Do you Rub Your Body With Oil or Rub Your Balls With Grease?

[Simi 60]

If you measure your scope correctly you need more out than you think.
I have 6 ft draft
6 ft tide with a few feet under is 10ft.
Water to deck is close enough to 9 ft.
That's 25ft by my calculations

3:1 scope is 75 ft so 82 is close enough.
I usualy prefer to run 5:1

If I didn't run the 150lb manson supreme and just used the 100lb plough that she came with I would want a lot more chain out again.

 

[menzies]

If you measure your scope correctly you need more out than you think.
I have 6 ft draft
6 ft tide with a few feet under is 10ft.
Water to deck is close enough to 9 ft.
That's 25ft by my calculations

3:1 scope is 75 ft so 82 is close enough.
I usualy prefer to run 5:1

If I didn't run the 150lb manson supreme and just used the 100lb plough that she came with I would want a lot more chain out again.

OK. But go ahead and look at the Bahamas Bank. Maybe use Active Captain.

The stress level just ain't that high!

 

[Peter B]

We are going to lay out our chain on the dock and spray paint at 25 feet intervals later today. Clearly the fore deck crew needs an easy way to remember the depth out given that we do not have a counter.

The US version of the color code is Rub Your Body With Oil, or Red, Yellow, Blue, White, Orange, then repeating.

My concern there is that the repeat with have orange followed by red. After a bit of fading these may start to look the same.

So I am thinking of using the Royal Navy version of Rub Your Balls With Grease. With the G being Green. So less chance of confusion.

I did clear this with the usual anchor crew this morning, and she said "OK, but don't be loudly reminding me every five minutes in quiet anchorages!"

Who, me?

Menzies, having just read your post re current plans now retired, clearly you are not short of a quid. So for heavens sake just fit a chain counter why don't you..?
Believe me, once fitted you'll wonder why you ever bothered with all that tejus chain marking/painting/whatever. It must be the only gadget you don't have. That alone should annoy you enough to correct that deficiency. Really, I'm serious. I have a very limited budget, but the chain counter is in some ways my favourite thing. You know...like raindrops on roses and mittens on kittens...get my drift..?

Here's a really modestly priced one that's easy to install yourself...hey, if I can fit it and have it work, anyone can. But in your case you'd probably just get one (? a better, more snazzy one - auto-retrieve, etc) fitted I reckon, and good for you on that. I envy your resources.

CruzPro CH55 Chain Counter

 

[BandB]

Here's a really modestly priced one that's easy to install yourself...hey, if I can fit it and have it work, anyone can. But in your case you'd probably just get one (? a better, more snazzy one - auto-retrieve, etc) fitted I reckon, and good for you on that. I envy your resources.

CruzPro CH55 Chain Counter

As the price of that one is hard to find, it's $242. I agree with Peter. Chain counters are very useful.

 

[Simi 60]

OK. But go ahead and look at the Bahamas Bank. Maybe use Active Captain.

The stress level just ain't that high!

Does your active captain app take into account 50 to 80+ knot storm cells and 180 degree wind shifts coming through at all hours of the night?

Real life happenings that I have been through in the last 6 months and had no dramas with.
Other boaters who were a "bit casual" idid not get off so well.
Its why I try and anchor as far away from others as I can.

 

[North Baltic sea]

I also plastic chain brands, but difficult to see the pilothouse of view.


I approached this problem from the perspective of the calculation of the armature speed is fairly constant m / sec.


when the anchoring do the calculation the number of seconds required amount of chain outside the desired length. more than 15 years this idea and always acted "anchor did not disappoint"

 

[psneeld]

Does your active captain app take into account 50 to 80+ knot storm cells and 180 degree wind shifts coming through at all hours of the night?

Real life happenings that I have been through in the last 6 months and had no dramas with.
Other boaters who were a "bit casual" idid not get off so well.
Its why I try and anchor as far away from others as I can.

I saw right away your reason with that high bow.

But based on your boat dimensions and where I boat and how I boat, I would be doing 50 foot intervals. Doesn't mean that works for you.

6 foot tides aren't common in many waters where we are...yes several places have 8 foot or more...but with a range of zero tide to 10 feet...I can still do that math in my head.

And yes, our summer thunderstorms often have microburst straight wind speeds to 60 and above...cant say for all but I would think many here with years of cruising experience have experienced the same. Just last week in Florida we had a cold front pass through and many boaters I talked to clocked gusting winds above 50.

I choose anchorages when I can to keep myself out of those kinds of winds, I will pick a place with inches of water under my keel so I am not exposed, but where I boat, I have that luxury.

 

[menzies]

Menzies, having just read your post re current plans now retired, clearly you are not short of a quid. So for heavens sake just fit a chain counter why don't you..?
Believe me, once fitted you'll wonder why you ever bothered with all that tejus chain marking/painting/whatever. It must be the only gadget you don't have. That alone should annoy you enough to correct that deficiency. Really, I'm serious. I have a very limited budget, but the chain counter is in some ways my favourite thing. You know...like raindrops on roses and mittens on kittens...get my drift..?

Here's a really modestly priced one that's easy to install yourself...hey, if I can fit it and have it work, anyone can. But in your case you'd probably just get one (? a better, more snazzy one - auto-retrieve, etc) fitted I reckon, and good for you on that. I envy your resources.

CruzPro CH55 Chain Counter

Funny man! I ain't that wealthy, especially now that I have the boat!

I don't do wiring - of any kind. That's a result of nearly burning my MIL alive in the back of an old Ford Escort that was our first car and the back doors didn't open from the inside! And all I did then was install new radio speakers on the back shelf!

So maybe when I have the guy come to do my ER and rear cameras I can look to have that done.

 

[menzies]

Does your active captain app take into account 50 to 80+ knot storm cells and 180 degree wind shifts coming through at all hours of the night?

Real life happenings that I have been through in the last 6 months and had no dramas with.
Other boaters who were a "bit casual" idid not get off so well.
Its why I try and anchor as far away from others as I can.

In all seriousness, AC actually does. Since the reviews are from fellow cruisers they include impact of wind direction, speed, swell, holding, shore accessibility etc. Kind of like TripAdvisor for cruising.

However, I do take your point. Wind direction can change, squalls come through etc. Absolutely. But you do have to balance that against being a good anchorage neighbor and watching your swing. There are many places along the east coast and the Caribbean when you just are not going to be able to have an anchorage to yourself or to a few boats - and if you decide to avoid "crowded" anchorages you would miss out on some really wonderful cruising grounds.

Safe boating Antipodean!

 

[kev_rm]

I like the idea of a chain counter, but more 21 century. How about a little device that takes a coin size battery, velcro mounts to the windlass, counts the turns of the drum from a simple decal attached to the drum, and is bluetoothed to a smartphone app. It doesn't exist yet, but I've conceptualized it, now some one needs to engineer it and build it.

Ted

Digita lLED Industrial Automatic Counter AC 220V Retail Traffic People Counting | eBay

 

[diver dave]

You folks are describing what we call in industry "encoders". Absolute encoders tell you how much total motion has passed, even if later interrogated. Incremental encoders have to keep track as they go, but forget later. Sound familiar?
In anchoring, you have the issue of the "encoded" pulses getting lost in the water. So, it's hard to walk up to the already deployed anchor, and SEE how much chain is out. You either have to pull some up to the first mark, or send more out to see the next mark. For the smart phone app; make sure the app "remembers" the answer when its turned off then on again.

I know, I know; i'm overthinking this. And, I'm getting a headache.

 

[menzies]

Jaysus!

 

[Insequent]

Hmm, Rub Your Balls With Grease. I wonder what that would look like....

 

[Simi 60]

^^^Really?

1 meter of cheap red poly woven through chain at 25m and again at 50m has worked fine for me and is very visable from the wheelhouse

 

[Insequent]

Yes, really, 10m intervals!

The first 35m was starting to get surface rust, to the point that rust was staining the foredeck. So I decided to end-for-end the chain.

But then, rather than have the stuff at the bottom of the chain locker get really rusty I treated it with rust converter. Then I read the label, which said best to paint after using the converter. So, rather than just paint the last 35m I figured I would paint all 92m. It was during the wet windy weather recently, I didn't have much else to do.....

I'm replacing the whole lot at next haulout, or before if the rust returns before then. I use a CruzPro chain counter, the colours are not really of any consequence for me.

 

[menzies]

Looks pretty though!