Chain Markers

[FabioC]

I am in the process of marking my anchor chain. I am trying to select the "best" marker (I know there is no such a thing as a best marker, just trying to select one possible solution) and I have a specific question.

There are plastic chain markers on the market. Osculati makes one, but there are several vendors making similar products, you can find in many marine stores:

https://www.osculati.com/en/11004-m-...rainbow-marker

I cannot find a single review of any of these things... Has anybody tried them? Do they work well?

Thank you!

[Cheechako]

Tried a few things, in the long run settled on paint. Red, White, Blue.
Red= 5 fathoms
White=10 Fathoms
Blue= 15 fathoms
Red= 20 fathoms
etc etc
or
Red = 50 ft
White = 75 ft
etc

[Pete7]

Originally Posted by FabioC

There are plastic chain markers on the market. Osculati makes one, but there are several vendors making similar products, you can find in many marine stores:.. Has anybody tried them? Do they work well?
Thank you!

Nope, first time you use the windlass they will pop out. They fall out of there own accord too. We just use coloured cable ties, several for each mark. Cheap and cheerful.

What ever lengths for each mark you choose, dymo label the inside of the anchor locker lid so you don't forget and anyone who deploys the anchor can see too.

[AndyEss]

Paint and cable ties here. And notes on the inside of the chain locker doors.

[thinwater]

Paint. Plastic popped out.

[nhschneider]

We use 1/4” polypropylene rope ‘woven’ through the links - about a meter long for each ‘mark’. If I was more creative, I suppose I could color code it but now all our marks are red. I only mark at fifty foot intervals and I’ve never had a problem keeping track of how much chain is deployed.

Some of the problems we had with nylon zip ties were 1: They would break off and 2: If the chain was going out fast, you might miss it.

Anyway, the polypropylene rope works for us.

Fair winds and calm seas.

[sailorboy1]

I use plastic zip ties. 1 at 25', 2 at 50', 3 at 75' and at 100' 2 different colors and change the color. They stay on going through the windlass and last pretty long. The 25' & 50' seem to last the shortest from being on the bottom.

I think it has cost me around $0.75 the last 2.5 years.

[JPA Cate]

Plastic zip ties got broken by our windlass. Paint wears off on the bottom. Plastic ones do pop out (a friend tried them). So, we use 3 mm polyester line, also about a meter long, and ours is colored. We mark 25' intervals. The line does get stained, and can be difficult to tell which color came by at night, but has been the best long term solution for us to the chain marking problem....ymmv

Ann

[pmagistro]

Leather, calico, and serge.

https://www.historicnavalfiction.com...king-soundings

[AiniA]

Originally Posted by FabioC

I am in the process of marking my anchor chain. I am trying to select the "best" marker (I know there is no such a thing as a best marker, just trying to select one possible solution) and I have a specific question.

There are plastic chain markers on the market. Osculati makes one, but there are several vendors making similar products, you can find in many marine stores:

https://www.osculati.com/en/11004-m-...rainbow-marker

I cannot find a single review of any of these things... Has anybody tried them? Do they work well?

Thank you!

I have used the osculati ones and found they worked pretty well. Occasionally they do fall out, we found not in the windlass but just in general. They float btw. My complaint with them is that they are a pricey for what you get.

[fxykty]

Originally Posted by JPA Cate

Plastic zip ties got broken by our windlass. Paint wears off on the bottom. Plastic ones do pop out (a friend tried them). So, we use 3 mm polyester line, also about a meter long, and ours is colored. We mark 25' intervals. The line does get stained, and can be difficult to tell which color came by at night, but has been the best long term solution for us to the chain marking problem....ymmv

Ann

We do the same every 10 metres. Very visible and durable. For each ten we add 1 zip tie, tail cut short so that it barely protrudes. This prevents the zip ties from getting cut off by the winch gypsy and allows you to count four and know that’s the 40 m length marker.

The boat came with the rubber chain markers just like the ones the OP mentions, but with age they harden and wear and fall out. We continue to use 5 each of the best of the bunch to mark 5 m from the anchor and 5 m from the end of the chain, but we have to replace one or two every time we anchor as they fall out. And colour coding is a particularly complicated way of marking depth.

[a64pilot]

I have tried almost everything except the line, I have some bright orange cave line, but haven’t gotten around to it.
Paint wore off pretty quick, I can see it sometimes now.
I have just gotten to where I go by the distance to anchor on my Vesper in anchor alarm, it’s amazingly accurate, and I take the distance from my bow sprit to the bottom and go with a distance to anchor of four times that amount.
I don’t know how distance to anchor correlates to length of rode, but four times the total depth plus height of bow sprit seems to work well, and I don’t have to worry about paint marks etc.

[s/v Jedi]

The best option is small diameter line, tied with a very small bowline to a link of the chain, with about 2' hanging loose.

The first marker is a single one of those at 120'. I always deploy 120'. The second marker is two of these lines with a foot space in between at 240'.

I often have a single tie-wrap at midpoints, i.e. 180', 300' but they only last so long before the windlass peels them off

[Tillsbury]

Paint here, a pair of links painted white every 10m. One link painted either side in red means plus 5 metres. Central link painted red for all measurements of 50m or more.

I can see these clearly from the other end of the boat when setting/weighing anchor, which is what matters to me. Apart from the plastic bits coming out, small marks are not visible unless you’re on top of the chain.

The nearest mark is always no more than 2.5m from the anchor roller so can be found easily when adjusting and attaching a snubber.

Once the 5m mark goes past the windlass (two reds alone), I know it’s just a couple of seconds until the anchor leaves the water.

Yes, they chip a bit, but the hard bit was getting them all done in the first place. Touching up the shorter ones as they wear will be far easier.

[Smokeys Kitchen]

Originally Posted by AndyEss

Paint and cable ties here. And notes on the inside of the chain locker doors.

+1 here. Marked every 25' with yellow; so yes you have to count the marks and multiply by 25.