Respliced anchor rode w/ question

I have a combo rode with 120 ft of 5/16 chain and 200+ ft of 8 ply Brait. It's five years old, gets used a lot and has been looking a little long in the tooth lately. I decided it had to be respliced before I anchored again. The only problem was that I didn't know how to do it, so I downloaded instructions and decided to give it a try.

I swapped the line end for end so the new splice would use the virgin end. I had decided to keep the old splice attached so I could add 100 ft of poly cord to the tag end in case I ever need to toss it all overboard someday. It also served as a guide when comparing my work with the professional splice that came with the rode from Defender.com.






I set up at the dock and emptied the anchor locker with my wireless remote! (Love that thing!!) I had recently picked up some new anchor rode markers so the old ones were removed and tossed.

I methodically worked at it to make sure each step was correct and tight. Eventually I caught on to the pattern and it was easy. I used a Sharpie to mark one set of pairs red and the other black.



In the end, it turned out alright. It took me a lot longer than a pro, but now I know a new skill and will be repairing some dock splices this week.





Now, on to my question.

If you look at the old splice, you can still see some of the chafe-resistant coating from the Defender splice 5 years ago. When it was new, it looked like a red, thin, flexible coating. Today, Defender's pics show a blue coating like this.



So I called Defender trying to buy the anti-chafe coating and they tell me that it's not for sale and they can't tell me what it is! Interesting, I thought. If it works, why not sell it? All she would say is that it's brushed onto the splice. She gave me the number for Samson Rope for additional information. A call to them yielded similar results. "It's proprietary, for private use only and only provided to a few commercial splicers." They wouldn't tell me what it was or where I could find some. It must be made from unobtainium.

Does anyone know of a similar product that can be applied to a splice to resist chafe? I'd sure be interested in something that would not influence the flexibility or ability to pass through the windlass gypsy, like I figure shrink wrap would.

Al,
Do other spliced anchor rode's on the market provide an anti-chafing coating?

If so you may find out what it is just by asking. Not everybod's play'in games.

Or you may find out that the anti-chafing stuff isn't necessary at all.

I'd put my money on the latter.

I'd contact Miami Cordage and ask them. http://www.miamicordage.com


Would plasti-dip work?

Maybe this is what you are looking for............
Splice looks great!

Hi Al, The splice looks really nice. The only thing I can suggest is to melt the cut off stubs that are sticking out.


I have some heat shrink woven polyester tubing at the store that might be a good chafe guard for this application. I'm going to make new docklines soon and put it where the old lines are chafed. It's big enough to use on 3/4" rope and shrinks enough to use on 3/8" rope. Don't know if it's big enough to go over your splice. Email me your address and I'll send a couple of feet for you to try.

Used to know a couple people who worked for Samson. I'll try and pick their brains. It's possible that they don't know. I don't think they do anything but make spools at the factory.

manyboats said:

Al,
Do other spliced anchor rode's on the market provide an anti-chafing coating?

If so you may find out what it is just by asking. Not everybod's play'in games.

Or you may find out that the anti-chafing stuff isn't necessary at all.

I'd put my money on the latter.

Click to expand...

Not sure about other splicers using something similar, Eric. It might not be needed, but I figured if the Samson folks use it on their own lines, it must be worth it.

N4712 said:

I'd contact Miami Cordage and ask them. Miami Cordage

Would plasti-dip work?

Click to expand...

I'll call 'em tomorrow, Olliver. Thanks.

rochepoint said:

Maybe this is what you are looking for............
Splice looks great!

Click to expand...

I think plasti-dip would be too thick and rigid. Same for the dip-it whip-it. I have some of that on the boat, but ruled it out in favor of the real thing. Maybe I could dillute it enough to make it work, but I don't want to experiment.

HopCar said:

Hi Al, The splice looks really nice. The only thing I can suggest is to melt the cut off stubs that are sticking out.


I have some heat shrink woven polyester tubing at the store that might be a good chafe guard for this application. I'm going to make new docklines soon and put it where the old lines are chafed. It's big enough to use on 3/4" rope and shrinks enough to use on 3/8" rope. Don't know if it's big enough to go over your splice. Email me your address and I'll send a couple of feet for you to try.

Click to expand...

Great thought about trimming the ends. I should have done that. I have my Grandfather's solder gun with a plate attachment that will be perfect for the job. Besides, I always feel good using Grandpa's tools.

Thanks for the offer for the tubing. I'd be interested in trying it to see if it works knowing that I can remove it without harming the splice...unlike other liquid experiments. I doubt the original coating was more than a few mils thick. I'll PM you my address. If you want, I can measure the splice width to see if it would even fit over it.

Thanks a million, guys! I appreciate all the great suggestions. You guys rock!

I wonder if the stuff might similar to heat shrink as used on electrical wire? Flywright..congratulations on splicing 8 plait. I was a boatswains mate in the Navy, spliced a lot, and I mean a lot of rope. I, recently, spliced an 8plait eye splice. It eat me up. Took about 4 hours.

Haven't done a splice like that in 5 or 6 years but when I did them one thing I did was do 3 tucks then taper 2 tucks by removing 1/3 of the strands. The final tuck tapered again by removing another third and then the ends melted in place. Final finish was to cover the whole splice with a leather chafe guard like this. http://www.westmarine.com/buy/sea-dog--leather-chafe-guards--P005_151_003_005
The taper and cover allowed a good solid 1/2 turn on the wildcat w/o putting undue strain on the splice should you need to stop anchor retrieval at that point.



Via iPhone.

N4712 said:

I'd contact Miami Cordage and ask them. Miami Cordage


Would plasti-dip work?

Click to expand...

I called Miami Cordage and they said they don't have anything like this. He said the chafe protection they have available would not pass through the windlass.

Thanks for the suggestion, Oliver.

cafesport said:

Haven't done a splice like that in 5 or 6 years but when I did them one thing I did was do 3 tucks then taper 2 tucks by removing 1/3 of the strands. The final tuck tapered again by removing another third and then the ends melted in place. Final finish was to cover the whole splice with a leather chafe guard like this. http://www.westmarine.com/buy/sea-dog--leather-chafe-guards--P005_151_003_005
The taper and cover allowed a good solid 1/2 turn on the wildcat w/o putting undue strain on the splice should you need to stop anchor retrieval at that point.

Click to expand...

The instructions I followed called for 4 tucks and 2 half-tucks with my nylon line, so that's what I did. A half-tuck is a single ply, not the pair, which provides the needed taper.

Unfortunately, any leather wrap would not pass through my gypsy. The guy at Miami Cordage seemed to agree that it's not really needed.

Resupplied anchor rode

I have spliced line to the anchor chain many times and have never used an anti chafe coating or cover. Doing a good clean splice with tapered ends will help to insure that it will feed through the gypsy without problems. The splice is easy enough to do that there is no reason to continue to use a frayed splice. When it looks bad, cut it of and redo the splice. I have always been surprised by how little wear occurs where the line goes around the chain link. I originally thought that this would be the weak point but as your picture shows, the outside of the brade has always been the reason the redo the splice.

Dan Girvan
Gypsy Spirit
Albin 36

The splice is easy enough to do

Ha,ha,ha,ha........ Try it with 8 plait. It was challenging for this old navy Bosun..I can splice 3 stran with my eyes closed. 8 plait...

Whipping or siezing the splice is the traditional anti wear.

easy / cheap to do.

HopCar said:

I have some heat shrink woven polyester tubing at the store that might be a good chafe guard for this application. I'm going to make new docklines soon and put it where the old lines are chafed. It's big enough to use on 3/4" rope and shrinks enough to use on 3/8" rope. Don't know if it's big enough to go over your splice. Email me your address and I'll send a couple of feet for you to try.

Click to expand...

HopCar was kind enough to send me this shrink wrap. Parks, unfortunately, it was too small to fit over the line. So I thought I'd repurpose it as chafe protection for my bow lines where they run through my chocks. No luck there either. I can't get the line through it.

I recently bought some lighter 1/2 inch lines to make it easier to grab the initial dock cleat on arrival. I'll fit these lines with the shrink tubing as chafe protection. Thanks much for sending it to me!! What great customer service!

FF said:

Whipping or siezing the splice is the traditional anti wear.

easy / cheap to do.

Click to expand...

Find a YouTube video on this Al and you can learn another valuable skill.

It's probably in Chapman's.

Edit;
Actually it's probably not in Chapman's as the book probably deals only w three strand.
I think somewhere in the past we had a thread on splicing 8 strand.

Old thread...This was completed in June.

Just an idea but it might be urethane. guessing in the 30 to 40 durometer range. This stuff is used for molding and springs. It is very tough and wear resistant. Take a look at this:
McMaster-Carr

Look at the product details and MDSS info. Not cheap to experiment with at $35 a can but I think it might do the job. It's just not a labelled application.

FlyWright said:

Old thread...This was completed in June.

Click to expand...

"Many a good tune played on an old fiddle"