Guiding the anchor chain

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by hpeer

Starboard, or a piece of polyethelene cutting board, or some old telephone cable jacket, or black water pipe. All pretty similar stuff, real slippery.

re: Cutting board, I would have thought that a piece of HDPE would be perfect for this application. Slippery, impact resistant, no corrosion, white(ish), quiet, easy to cut/drill, and cheap. You could even build up the sides with a couple of layers to make channel or maybe find something like a small RV water tank to cut the bottom and an end off.

[hpeer]

Cutting board is frequently HDPE.

[stormalong]

My windlass is set back about the same distance. I installed two pieces of 1/2 inch thick teak as sacrificial/protective strips. Two because I have an anchor locker with two lids, split down the center. Each piece is about 4 inches wide. The teak lasts a long time and can be sanded when it gets worn.

[flightlead404]

Originally Posted by hpeer

Cutting board is frequently HDPE.

Precisely.

[hpeer]

I have some interest in this topic so I looked up a few things.

Google “Conveyor Guardrail”. Grainger and Mcmaster-Carr both carry some interesting UHMW sections in channels and angles that might work.

[zstine]

one issue with a channel is the potential that you want to tie a line to the chain or lead the chain to the side, bow cleat or something like that. the channel will cause a chafe point and if made from HDPE, you may break the channel. its not unusual to need to connect something in that area. for example, my anchor fouled on a heavy mooring chain and I had to tie a line from the chain and run it to a winch to pull the mess up. a channel would have been in the way.

[waterman46]

Why would you need a channel to contain the chain? If you say you can control the windlass from the cockpit, then does not the chain freely fall into the locker on its own?
Do you ever stand on deck forward of the stay?
Anything sticking up from the deck is just another potential toe-stubber or tripping point. I try to keep my decks as free from those as possible.

[GILow]

Lots of terrific posts while I was sleeping, thank you all, each one has given me something to think about.

Great to have so many perspectives on the system.

[David B]

Originally Posted by GILow

Hi all,

I have a vertical windlass, set back about a meter from the bow roller, with the chain turning 180 degrees around the windlass and exiting horizontally to the anchor chain locker which is between the bow roller and the windlass and has an open-top spurling pipe.

There is no significant change in height between the windlass and the bow roller, but there is a chain-plate for the staysail stay between the windlass and the bow, so I have the chain coming to the windlass on the starboard side of the chain-plate and returning to the locker on the port side.

I am trying to decide whether to run the anchor chain in a stainless steel channel from the bow to the windlass and then from the windlass to the spurling pipe, or whether to just use a reasonably wide skid-plate of stainless steel with no sides instead.

Thoughts on the pros and cons of each approach? (I'm a solo sailor with a remote control up/down on the windlass.)

Matt

Sounds similar to our set-up, except the windlass drops the chain through its base to the chain locker. Other than that, you could be describing ours.

For us, the bow fitting (stainless channel essentially) extends some 50cm past the bow. If the chain is taught, it is suspended between the bow roller and the windlass drum. Any chattering of the chain is taken care of by a plastic (Starboard material by the looks of it, so HDPE?) buffer, which is essentially a strip of half-round some 7cm long, screwed down midway, at right angles to the chain. There is no evidence of the chain ever hitting the deck.

If you really wanted a full skid-plate, then I suggest Starboard would be a lot quieter.