West Marine High Test Chain

[RainDog]

We are chain shopping and realized the Grade 40 (High Test) West Marine sells is not ACCO. Anyone know what it is?

[JayH]

They can look it up in the computer and tell you what it is. I bought some about six months ago and it was ACCO. Said so right on the drum.

[barnakiel]

How did you realize? They used to sell ACCO until recently. Not that many G-40 manufacturers around. Maggi makes an equivalent but it is not stamped G-40 (nor G-4).

b.

[RainDog]

The barrel in the store does not have an ACCO label. The BBB and Proof Coil barrels do have ACCO labels. The barrel does not list a manufacturer. The WM website is the same. Lists ACCO chain for everything except high-test. Lists "West Marine" chain for the high test.

I will ask them tomorrow as Jay suggests and report back on what they say.

[Auspicious]

If you do buy it check the chain before leaving the store. A friend of mine and I saw some quite poor galvanizing on HT. Unfortunately we noticed it after we got the drum to the boat. *sigh*

[barnakiel]

Yes, galvanizing can vary between batches / makers but as long as it is the right kind of galvanizing, it is OK. I have seen chain where galvanizing was fine but later we found it was not - some amt of contaminant got into the process and the chain looked much less than perfect after first dip in salt water. Again, we asked warranty and the new batch was fine.

b.

[GMac]

Acco are still making chain but also now have a line of 'Premium imported' chains. There was a batch of boats in the Caribbean with rust issues last year and it looks to have been the imported, which is most likely means ex-china.

And don't forget the US (and Australia to a degree) runs it's own standard with regards to chains rather than use what the rest of the world does. So that means the links can physically different in measurement, the terminoligy used is often different, the Safety margins are often different and are many other things like markings.

A note on markings - They used to be handy but these days it can be hard to trust many. Give me 3 months and I can have your anchor chain arrive at your boat with the boats name stamped on it. 2 years ago I asked a manufacturer in one country 'So what markings does the chain have?' in relation to a high tensile one. The reply was 'What markings would you like us to put on it?'

We have Grade 30 marked chain being sold here but put it to the test and it's only just a Grade 20.

Many reputable manufacturers don't have G40 or such like markings, they often use markings that denote who made it. Maggi is one. They use marking like MC, MC-IT or A7, actually the A7 chain is a grade 70. The MC standing for Maggi Catene, Maggi being the family name and catene being the Italian word for chain. You'll see one Aussie manufacturer uses PWB a lot, they are called PWB Anchor Ltd.

It's best to concentrate on who makes it rather than the markings these days. We all are reasonably aware at what countries can be trusted a little more than others. Ask for a Test Certificate. If it has a lot of weird numbers it's probably OK, if it looks like a spreadsheet your kids knocked up... Hmmmm maybe not so believable.