Chain Markers

[nhschneider]

Originally Posted by FabioC

nhschneider (and Ann on the same topic) thank you for the suggestion. Interesting idea, is the line just woven through the links and tied with bowlines at the ends?

I do not tie off the ends of the marking rope as knots don’t tend to hold well with polypropylene. It’s not been a problem in hundreds of anchor deployments and retrievals.

[thinwater]

This is the easy way to do it.

[boatpoker]

Originally Posted by thinwater

This is the easy way to do it.

Guess they ran out of yellow poly

[Mike OReilly]

I’ve always painted using Thin’s approach. Pretty easy. Seems to last about three seasons for me. It’s not hard to reapply, and it’s a good excuse to examine the rode.

That said, I’m going to try the Cate approach of using thin interwoven line.

Question: what’s the best type of line to use here? Double-braid? I see BP uses polypropylene.

[admiralslater]

I dont know what brand but our plastic markers have worked perfectly for years

[FabioC]

Thank you all for the excellent suggestions. I am quite intrigued by this interwoven line solution...
As Mike asked, what's the best line here? I assume any line would do, but maybe propylene or nylon has an advantage? Double braid?

[Anders]

Originally Posted by admiralslater

I dont know what brand but our plastic markers have worked perfectly for years

Our chain markers I believe are osculati brand and I don't think any if them has fallen out. A bit difficult to see the markers in the water after we have anchored but otherwise they are really good.

[a64pilot]

Originally Posted by Mike OReilly

I’ve always painted using Thin’s approach. Pretty easy. Seems to last about three seasons for me. It’s not hard to reapply, and it’s a good excuse to examine the rode.



That said, I’m going to try the Cate approach of using thin interwoven line.



Question: what’s the best type of line to use here? Double-braid? I see BP uses polypropylene.

I keep meaning to do it myself, I think people use just cheap polypropylene rope, like ski rope if your familiar with that.
Cheap floating plastic rope.

[Simi 60]

We use this type of stuff
A few dollars a roll at the cheap hardware or $2 shop
lasts for years

[fxykty]

We use 1.5mm double braid nylon. Holds together better than polypropylene. I don’t think it matters whether it’s floating rope or not, but if we consider micro plastics then I think polypropylene would be worse for that.

[a64pilot]

Floating I’m sure is irrelevant, it’s not going to float chain .
Just trying to explain what kind of rope. I hate the stuff actually, other than a ski rope. I have no use for it, but guess to mark chain, why not?

[MV Wanderlust]

Like some of the others, ours are marked with interwoven polyester 1/4” line every 30 feet. Red, then white, then blue, then repeat.

[noelex 77]

We have found the plastic Osculati chain markers reliable. We anchor over 300 days a year and have done so for the last decade, so they have a tough life. Typically one or two markers are lost each year. As we use 5 marks for each 10m length, one or two from 50 markers is not unreasonable. They are easily replaced. We use a different colour for each 10m (repeated after 50m) so it is immediately obvious how much chain is deployed. If some markers are lost, the code is not disrupted.

We found that paint lasted not much more than a year if anchoring in hard substrates. Cable ties have a similar, or shorter life. Polyester line is very durable, but can be hard to see if the chain is muddy.

Most cruisers report similar good results with these markers, but there are a few cases where they fall out rapidly. I am not sure if this is caused by using a different brand of marker or if the markers fit less satisfactorily with some chain sizes, or possibly some gypsies are adept at spitting out the markers?

I would suggest anyone contemplating these markers buy a small number and give them a try with their chain and windlass before committing to the cost and trouble of marking their whole chain.

[thinwater]

Please everyone remember that, like many things, the best answer can be situation specific.

* Some windlasses, particularly small vertical windlasses, will jam HARD on anything hanging out of the chain. Things can break, like the spring loaded arm. Other windlasses will pass anything. For example, a Lewmar V700 will not pass wire ties or bits of rope. I've tried and it was ugly.
* Many areas have soft bottoms (mud). Paint does not wear off for a long time. Certainly, it holds on between the links, which is enough (missing on the outsides does not matter).
* The size of the chain matters. Larger chains have more space on the gypsy, whereas 1/4-inch can be tight. With increasing use of G43 and G70 chain, smaller chains may become more widespread.

I suspect, as often happens, that everyone is right, within their experience.

[a64pilot]

I’m still wondering what is wrong with just using in my case our Vesper to tell me how far I am from the anchor? Why bother marking it?
As soon as the anchor goes down we set the Vesper as it’s our anchor alarm, it seems to be extremely accurate, with wind and current shifts you can see it draws a perfect circle with the anchor on the middle, so you know it’s right.

Since I can’t really see the paint anymore, I used cheap lacquer paint, I’ve been using the Vesper to measure chain.