Anchor chain markers
Dear Listees,
I posted the following a couple of days ago and since have had several
email regarding what I used to mark chain. Apologies for not mentioning
it
in the original post.
I use colored cable ties. Although we have not been able to use the boat
a
lot in past few years the cable ties currently on the chain is at least 4
years old.
Stephen Starling
KK42
I have found an easy way to mark chain so one knows the amount of chain
let
out is simply to remember the colors of the rainbow: ROY G BIV (red,
orange, yellow green, blue indigo, violet)..
I mark my chain each 20 feet and use the Red, Orange, Yellow, Green, Blue.
I then put a white marker at the mid point of each color. For the second
hundred feet of chair I use same colors but put 2 colored markers. If you
have another 100 or 50 feet of chain then use 3 colors markers.
Stephen Starling
Hello all --
YachtSmiths International is in the "almost there" final stages of
completing Passage of Time, our Kasten-designed 53 foot aluminum
passagemaker (kastenmarine.com/valdemar52.htm). Arild was our electrical
genius for the build!
We have struggled with the "what to do with the deck" problem for some time
now. There is an aft covered deck, side decks and, of course, the foredeck.
Of note, the foredeck is not flat, but has a curve or bow to it to
accommodate additional headroom below. The curve of the deck will require
some type of non-skid material for safety.
We looked at wood decking, but that is outrageously expensive and carries
with it the maintenance headache. We looked at the plastic-type, fake wood
material, but it looks, well, plastic. We have considered just plain paint
with nonskid grit in it but not sure we like the looks. At a recent boat
show our builder saw a decking material made by Stazo in the Netherlands
that is made from natural cork. You can read about it at: http://www.stazo
nl/html/marinedeck_2000_exterior.html
Does anyone out in T&T land have any experience with either the company or
this decking material?
Thanks in advance for any thoughts you may have.
Alan Wagner
Tampa, Florida
<<At a recent boat show our builder saw a decking material made by Stazo in the Netherlands that is made from natural cork. >>
Alan,
Not familiar with the Stazo material, but there is a similar one that's been
around for many years. I covered Winnie the Pooh's decks with Treadmaster,
a thin sheet material made in England which appears to contain ground cork.
It comes in at least two varieties of "grippiness". The diamond sheet is
very aggressive: good on feet, bad on knees. The Smooth sheets are much
less aggressive, but still give a good grip. Smooth is what I used, about 9
years ago, bonding it to the fiberglass deck with thickened epoxy resin..
It's still in good shape. Get a light color if you plan to cruise the
tropics. The darker colors get pretty hot on the feet.
Treadmaster is shown in the Defender catalog, page 128.
Mark Richter, Winnie the Pooh, Ortona, FL on the Okeechobee Waterway
Alan,
My aluminum boat has a dark gray painted non-skid. Carefully applied it
looks pretty good, and is easily repaired.
Another option I've seen is adhesive-backed 3M type non-skid sheets.
I've looked at a product by Vetus called Happy Elephant which are adhesive
pads of a rubber/cork composite. Been around for quite awhile and used on
sailboats where you might be going up on the wet foredecks barefoot to deal
with sails. It's proven to be pretty durable, but not cheap as I recall.
Bob Deering
Juneau, Alaska
We have considered just plain paint
with nonskid grit in it but not sure we like the looks.
For what it's worth: on both my current and previous boat (both wooden) I
used a painted deck with non-skid material added. On my first boat, the
painter suggested that we tape out the non-skid area in a pleasing pattern,
and so we did. We continued the house and bulwarks paint (white) down about
an inch into the deck, and then taped out the non-skid areas with nice
rounded corners (sort of like the non-skid patterns you see molded in to
glass boats). I then used a contrasting color (Interlux Grand Banks Beige) to
do the non-skid. It looks very nice and professional.
Another option I've seen is adhesive-backed 3M type non-skid sheets.
This stuff is really, really good. It's expensive, but you can get great
deals on eBay. It's used by the pallet-load in factories and they often get
rid of old batches. I paid about 1/10 the list price for more than I will
ever use. It even comes in clear. You have to wash the surface with something
like acetone before you apply it, so the tape will stick. One warning, there
are different levels of aggression, and the "strong" stuff has the texture
and effect of 16-grit sanding belts :-)
Scott Welch
Product Manager, Open Text Collaboration and Social Media Group
www.opentext.com
905 762 6101
"Things turn out best for people who make the best of the way things turn
out." - John Wooden