This has never happened to me before \u2013 and, come to that, I\u2019ve never heard of it happening to anyone else. But, it\u2019s a bit alarming to say the least\u2026<\/p>\n
This evening, I went to drop the anchor. I know from experience to lay out a good bit of chain on the foredeck \u2013 the last thing you want is to be drifting all over the anchorage while you stand there, yanking at the chain trying to dislodge the knot it\u2019s got itself into the chain locker\u2026<\/p>\n
And that\u2019s what I did today \u2013 except that the tangle wouldn\u2019t give. In the end I had to empty all the sails out of the fo\u2019c\u2019sle and dive headfirst into the forepeak to excavate it manually \u2013 which still took two attempts and a good ten minutes.<\/p>\n
I know what happened, of course: The windlass deposited the chain in a nice tall pyramid which upended itself at the first sign of motion. Next (and this is where the trouble starts) when the boat jumped off a wave in a good blow, the bottom of the pyramid (which, being broader at the base and therefore more stable) now took flight and landed on the top half.<\/p>\n
Now I know that we\u2019re talking about 45-year-old chain here \u2013 galvanised but a bit rusty in places and 10mm just to make it more difficult to shift. However, in all my years (and I\u2019m now and old man, remember) I have never been unable to free it by yanking and jiggling from the deck \u2013 which is why you need a hole rather than one of those silly swan-neck hawse pipe arrangements.<\/p>\n
Of course, owners of modern boats who just pull up a hatch in the foredeck and it\u2019s all there and accessible, are probably wondering what all the fuss is about – but don\u2019t forget I\u2019ve got the weight lower down where it belongs.<\/p>\n
So, I\u2019ve been wondering what I can do to ensure this never happens again \u2013 particularly not when I\u2019m running into a tiny, overcrowded anchorage with a gale behind me.<\/p>\n
First, I should say that the sides of the chain locker are already smooth with pieces of plywood bonded in to stop the chain sitting on the stringers.<\/p>\n
Secondly, I know that stainless steel chain slithers nicely over itself and it probably wouldn\u2019t do this \u2013 but isn\u2019t stainless ground tackle the preserve of the gin palace brethren?<\/p>\n
Any advice would be welcome.<\/p>\n
Of course, I could comfort myself that this sort of thing happens once in a lifetime and now that it has and no harm was done, I can relax.<\/p>\n
But that\u2019s the sort of argument that leaves a niggling thought at the back of the mind: \u201cWhat if it does happen again. What if it happens now, just when I can\u2019t afford any foul-ups\u2026\u201d<\/p>\n
___________________<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
https:\/\/www.youtube.com\/watch?v=Tf-uzDM-300d<\/a><\/u><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" This has never happened to me before \u2013 and, come to that, I\u2019ve never heard of it happening to anyone else. But, it\u2019s a bit alarming to say the least\u2026 This evening, I went to drop the anchor. I know from experience to lay out a good bit of chain on the foredeck \u2013 the … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-517","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=517"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":519,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/517\/revisions\/519"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=517"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=517"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/racecoast.net\/omstest\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=517"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}