their chain with Lanolin so that it doesn't corrode nearly as fast, particularly when it's wet & stacked in the locker. Not sure if that would help to make it slippery enough to prevent stacking. And whether or not the Lanolin on it would cause a sheen on the water, it being a natural oil & all.

I know that there are spray & bake Teflon coatings, & probably a few other types of coatings which add lubricity to things. Some of them requiring industrial applications. As to how well they'd wear on anchor chain I can't say. Ditto as to whether or not there are room temperature curing, waterproof, lubricating coatings. Anyone ???

That said, I'd think that any paint which sticks to chain in some signficant thickness would add a bit of slipperyness to it. Since it's surface would be smoother than that of bare galvanizing.

Speaking of baked on coatings, what's the max temperature you can subject hot dip galvanized G43 chain before bad things happen either to the galvanizing, or the heat treatment of the chain?