Anchor chain Archives

Replacing Anchor Chain, Anchor Chain Windlass, and Chain Locker Modifications we made to Sailboat Brick House.

We finally found ourselves replacing anchor chain on Brick House. It was a long time coming…the anchor chain is 26+ years old and was getting rusty… so it was a much needed upgrade! It turns out there are quite a few factors to consider when replacing anchor chain on a sailboat! It also turns out that buying anchor chain isn’t the only thing to consider when replacing anchor chain…the Windlass, and the base it sits on is important, right down to the details of the chain locker that the chain will live in! Replacing Anchor Chain is something every cruiser needs to think about and research. When replacing anchor chain, do your homework,a

We are still hard at work in the boatyard in Richards Bay, South Africa. As we sailed across the Indian Ocean this year, we chose Maggi Chains USA to replace our new galvanized anchor chain. This high quality calibrated anchor chain is made by Maggi Chain in Italy. We arranged to have it shipped to Richards Bay, South Africa via a slow ship. As we made our way across the Indian Ocean, the new anchor chain, slowly made its way to us.

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Twelve or thirteen years ago, we also had purchased an anchor Windlass, made in Italy. It’s a Lofrans Tigres electric windlass, which has performed flawlessly for its entire life. In this video, Patrick takes it off (the anchor Windlass) , does some windlass maintenance and reinstalls the Windlass.

Before he shows how to install the Windlass, he shows many things he did to the chain locker to make sure the Windlass keeps running flawlessly, and to maintain the anchor chain. The anchor locker smells and looks fresher and is ready to receive brand new anchor chain.

In the second video, besides a tour of some of the more boring parts of Brick House, Patricks shows the chain locker modifications he did years ago to better accommodate our anchor chain.

The third video is an above deck tour of Sailboat Brick House, which shows a bit more about the Windlass….

Enjoy!

Valiant 40 Sailboat Tour (#3) Down Below Part 2. Water Tank Repair, Chain Locker, Marine Toilet, Electronics

(Disclosure: Maggi Chains provided us a discount, but we chose this anchor chain because we felt it the very best choice to hold our cruising sailboat in everything that will challenge it for the next several decades, anchoring very often in challenging conditions due to the cruising ground that we choose. We certainly could have found much cheaper anchor chain, and purchased it locally to avoid shipping costs. But Maggi Chains was our absolute number one choice when it was time to replace our anchor chain. It was a very researched and educated decision but only time will tell just How good of a decision it was. It will likely appear occasionally in our “What Worked, What Didn’t” articles we write every year, detailing the longevity of or the shortcomings of the marine products we choose to put on Brick House, so watch there for updates, and subscribe to this blog for updates too.)

Here is the previous video, detailing why we ripped Out the deck below the Windlass. Just how string die sthe deck indeed the Windlass need to be?

Rotten to the CORE! Replace rotten sailboat decking, BEFORE the Lofrans Windlass rips right out!

How we communicate at Sea…

Bluewater Sailboat Brick House Communications at Sea: Predictwind Offshore & Iridium GO or Sailmail and Winlink on the SSB

LATEST ADDITIONS TO BRICK HOUSE

Brick House is in the Boatyard now… There is a lot of hardcore work going on…There is surprisingly a lot of great companies and products here for many of the upgrades we have needed to do to the boat. Custom upgrades will be the name of the game for at least the first half of this haul out…until we start getting ready for our next Ocean. But that’s jumping ahead…Here us what we have upgraded this year so far…2019…

July 2019 – Maggi Chain USA This was a long time coming. Our chain was over 25 years old, and after regalvanizing it twice it Was truly a scary pile of rusty chain. We were losing confidence in it, but I all we could find in SE Asia was unproven chain made in China. So we decided to wait until South Africa. We just could not trust it despite many local cruisers singing praises about how it lasts at least 3 years in not always so windy SE Asia!

In China, chain can be good, but it can be really really bad too due to a lack of quality control and unless you have YOUR run tested, you just don’t know for sure what you have. We needed American or European made chain if we didn’t want to be replacing chain in a way too short 3-4 years, and we needed to be very sure of what we were going to get! To me, new chain looks all the same…it’s what it does and the physics involved that are important, and We need to go with reputation for quality…hence Maggi.

Before reaching S Africa we ordered a barrel of Maggi chain in the USA, who imports the chain from Italy where it is made, and had it delivered to South Africa. Yes…we went a round about way to get the best quality chain we could possibly find, but this is cheap insurance, since what our boat hangs on with, is worth being very careful about. Consistent quality control was what we are after, and are pleased to finally have new chain. We will sleep much better now during a big blow, because we are very sure we have the very best anchor chain!

This Company is Florida was a pleasure to work with…but the delivery by ship was a little slow, which I suppose is to be expected….but it was worth the wait to get the Cadillac of Anchor chain!

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July 2019 – Navionics Platinum + We have always used Navionics charts…since we left 12 years ago. We have found them to be very reliable and accurate. They add new cool features so frequently that there have been very few years where I wasn’t pretty stoked about a new feature they added. This year is no exception. The Platinum Plus Charts are actually not new and they are tried and true…we just haven’t been able to afford them and they have not been available in the oceans we have recently sailed. There is a good sale on them right now, and as we prepare to go off to South America at the end of this year, and we needed charts anyways, we got the Platinum + Navionics Charts for South America, instead of the usual basic versions. They include satellite imagery/photography available right on our Raymarine chartplotter, among many other things. The thought of having the satellite charts right on our Raymarine chartplotter is amazing to me, and I can’t wait to get a good look at it all! Technology is finally evolving very quickly in the yachting industry, and Navionics as usual is on the forefront.

We also got a C-MAP chart chip for the same area, all on just one chip, simply because we like to be overcautious and have the best charts we can get, not just the best 1 Chart. It’s always good to have redundancy and 2 “votes” of what the underwater topography really is. If Navionics and C-Maps both agree, that’s a good sign. If they differ…we take the most conservative vote until we get local knowledge. We feel well prepared having the 2 heavy hitters nautical charts on our chartplotter!

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June 2019 – Richards Bay, South Africa is turning out to be a real treasure of a place to work on one’s boat. We managed to find a South African company called AMT Composites.

Not only did the technical professional staff there discuss our project over the phone for more than an hour to be sure we got what we needed, but they were able to quickly deliver all of the high quality materials, free of charge, right to our boat within days of paying!

To be honest, we did initially buy some not so great resin here locally..so buyer beware…go right to AMT Composites to get it right on the first try!

After our first resin purchase blunder, we started checking with the local contractors here. They ALL pointed us to AMT if we wanted quality materials. AMT Composites imports the best products from all over the world, including Gurit resin, hardener, filler and other materials which are as good if not better than West System, and more affordable! They had every thing we needed including Peelply to paintbrushes. Patrick is happily rolling in fiberglass, fixing decking, hull, keel, and other. Happier than a pig in sh**! Our boat will soon be stronger than ever!

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An earlier recommendation that I made is still working very well here in S Africa. They are the ONLY packages that arrive without hassle: