Love your anchor chain

SO how do you enhance your relationship?

First up think of the accommodation: usually it is a damp, salt rich, often warm environment; the very environment to encourage corrosion. What can be done?

CHAIN LOCKERS

CH has been looking at chain lockers, it is amazing how inappropriate some are. Some lockers on new yachts have drain holes so high in the locker that it is inevitable that the bottom of the locker and its contents, the chain, are constantly under water.

If you never deploy all your chain you would simply not know that you have the perfect location to ensure the life of your chain is minimised. Devoid of attention will lead to the chain at the bottom of some lockers quickly corrode, even despite the galvanising, into one rusty lump.

It is not only the chain submerged at the bottom of the locker that will corrode, but the seawater will also wick up through the links and eventually evaporate; the vapour condensate continually providing fresh electrolyte to allow your chain to quietly rust.

What to do? There are a number of options.

The obvious option is to install new drain holes at the bottom of the locker, unless the bottom of your locker is below, or very close to, the waterline. New drain holes should be drilled with considerable care upward from below the base of the locker and drilled from aft forward, so water drains down and aft. Ideally you should cover the exterior of the drain holes with a clamshell vent, available from most chandlers.

Remember, whatever you are drilling though will need to be properly sealed with epoxy, whether it is