New-Cruiser Tips, vol.2
One of the projects that kept getting pushed down the to-do list was marking our anchor chain. While incredibly important for cruising, we figured we wouldn’t be anchoring that much at the beginning (harbor-hopping) and when anchoring, we could wing it. With a few extra weeks to kill in Morro Bay, and a dock that so far had been incredibly friendly-to-dock-side-projects, it was time to tackle our tackle. (ha!)
I had previously researched both anchor marking schemes and techniques and wasn’t particularly happy with anything I’d found. Zip ties, while easy, fade and fall off (+plastic waste). There are the colored plastic doohickeys that that supposedly snug in the inside of links, but they are expensive and seem like they would make the chain not stack or run through the gypsy as well (+plastic waste). There are lots of painting schemes, but the ones I had seen needed several different colors and a chart to keep it all straight. Harry produced a print out of a color painting scheme from a website he’d seen years ago; I liked it immediately. All credit for the scheme we chose goes to http://yandina.com/AnchChain.htm. Here I will try to explain it in a slightly different manner than they did. It does take a little explaining at first, but once you get it, you’ll have it memorized in no time.
The scheme relies on the assumption that most Americans are only going to remember the color sequence Red, White and Blue in that order. As I type this it’s even hard to think of it as White, Blue, Red…I just can’t. (I have no idea if this applies to other nationalities or not). We know Red, White, Blue and 1, 2, 3. Red = 1, White = 2, Blue = 3. There is a 4th color which is the color of the chain, or a blank, for 0.
The chain is painted at 25ft intervals in 6 ft bands, and the 6 ft bands consist of a middle color on a background band. The idea here is that it doesn’t matter if the chain is paying out or in, the reading of it is the same. The first color is going to tell you which 100-foot section you are in. If the first color is red, you’re in the 100’s, white: 200’s, blue: 300’s (grey/chain means 0 100’s, so less than 100). The middle color is going to tell you how many intervals of 25 you’re at. If the middle color is red, you have 1-25 so 25ft, if white, 2-25’s or 50ft, blue, 3-25’s or 75 ft (grey/chain means 0-25’s, so 00). The scheme works up to 375ft.
The painting process was tedious as all paint jobs are. I first laid out chain, measured and taped it all off, then wire-wheeled and alcohol-ed the to-be-painted sections. Harry did the primer coat in Awlgrip 545 since we had some extra laying around and it seems to stick to everything. It was white though, it would have been easier if it were grey. I followed up with 3 coats of color: one each day. Because of the roll-factor of the chain I would paint twice a day to get both sides. Yandina.com says to focus on the inside of the links, as the outsides will come off quickly anyway. They also said to do the middle bands first, then tape off everything again for the outer bands. Since I was brushing on versus spray-painting, I was just careful. I taped off the edges and sections w/no color and labeled them with both foot increments and the requisite color so I wouldn’t have to think too much when painting. Last, since we wanted to do a coat a day, Harry added some Japan Drier to the paint to make it dry quicker (plus it’s only in the 60’s in Morro Bay.)
Tips:
- We should’ve chosen a tarp that was in better shape. Ours was disintegrating and little bits of it got stuck to the chain.
- We bought quarts of color. Pints would have been more than enough. We used Rustoleum enamel.
- Use grey primer if you can. Anything but red, white or blue.
- Yandina recommends snaking the chain so that your 25’s are in the middle of the S, not the edges. This was an excellent suggestion I highly agree with!
Happy anchoring.
