Marking Chain

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Shrew

Shrew

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1999 Mainship 350 Trawler
I've seen the chain marking kits for sale. I've also read about painting and folks using zip ties.

How do you mark your chain? If you use paint, what kind? Any feedback on pros/cons of one method over another?
 
Zip tie works good. Sometimes after a number of trips it will get cut by the gypsy and needs replacing which is a bit of a PITA because you don't know exactly where. I place them every 50' and eyeball the location of any that I loose and replace.

David
 
I use red, then white, then blue at appropriate distances. Basically I paint a two foot section red and 25' later another two foot section blue, followed by white. It's easy for me to remember. And, by painting a big area I can't miss it.

However, the paint with repeated use does wear off (I primarily live on the hook)

AND, the best/smartest thing I did was paint the first three feet white. That tells me the anchor is near the surface so I can run ahead and wash off the anchor before bringing her all the way aboard.

Whatever your bow roller to waterline is add a couple feet so you can spot it easy and you're set. When you see the white, your anchor is ready to be washed. Put her in forward and voila: instantly cleaned anchor.

I added that a few years into the anchoring thing and have found that as useful as the amount out markings.

The other thing I did is this: Ten feet from the bitter end I painted the chain white. That way I know it's getting close. And the final three feet is red.

I wrote a couple articles on it for my website... This one is a good place to start:
Janice142 article Anchor Up (Painting your Chain)

Good luck Shrew.
 
I used red and black sharpies

Colored links at 100' and 50' intervals.

Time will tell if that works. :ermm:
 
We have 300' and use red, white and yellow paint. The first mark is at 30' then every 40' with the last one at 30 feet from the end. When we reverse the chain, the distances between paint marks are the same. We paint about a 2 foot section.
 
I like using all white which is more visible at night. Usually paint it on the dock at the end of the season and then spot paint the worn sections as needed with a spray can inside a garbage bag on deck.


Via iPhone.
 
same as everyone above. Paint works well. I've also seen colored electrical tape used.
 
I use red paint to indicate I am at the end of my chain rode. Every 20 feet I painted 4 links white. At 100' I use Florissant orange. Then at 200' I paint 2 sections with Florissant with black between and so on at 300' with 3 orange separated by black.
 
Tried the paint method. Was never sure whether I missed a marking or not as the chain paid out and I'd also get confused counting markings.

Some one from the Antipodes had a blog or post awhile back where he used narrow strips of synthetic light weight sail cloth (i.e. spinnaker cloth) tied through the chain links at measured intervals and wrote the length markings in indelible ink on them. Said he had no trouble with the strips getting fouled up in the gypsy.

So three years ago I did it on our boat. Has worked like a charm. Used both white and red spinnaker cloth. I used white for each fifteen feet and red for each 60. Have had zero problems with the strips catching or tearing in the gypsy. When a strip passes by your eye you can tell the length of chain paid out instantly by just reading the number on it. The indelible ink has remained legible as well, but would be easy to touch up. Mud washes right off the strips. Cheaper than a chain counter.
 
dwhatty said:
Tried the paint method. Was never sure whether I missed a marking or not as the chain paid out and I'd also get confused counting markings.
Click to expand...

The Admiral has to do something, so assign her to count the marks...
 
We used to use paint and we had some sort of color code that told us how much chain was out. The paint faded and came off and we could never remember the code. So we bailed on that and simply have a white wire tie every ten feet. We put them on the sides of links that are up when they run through the wildcat and we don't cut the ends of the ties off.

Want 150' of chain out, count out 15 wire ties as the chain is going out. If we have to anchor in the dark, or more likely let more chain out in the dark, I can count the ties by feel simply by resting a hand on the chain as it's going out.

To remember how much is out we write the amount on a sticky note and put it on the steering cable chase tube in front of the lower helm. Sometimes a tail gets pulled off in the chain pile in the locker but not very often and even if one does the base remains attached to the chain so we know where to attach a new one.

This system has worked perfectly for the 15 years or so we've been using it.
 
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I use red paint and have only 2 places marked...50 ft and 100 ft.
Where I boat (Eastern LI Sound) I have never found a need to know more.
I can estimate in between.
 
Paint bands on sections of chain:
1 band 50 ft
2 bands 100 ft
3 bands 150 ft
4 bands 200 ft

Adjust scale as needed. Works best if you use light color for bands and black in between IMO.
 
Gave up on the bands and colors and opted for a simple 4' swath of white every 50'. It's visible from all stations especially helpful when free falling and easier to touch up when needed. ImageUploadedByTrawler Forum1429126003.191508.jpg


Via iPhone.
 
cafesport said:
...spot paint the worn sections as needed with a spray can inside a garbage bag on deck.


Via iPhone.
Click to expand...

cafesport said:
...to touch up when needed.]


Via iPhone.
Click to expand...
attachment.php



:thumb: We probably paint more chain this way than at the dock. After several months of anchoring Lena says she can't see the first color. On deck with some plastic bags, it's real easy to remark/remark.
 
janice142 said:
I use red, then white, then blue at appropriate distances. Basically I paint a two foot section red and 25' later another two foot section blue, followed by white. It's easy for me to remember. And, by painting a big area I can't miss it.

Me too!

Rob
Click to expand...
 
I'm relying on a one-second count. "One potato, two potato, ..." About 2.5 feet per second with my windlass. Stepping on the pedal:


 
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I use 2 white zip ties at 10 ft as a warning that the anchor is getting close. I use one black zip tie for every 30 ft of 120 ft of chain, so 1 tie at 30 ft, 2 ties at 60 ft, 3 ties at 90 ft.

The chain changes to line at 120 so no marker needed. Then my line is marked with West Marine rode labels at 150, 180, 210, 240, 270, 300 and 330 ft. 360 is the end.

Most of my anchoring is in 20-40 ft in relatively benign waters so it's not hard to count the rode for a 3:1 or 5:1 scope.
 
Blue cable tie every 25 feet. Yellow cable tie every 100 feet. Repeat. Our windlass "powers" out chain at a rate of about 25 feet per 15 seconds. So I set a timer (wrist watch) as a backup to chain markers.
 
Giggitoni,

Your avatar makes me feel sad. Just saying. Maybe it's my age.

Howard
 
hmason said:
Giggitoni,

Your avatar makes me feel sad. Just saying. Maybe it's my age.

Howard
Click to expand...

I believe it's a GB42 that was washed out of a harbor by the tidal surge along the northern California or Oregon coast from the tsunami that came across from the earthquake in Japan four years ago. The boat was subsequently washed up on the beach south of the town.
 
I use rustoleum neon paint every 50 feet on about a foot of chain, with red, orange, yellow, and green in that order, which are the first four colors of a rainbow. I then repeat red and orange on the 300 ft chain. I learned the colors of the rainbow by the acronym and name Roy G. Biv. Rustoleum didn't make blue, indigo, or violet neon paint, so I used Roy G.
 
hmason said:
Giggitoni,

Your avatar makes me feel sad. Just saying. Maybe it's my age.

Howard
Click to expand...

Maybe it's because Ray's trans-Panama cruise was cancelled due to the ship's breakdown. :banghead:
 
Shrew said:
I've seen the chain marking kits for sale. I've also read about painting and folks using zip ties.

How do you mark your chain? If you use paint, what kind? Any feedback on pros/cons of one method over another?
Click to expand...

I never ceased to be amazed when this subject comes up, because you US/Canadian types are always into the high-tech stuff asap when it comes to radios, GPS, AIS, generators, aircon, auto-pilots - you name it. Especially when it is something that makes anchoring or sailing life easier. Yet you persist with this antiquated way of marking anchor chain, which is one of the things you do the most, and need to rely on the most, every time you anchor out.

No-one on here has raised the suggestion of a chain counter. There are such cheap and easy ones to install out there now - really. If I can do it on my old boat, (self-installed), and justify the price...surely others can..? I'm not into hi-tech just for the sake of it, and expense is a barrier to me, as to many, yet I would not now be without this one valuable item. Worth thinking about at least. It makes anchoring soooo much easier, especially in poor light.

Seen below is the Cruz Pro el cheapo version. (Made in Auckland NZ, but available to be sent anywhere online). Does not have auto retrieve or that sort of added complication, but works oh so well. (Once I put a bigger magnet on anyway). The lower two pics show the reed switched sensors and the magnet set into a hole in the edge of the gypsy.
 

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Peter B said:
I never ceased to be amazed when this subject comes up, because you US/Canadian types are always into the high-tech stuff asap when it comes to radios, GPS, AIS, generators, aircon - you name it.
Click to expand...

Ok, Canadian boy here and love my AutoAnchor from New Zealand.......:thumb:
 

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G'donya Rochy. Good to see. Yours is the more fancy auto-retrieving type, and might be a bit of a challenge for the owner to self-install, but hey - that's the way to go if can be afforded for sure. If not, it's quite satisfying doing it yourself, and I find choosing when to flick the switch on and off not that challenging. Actually, I like to pause it at 2.5m, because I know then the anchor will be just under the surface, so if muddy when I have geek at it, I move off slowly in a circular direction and it washes most of the mud off before I complete the retrieval on the move.
 
I hose the chain and anchor with fresh water (low pressure, unfortunately) when hoisting the anchor.
 
Peter B said:
I never ceased to be amazed when this subject comes up, because you US/Canadian types are always into the high-tech stuff asap when it comes to radios, GPS, AIS, generators, zircon, auto-pilots - you name it. Especially when it is something that makes anchoring or sailing life easier. Yet you persist with this antiquated way of marking anchor chain....
Click to expand...

Well, I can't speak for anyone else, but lowering a chain off the front end of a boat is about as low-tech and simple a process as I can think of. You step on a pedal and the chain goes out, you step on a different pedal and the chain comes back.

I have nothing against the concept of an anchor counter, and I can see how if one operates their windlass remotely from an upper or lower helm it could be handy. But for people like my wife and I who prefer to operate their windlass at the windlass with the chain going out and coming in right next to us, an electronic chain counter is a solution looking for a problem.

By watching and feeling (by hand) how our rode acts during the setting process we get a lot of very useful information. Information we would not get if we were back at a helm station with no view of the chain at all and no ability to feel what was going on at the end of it.

Tying a wire tie every ten feet costs us, what, a couple of dollars maybe? It's so dirt simple to count the ties to determine how much chain we're letting out, our dog often comes forward and does it for us just for something to do.

Use technology to see what's around us in the fog? Absolutely. Use technology to count chain falling off the front of the boat? Don't really see any value in that. Not when I can look at a two-cent wire tie and say "Ten." And then when I see the next one say, "Twenty."

Or if I'm lazy and this proves to be too intense an undertaking I can ask the dog to do it.:)
 
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