The galvanizing on anchor chain wears off with use over time. After our Alaska trip, the galvanizing had nearly worn off and we had a fair amount of rust on our chain. Since we only had 200 feet of chain and we wanted to have 300 feet, we elected to replace our existing chain. We decided on 300 feet of 5/8” high-test G43 galvanized chain.
Barrel-o-chain
We purchased the new chain from a local Portland chandlery, located about 1/3 mile from our marina. When it arrived, we picked up the barrel of chain, weighing about 450 lbs, with a burly hand cart and walked it to the boat. We spliced on 100 feet of 3/4” nylon brait to the end of our chain, giving us 400 feet of anchor rode.
Splicing rope to the end of the chain
The next step was marking the chain so that we know how much we have dropped into the water. We add colored zip ties to every 20 feet of chain. On Madrone we use the colors of the rainbow: R-O-Y-G-B. Single red is 20’, single orange is 40’, single yellow is 60’, single green is 80’, single blue is 100’, double red is 120’, double orange is 140’ and so on…This method has worked well for us.
Colored zip ties every 20 feet
Finally it was time to load the chain onto the boat and attach it to our trusty Spade anchor. Our new chain fits nicely on our new anchor locker shelf and is ready for our next adventure.
Angie with finished rope-to-chain splice. Note the rain gear…
