Anchor and rode E34-2

[Phr3d]

About 25’ of chain (size?) and 200’ of 3/4” (?) nylon. It’s larger than my 5/8” docklines.

Question- What are some options for marking it for depth/scope?

Other question - does the rust give it character or present a case to replace it?

 

[peaman]

I have a 200' 3/4" 3-strand nylon rode for my 32' boat in case of hurricane. But the one rigged for regular use is 1/2" 3-strand nylon, 180'.

For $5 you can get a set of anchor rode markers in 30 foot increments.

A rusty chain (or anything else) is gross. Best practice is to replace it. You might be able to find some place to re-galvanize it, but maybe not just 25 feet. For bottom cost, and little use, cold galvanizing spray paint will at least minimize the rust streaking for a while.

 

[Loren Beach]

For comparison, my anchor setup. Lighter displacement boat, so a bit smaller tackle dimension.

Re-Galvanizing Anchors

Today I reinstalled the anchor and chain and 250 feet of new line. This project, if it could be called that, started this summer when we were anchoring out and noticed that our decade-old fancy schmancy braid-on-braid gold nylon rode was looking, well, peculiar. The core was poking through the...

ericsonyachts.org

 

[Christian Williams]

Yep, "cold galvanizing compound" in a rattle can from the hardware store. I have been painting rusty chain every two years forever.

Chain is hard to throw away. For more reasons than one.

 

[Pete the Cat]

As Christian notes, I have been using the same chain for about 20 years of active cruising. Does it show some rust? Yep. I just spray a bit of cold galvanizing on it annually. I do look carefully at the links near the anchor to see if there is any appreciable wear and I am actually thinking that it might be time to chop off a chunk of the 200' I carry on my Tartan 37 (I carried a lot of chain when I was in my international cruising time). Cruisers seem to turn their chain end for end to preserve the life of the links closest to the anchor gear. I am told that re-galvanizing chain reduces its strength by some 10% or more and it is getting harder for find folks who do galvanizing because of the environmental laws. I once had an anchor re galvanized and it came back from the service in a distorted shape--so I became somewhat skeptical of what the process does to metal that I cannot see. FWIW.