Anchor chain

C

cptvic

New member
We bought our dory from cutter marine in 2006. Our rode is all chain. Noticing just this season between 20-25' it is rusting. The rest seems fine. Any suggestions...cut 30' off ..can it be recoated..??? They told us the rode should be all chain for bow weight.
Not sure what size chain it is. We have been out in some crazy conditions but our anchor always held us. To replace the whole thing I'm guessing would be quite an investment. Anyone else have issues or advice.tia
 
cptvic":8rivw9sw said:
We bought our dory from cutter marine in 2006. Our rode is all chain. Noticing just this season between 20-25' it is rusting. The rest seems fine. Any suggestions...cut 30' off ..can it be recoated..??? They told us the rode should be all chain for bow weight.
Not sure what size chain it is. We have been out in some crazy conditions but our anchor always held us. To replace the whole thing I'm guessing would be quite an investment. Anyone else have issues or advice.tia
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How long is your rode? While having all chain rode to get weight in the bow can be beneficial, I don't recall anyone saying "the rode should be all chain for bow weight". Who told you that?

My rode is about 40' of chain and 150' of 3 strand nylon. Works fine, but I also have trim tabs. With tabs you can adjust the pitch of the boat on the fly. With a chain rode, the weight is in the bow and you can't readily change that if you needed to adjust the trim.

As for the rust. Is it real rust or just surface rust. If it is just surface rust, I'd wipe it off and may paint the chain or apply some oil to it to retard the rate at which the rust reappears.
 
For a 22 C-Dory, 35' to 40' of high test chain followed by 150' to 200' of rode should be enough. I agree with an earlier post, too much chain in the bow reduces the effiency of the trim tabs. Another benefit is........if the windlass should fail, pulling up 40' of chain by hand is a darn site easier than pulling up 200' by hand.

Martin.
 
Cutler Marine was a dealer who sold most (?All?) of the boats with 100'. My first 2003 C Dory 25 was one such boat. There is a disadvantage of the weight forward, which does give a slightly better ride into chop--and that is that you have more difficulty brining the bow up when going down wind and waves. This can risk bow steering and broaching.

A better way is to uee the Permatrim and Trim Tabs for bow down trim, and 25 to 50' of chain.

The chain on my boat was 1/4" coil proof chain. One needs G4 to fit most chain gypsies in our size boats. I replaced it with 300' of 3 strand, and 50' of G4 1/4" chain.

Chain is easily galvanized. It is probably not worth while for 1/4", but 5/16 to 1/2? is easily galvanized. The chain is dipped in acid to remove rust and any contaminate. The hot dip galvanizing puts a significantly thicker coat on that from the "Factory"--which is a running dip, instead of the full drip and then cooling on racks. The disadvantage is that usually 300# is the minimum lot for galvanizing (at least in our area). Also many times the galvanizing is thick enough that it has to be broken up with shaking, dropping or hitting with a hammer. I find secondly galvanizing lasts 2 to 3 x as long as the "factory" galvanizing.

There have been some reports of Chinese SS chain breaking links. Any chain in SS should be 316 alloy. I think that our use of the SS is OK because of the way our boats are used. The SS of course is pricey!.
 
Bob, I appreciate the ease of galvanizing a chain. My problem is finding someone who will do it. Here in So Cal, I've found that it's cheaper to buy new chain. Some galvanizers send me to a place in Mexico.

So, and I hope you have a list, is there a place who will re-galvanize a chain and what does it cost? Any in So Cal? I'm getting ready to buy new chain and if re-galvanizing it would be cheaper I'd love to do it. And please, I need a So Cal place; Florida would be nice for reference though.

Boris
 
Boris,
We use AZZ Galvanizing in Cetronell, Al. That is about an hours drive from our house. They will be in the $0.40 a pound currently for hot dip galvanizing, with acid dip first and shaking the chain after the dip.

AZZ Galvanizing - Arizona
15775 Elwood St., Goodyear, AZ 85338, United States

This is just off US Hwy 10 and West of Phoenix. A half a day's drive each way...(We often go US Hwy 8 and then up from Gila Bend to get to Highway 10.

Standard chain for the Lawrence Windlass that about 90% of the C Dorys use is Grade 4 (Grade 40 and 43 are minor subvarients) 1/4" chain. BBB is shortest link, intermediate is G4, and longest is coil proof.

E Rigging sells a 316 SS Anchor windlass chain which is G43, and will fit the Lewmar gypsy for $8.06 a foot. They sell Trident G40 Galvanized chain for $3.13 a foot. I try and buy Acco chain because it is made in the USA. Defender has it for $2.80. It will weigh in the 0.73# per foot, so shipping has to be factored in. I do my own splices, but Defender will do custom chain and rode (8 plait if desired) splices as a package.
 
I hope it's ok to piggyback on this thread:

1988 22 Cruiser

I'd like to add chain to the rode. What's a good way to connect two chain ends so that it'll still run through the windlass?

Do these work & hold like a regular link:?

https://www.amazon.com/Stainless-Steel- ... 191&sr=8-2

Also, the boat runs very bow high. So high my 5'5" wife has trouble seeing out front sitting at the table. Would 100' of 1/4" G4 galvanized drop the bow a significant amount? She's got an '04 (heavy) zook 90, 15 kicker, golf cart & starter batteries in/on the transom & other than the 14lb Delta, 30' chain & rope, and windlass, the bow's empty.
 
Yosef":20rmjn4e said:
... Also, the boat runs very bow high. So high my 5'5" wife has trouble seeing out front sitting at the table. Would 100' of 1/4" G4 galvanized drop the bow a significant amount? She's got an '04 (heavy) zook 90, 15 kicker, golf cart & starter batteries in/on the transom & other than the 14lb Delta, 30' chain & rope, and windlass, the bow's empty.
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Need to move some of that stuff forward. The golf cart batteries are probably the worst offender. Have you got trim tabs or Permatrim? Those will help, but even they have their limits.
 
ssobol":3c66gtc2 said:
Need to move some of that stuff forward. The golf cart batteries are probably the worst offender.
Click to expand...
Yep

ssobol":3c66gtc2 said:
Have you got trim tabs or Permatrim? Those will help, but even they have their limits.
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Have Permatrim - At full trim down, she'll push the bow down a bit, and just a bit, and right at the end of the trim travel.
 
It is better to achieve trim with both Permatrim and trim tabs, than permanently place heavy objects forward. Permanent weight forward can cause "bow steering" and / or broaching when running down wind and seas.

Golf cart batteries should not be in the cabin, unless they are AGM. Flooded lead acid (FLA) batteries will give off explosive gas, and are a hazard in the cabin.
 
I'm not sure why you would need golf cart batteries on a CD22. Yes, they are more robust, but the loads on most CD22s aren't that great and golf cart batteries are very heavy. Mine has the fridge and usual electronics and LED lighting all around, and I manage well on a single group 24 battery for the house. There is a second G24 battery as reserve that sometimes is used to start the motor if the house is low. Most of the time my boat is run on one G24 battery.
 
Thanks for all input. We don't usually have a problem with the weight of all chain causing too much bow down.
We are trying flipping the whole rode. We seldom use more than 50-60 ft so the other end that lived in the locker looks better.
 
Also, the boat runs very bow high. So high my 5'5" wife has trouble seeing out front sitting at the table.
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I think your first priority would be to have the boat ride properly and adding weight to the bow might solve the seeing out the window problem for your wife, but may cause changes in the way the boat handles. This might be a negative. Solving one problem often causes other problems. I think the seeing out the window problem could be easier rectified with a pillow, or a taller wife, but I would recommend the former. My wife is about 5'10 and still sits on a pillow when she is in the Admirals seat.

We added storage to under the V-Berth and thus weight and I feel that the boat rides better now, especially in choppy seas.

We have about 30' of chain and had 300 feet of rode. At the end of cruising season I always wash my rode by soaking it in a garbage can of fresh water overnight and then drying it. Two years ago I awoke to find that I now had 30' of chain and 30' of rode. A deer, I think looking for salt chewed through the rode. So this was a good excuse to reverse the rode, for Judy to practice her splicing skills and now we have a nice new rode at the chain end. 270' of rode is still lots for me.
 
cptvic":221vp1li said:
Thanks for all input. We don't usually have a problem with the weight of all chain causing too much bow down.
We are trying flipping the whole rode. We seldom use more than 50-60 ft so the other end that lived in the locker looks better.
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Is it correct that you anchor in less than 7' of water most of the time? Even on the Gulf Coast, it would be rare to only anchor in 7' of water. Remember that proper scope is the height of the boat's bow (anchor roller, or shock absorbing lines to the foredeck cleats is about 3' off the water. 3 + 7 =10 x 7 (recommended scope)=70 feet of chain.
 
thataway":2tluoolb said:
Is it correct that you anchor in less than 7' of water most of the time? Even on the Gulf Coast, it would be rare to only anchor in 7' of water. Remember that proper scope is the height of the boat's bow (anchor roller, or shock absorbing lines to the foredeck cleats is about 3' off the water. 3 + 7 =10 x 7 (recommended scope)=70 feet of chain.
Click to expand...

I've been encountering recommendations that to prepare for cruising up to SE Alaska one should be ready to anchor in 100' of water.

Will 721' of rode (chain + rope) fit in the anchor locker of an '88 22' cruiser?

-Joe
 
I do most of my boating off of Vancouver Island and the tight little anchorages that I prefer are typically 20' to 40' deep. I usually deploy about 3-4X that depth and most often shore tie. Tides and currents are strong here and with a 7X scope I would not have enough room to swing, especially when there are other boats at anchor. A 12' tide change is quite normal. I find it is really important to either drop a rear anchor or shore tie a C-Dory in these waters as the flat bottom of a dory and the cabin really subject the boat to a lot of windage. Deep keel boats will often sit in the water without much movement, but I am drifting and spinning all over the place when just on one hook. I am always nervous when I am in anything less than 10' of water, so maybe I should avoid boating off the Gulf Coast.
 
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