Chain to rope splice

[Smokeys Kitchen]

Thanks Doug

[rslifkin]

Originally Posted by GarthGregory

You are correct - my locker doesn't drain completely and the drains are about 150 mm above the waterline . The splice section was always at the bottom of the locker , so none of it ideal . Sailing in the Med , anchoring is usually a daily event , so a wet chain is the norm .

On a long 3 x strand splice , my horizontal windlass ( Tiger ) handled the splice section perfectly .

fair winds

It might be worth trying to improve the drainage, or adding some dri-dek type tiles in the bottom to keep the rode out of the water. Dryer rodes definitely last longer.

[deltasig]

Originally Posted by sv_pelagia

Anyone with experience with rope-to-chain splice and LEWMAR V1/V2/V3 windlass?

Planning to replace rusty (but good) chain and considering adding a good length of rope.

(we have deep anchorages up North in BC)

I have used a 12v LEWMAR V3 with 8mm SS chain and 8plait (New England) with the recommended splice (four plaits through the last chain link right to left and four the opposite way).
It would go through the windlass easily both ways, up or down. The problem was the splice would jam on rollers along the way that were made to handle chain links. I tried installing rollers with wider grove but the chain links would jam. After some more tries and failures at the least desirable moment, I gave up and removed the rope! I have 60m chain and my anchor works very well in up to 17 m lengths. At the few anchorages I visit with more than 18 m depths, I manually attach the 8plait with a ss thimble.

[sv_pelagia]

Originally Posted by deltasig

I have used a 12v LEWMAR V3 with 8mm SS chain and 8plait (New England) with the recommended splice (four plaits through the last chain link right to left and four the opposite way).
It would go through the windlass easily both ways, up or down. The problem was the splice would jam on rollers along the way that were made to handle chain links. I tried installing rollers with wider grove but the chain links would jam. After some more tries and failures at the least desirable moment, I gave up and removed the rope! I have 60m chain and my anchor works very well in up to 17 m lengths. At the few anchorages I visit with more than 18 m depths, I manually attach the 8plait with a ss thimble.

Thanks for this.

My rollers are wide with no groove, so hopefully no issue there. (Hauling up my secondary anchor rode which is rope with 20' of chain attached with a thimble doesn't jam on the rollers.)

[rslifkin]

I've never had an issue with the splice coming over the roller either. In my case, the roller is a wide V shape with a chain notch in the middle. Total width is just shy of 3 inches and it's close to 3 inches in diameter at the outer edges. 5/16" chain goes over it just fine, as does the splice and 5/8" 8 plait.



If there's an issue getting the splice over the roller, I'd think either the roller is too small (diameter) or it's being retrieved under too much tension and maybe also at a sideways angle.

[Rucksta]

https://www.cruisersforum.com/forums...1&d=1616505498

Hi OP here again.

Thanks for the feedback.
Type 1 , back splice was the good advice.

I watched some online videos on how to do the rope 2 chain splice.
I found them all confusing and abandoned my first attempts then tried the next video.

I suspect the creators of the videos assumed the viewer had some experience at splicing 8 plait.
Partially correct. I had tried eye splice.
I went back to basics and reviewed eye splice in 8 plait where the experience assumptions were not made.

Bingo - rope 2 chain is eye splice without the eye + a chain.

Couple of tips I learned from my first completed splice.

Cut a slot in apiece of angle iron and secure to the bench to act as a chain snubber.
This allows easy working both sides of the splice by flipping the chain.

Mark all strand pairs with a different colour before separating.

Keep a written schedule of the alternating tucks

heat shrink ends each of the 8 strands

Don't combine the pairs into 4 strands until after all the strands have been passed through the chain - it gets tight and messy if the strands are paired.

After the required full tucks (4 for nylon) separate 4 paired strands to 8 individual strands - less disruption of the parent weave in the taper stage

Allow the strands to relax (untwist) to allow a neater lay along the parent weave.

Instead of cutting one strand of each pair for the taper thin each strand down by 2 threads. tuck and thin another 2 threads

Your hot knife will seal the end well enough for a single tuck and it's getting real easy to do the thin tucks

Tighten each thread individually at each tuck.
The treads easily pull into the weave with finger pressure.

Trim the thinned threads close to flush at each tuck.
With the individual tensioning there is little or no bury of the ends when the splice is loaded.

I did 8 of these and they all run through the Maxwell RC8/8 vertical windlass easily enough in each direction without hanging on the tensioner arm.

My chandler advised me to use only Nylon braid on the Maxwell winch.
I took his advice.

I tried running some 15mm poly braid I use for dock and warp lines just to see.
It was clear the poly did not feed as well under load or no load