Anchored in La Cruz, chain getting twisted bad - 2014

March 2014 - La Cruz Anchorage Banderas Bay Mexico

 As the chain comes up over the bow roller it sometimes twists. This gets so bad that the chain starts to come out of the gypsy when bringing the chain up or down. This can be dangerous if the weather turns bad and we need to get the chain up quick. I also tried to bring it up with the hand crank on the windless and actually bent the handle trying to get it up and through the gypsy.

Note:

 We have found a solution for this by dropping the chain down and bringing it back up in about 150' of water.

  We had gone into the marina for a day and we took all the chain and some of the attached rode out of the boat and strung it out on the dock and un-twisted about ten feet at a time. This helped but was a real pain. It still has some twists in it though.

 We have friends, Pam and Eric on S\VPied-a-Mer III who have 5\16 chain and a CQR anchor. They go out to about 200-300 ft and lower the anchor and chain and let it hang for about ten minutes. Then bring it back up, it is un-twisted and they are happy with this method. They have about 150 ft of chain and a larger windless on their 38 ft cat. So we were wondering if we hung 200 ft of 3\8 chain and a 45 lb CQR anchor off the bow in 300 ft of water would our windless bring it back up?

I wrote Lewmar about this concerning our Lewmar H3 windless for our 3\8 chain and 45 lb CQR anchor.

I asked Lewmar support if the windless would retrieve the 200 ft of 3\8 chain and 45 lb anchor it hanging in say 250 ft of water. That is so it would un-twist.

I told Lewmar about our friends and Here is what they wrote back of course there were several email till we got this far.

Here is what they wrote back.

“There is a lot going on when you dead lift. Most of the time is trouble because of connections, length of run, type of bow roller (most are very poor at rotating efficiently)
And are they getting 13.5 plus volts to the windlass?

And does his working load of the windlass match the rode weight?”
Also:
"Sorry, chain will (Rope too) naturally role over the davits bow roller wheel as it comes in and over the bow roller wheel. Some people believe a swivel will stop that from occurring; really doesn’t. Slows down the process in some cases. Still will roll and twist and you cannot stop it…

Hanging the chain down in deep water will not untwist itself… no it will not unwind itself…

The best way is to get a swivel and connect it to the other end of the dock with the chain connected, connect the other end of the chain and fasten that to the other end of the dock. Take a long bar, slide it through the chain and un twist. Yes it’s a lot of work. It’s the best way."

So this we can sort of take care of but the question did not really get answered.

A reply from Sailnet.com that we liked the best but there were others that were helpful.

“the twist will return you forget you are in la cruz de huanacaxtle, nayarit mexico, in a not protected from anything anchorage and have tidal changes daily x4,and you have wind clocking around daily in complete circles. one must re-anchor weekly at times to ensure proper holding.
good luck. i like this anchorage a lot better but we still experience those daily phenomena, only without the chop, and our chain twists up also. however we are protected from seas and the hugest of winds. until spring, at which time we will register wind speeds of over 35 kts.
Zihuatanejo also has this occurring regularly.
anywhere that the tides and winds clock the boats around full circle will present with twisted chain.
a swivel is weakest part of link..you will need to inspect it and pray hard as the winds will get to 35 kts before calming down in spring. and then there is hurricane season......

ok so how do i deal with it....for past 4 yrs i have lifted anchor slowly and untwisted it as i go. is dangerous to rapidly bring chain onto boat, so slowly is good. can clean and inspect chain at same time, as well.
never be in a hurry to raise anchor...and always have one ready to deploy in case of emergency....

formosa 41 and ericson 35 mII
cruising tropical mexico at present, working my way southward”

 A few days later:

We decided to clean our chain as it came up and we did this just before it was going into the gypsy in the anchor locker.  Bringing it up slowly, well a section at a time because the windless dictates the speed. We cleaned about 18” at a time. We first had to use a round file and the wire brush to get the encrustations and grass off it. The wash it with the wash down pump. We tried to straighten the chain as it was going down the windless with mixed success. The last 30-40 ft were not twisted or needing cleaning.  So we will keep an eye on the chain so we do not let get that over grown again. I think we can clean it every ten days or less and then only need to wire brush it. That is about when we get off the hook and go sailing. Hopefully we can continue to un-twist it and when we clean it. We may need to clean it more often and we can probably do the without moving. We can clean the chain till we get where it is not needing it say 30’ and then lay it back down doing this on a calm morning. So we think we have a plan and will see how it goes for un-twisting the chain.

Lewmar H3 Anchor Windlass

Motor size = 1000W Output

Maximum pull = 1900 LB or 860kg

Working load = 100 lb or 45kg

Draw at working load = 60A

200’ of 3\8 chain weighs 334 lbs