Joining Chain #5

[sailorboy1]

Originally Posted by Hud3

p.s West Marine reads this forum and will be sending you a bill for the extra chain.

It's OK if they do as I know what to do with it when it arrives!

[Kettlewell]

I leave them long,for better visibility, and for some reason the black ones last a lot longer than white ones. I read somewhere that the black color makes them more UV resistant.

[JonathanSail]

Thanks, mine happen to be black so I won't need to change anything before finally stowing the chain properly.

[Hud3]

I trimmed mine down to an inch or so, but but long should work well.

[s/v Jedi]

When you've had it replacing the cable ties every time, you can start using thin 1/8" - 3mm line tied to links with small bowline. Keep them about 6-10" long and otherwise use like cable ties. Works great and lasts as long as he chain.

ciao!
Nick.

[mrohr]

Re: cable ties: I use white for each of the first 4 fathoms then orange for any multiple of 5 fathoms. Orange and white show up quite well thru dark muck and in low light.
So two oranges = 60 feet ( 2x5 fathoms=10 fathoms x 6=60 feet )
1 orange and two whites =5 plus 2=7 fathoms. etc.etc..

Lest someone accuse me of some sort of purist using fathoms,one could use meters (approx.1/2 fathom).I prefer fathoms since in most boats,the bottom is getting too close somewhere near the one fathom mark, and I can almost walk home in anything less. When lying in my bunk listening to the howl of the rising wind ,I find it easier to picture the relationship of my craft to the bottom in terms of how many people can stand up under my keel as my boat pitches up and down in the in comming waves. Am I weird?

[Bash]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

And I don't have a lot of faith in the paint sticking to the chain and am thinking of spending another $240 on a chain counter to just finish the project up and be done with it (yeah right).

I've had pretty good luck with white Rustoleum primer. Doesn't last forever, but it lasts longer than cable ties.

[jimking100]

I use both Rustoleum and neon ties together. The last install was two years ago but I will have to re-do them this spring.

[sailorboy1]

Put some ties on to go with the paint, till I ran out of them so will have to run the chain out again later.

Turned out not enough room in the chain locker for 375' of chain and 250' of line. It fit but really piled up the last 50'. So had to run it all back out and cut 200' of the line off.

Turns out the shackles that fit my anchor don't fit my swivel. So I will need to take the swivel back and get a bigger one. The up side is that the swivel will now be as strong as the chain.

The old chain says HT G4 and my new chain is G4 but the old chain is definitely heavier.

This seemed like such a simple project at the start, why wouldn't if just all work out?

[cwyckham]

Originally Posted by Don Lucas

...

This seemed like such a simple project at the start, why wouldn't if just all work out?

Because it's boat related. The first time you get into a new system on the boat takes 10 times longer than out should. Subsequent jobs on the same system will only be 6 times as long due to increased familiarity. If you need to exactly repeat a task on that system it will only take 3 times as long as it should and you'll feel like a genius!

[NorthPacific]

Read this thread, and others, vacillate from one opinion to another. Can't afford new rode of all chain. But maybe I should add chain as I am going to coral areas for an extended period, so it looks like C links. Found this site that seems to be a good one

C-links

[Matt Johnson]

Acco doesn't make the same chain connectors. I bought the Crosby ones from hanessupply.com.

[Hudson Force]

I use a horizontal manual Simpson-Lawrence for my 250' of 5/16 HT, but I spend most of my time at anchor in less than 20' so I'm replacing the distal 50' of chain on occasion and adding a new shot to the proximal end. I find that two Crosby shackles with wired posts run smoothly across my gypsy. It seems the open gypsy on a manual windlass is far less likely to jam than the gypsy on an electric windlass. I like the manual windlass,- I think of it as my "gym membership".

[sailorboy1]

I got one of those C-Link fittings. It didn't give me much confidence so I got a double clevis link to replace it (haven't done it yet). Since I have 350' of chain I figure the strength doesn't matter much as I probably wouldn't have it all out, but wanted something I felt was going to be together "if" and that hammer together C-Link just didn't do it for me. It probably wouldn't go though my windlass but I figure I can just lift it around if needed.

[casual]

Don't know if anyone has tried this Kentner shackel.