How do I mark anchor chain?

[Robert E]

our strategy for marking the anchor chain is simple and easy to remember. We paint 1 link at 25 feet, 2 at 50, 3 links at 75, and 4 at 100 feet and than repeat. Best, Bob

[philiosophy]

Red white and Blue zip ties every 25’ Amazing how long they last and pass thru the Cat Head no problem at all.

[wingless]

The infamous two-digit wingless trinary color code system permits nine unique markings on a chain.

[Harro]

Try Chain Rainbow

[hzcruiser]

Originally Posted by Sojourner

Colored zip ties all the way, every 10 meters.

Same here, only I don't use coloured ones, just whatever I have on board. 1 tie at 10m , 2 at 20m and so on.

Easy to spot and replace if you occasionally loose one.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by Harro

Try Chain RainbowAttachment 170393

We inherited these but they fall out quite easily after a while. They also lose their colour just as our marker lines do. So you still need a way other than colour to mark your rode length.

I’m seeing lots of support for cable ties, but in our case they broke off very quickly, so we’re replacing them with short lines cowhitched on (1 at 10m, 2 at 20m, etc). Hopefully they won’t interfere with the windlass (a horizontal Lofrans).

The longer line threaded through catches attention as the chain is whizzing by and the short line(s) sticking out indicates the length.

[puffcard]

We put our marks at 30ft spacing. Most of our anchoring is 10ft, so second mark.

[Kanook]

I used canary yellow Tremclad rust paint and painted my 1/4 inch galvanized anchor chain 1 stripe (3 links) at 25 ft, 2 stripes at 50, 3 stripes at 75 and back to 1 stripe at 100 ft etc. The paint has held up for 1 summer season (25 nights on the hook). The yellow is really easy to see.

[RichandHelen]

We use red-white-blue at 20' increments. Next three are red-red, white-white, blue-blue etc.

I learned a very expensive lesson getting the chain back aboard after re-painting it nose-to-the-dock. I used my windlass to pull the chain aboard straight from the dock. Dry, and without the typical vertical load, the chain kinked several times at the gypsy. The repeated jams were too much for the gears and the windlass failed. My windlass was discontinued and parts were unavailable. I decided to buy and install a whole new unit. Expensive. I hope my stupidity might spare one of you who paint your chain. I should have lowered the anchor and chain into the water before trying to bring it back onboard.

[Jim Cate]

A note: different windlasses handle cable ties and other markers that wrap around the links with different success rates. In general, horizontal axis models are more tolerant than vertical axis. For instance, our previous boat had a horizontal maxwell and it would accept cable ties and they would last quite a while. OUr current boat has a Maxwell 1500 VWC vertical and it jams with even small diameter cable ties... not very tolerant at all!

something to consider...

Jim

[MollyJo]

I painted my chain with regular auto spray can. 1 x link at 5m. 2 x links at 10m. 3 x links at 15m and so on. No windless so no danger with rapid up haul. Paint is still good in third season of a coastal cruiser.

[jacktheflyer]

I have 1/8 cord with a knot for every 10m chain. It is hard to pick up as it reverts to black but when I can see them it confirms how much I have out.

[seashine]

I use zip ties too. Red every 5m, yellow every 10m, so 25m is 2 yellows and a red, 40m is 4 yellows etc. In months of anchoring (sometimes more than once/day) I've lost the first 5m mark, however I cut them off really close so no long tails sticking out... did this with my old chain too and it's so easy to count how much rode is out EXCEPT at night using a red light 'cos the reds disappear!! ☺

[james247]

[QUOTE=Maka;2637487]

Originally Posted by thinwater

Paint is by far the BEST ...and easy to read.


The hard part is finding tiny guys like this to paint it for you,

Little people can be found in Ireland. They have a time honoured system for marking naval cable. This marking system is part of good seamanship traditions. I would suggest to anyone that they consider this when deciding how to mark their chain.
Maintenance of these markings isn't a bad thing as it causes you once or twice a year to inspect the chain when remarking.
Little people can be found in Irish fields but generally tend to congregate in pubs. In this environment they can be rowdy and aggressive - caution should be taken when trying to hire them for chain painting.

[Capt Jeff]

Great comment