Raw water washdown?

[Steve_C]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I don’t cruise a condo and I wash our anchor chain off with fresh water.
I do it because there is no smell in the anchor locker and it seems that my chain will last a lot longer if doesn’t sit in the locker covered in salt and exposed to the air.

Since doing that it seems to not be rusting at all, but does seem to be lightly covered with a white deposit, I assume this is the zinc?

I have heard this from quite a few people, I could see washing mud off with salt and then a quick rinse in fresh once its piled in the locker. Unless your at the dock its hard to believe that the fresh water supply is truly so plentiful its no concern. If its coming up fairly clean then I guess it wouldn't take much. Definitely worth trying to keep the smell down.

[a64pilot]

When I’m in mud it’s usually only the last 10 ft or so of chain that comes up mud covered, the anchor I leave down and drive around with it down and stow it when it’s clean, assuming I remember. I’m bad about sailing around with my anchor down
If I had to guess, I’d guess I use well less than 5 gl of water to rinse my chain off well. I make 30+ gls an hour so of its 5 gl, that is ten minutes of Watermaker time?
If you look in this picture, you can see my anchor is down, and I’m sailing fat, dumb and happy. I figure a 40KG Rocna must be like dragging a bucket?

[LoudMusic]

There has been a lot of good points made so far. I think I'll leave the equipment installed for now, and when we start anchoring in muddy regions I'll look into why the raw water pump isn't pumping. I suspect it's wiring and the pump itself actually works. Currently we're in the Bahamas and the anchor comes up almost clean already. Sometimes my wife has to dunk it a couple times to knock loose some grassy clumps.

I like the idea of giving it all a fresh water rinse. Longevity of the metals, and reducing the stank are quite favorable!

[piloto]

Originally Posted by LoudMusic

There has been a lot of good points made so far. I think I'll leave the equipment installed for now, and when we start anchoring in muddy regions I'll look into why the raw water pump isn't pumping. I suspect it's wiring and the pump itself actually works. Currently we're in the Bahamas and the anchor comes up almost clean already. Sometimes my wife has to dunk it a couple times to knock loose some grassy clumps.

I like the idea of giving it all a fresh water rinse. Longevity of the metals, and reducing the stank are quite favorable!

this is bad but, if it's on the boat, the equipment should work or get rid of it, or get rid of it, either way, there shouldn't be a switch or button to push if something doesn't happen on the other end. it's too much of a puzzle, other than that, simplify, simplify......

[alctel]

I'm actually installing one.

It'd be very handy for rinsing down the decks and getting blood off everything - using a bucket kinda sucks

[Pelagic]

Originally Posted by LoudMusic

.

Is there something I'm not thinking about? Why else would I want to spray seawater from my boat? I think I want to abandoned troubleshooting this and at some point in the distant future just remove the whole thing and its terrible cowboy installation.

Enlighten me, please!

PS: We have effectively endless freshwater on board, from efficient watermaker and heaps of solar.

Think Fire-Fighting!