Stainless or galvanized

[RoseDoctor]

I'm replacing the hardware on my buoy and anchor system. It is salt water (Puget Sound). Am I better off with a galvanized swivel or a stainless swivel?
Gary

 

[thataway]

Is this a permeant mooring? What material is the rest of the mooring made of? Generally moorings are heavy chain shackled to the eye of the mooring ballest/mushroom/anchor. Then there is light chain--and often the swivel is between the light and heavy chain, or between the rope tenant, and the light chain. If the rest of the system is galvanized--as is the custom, then the swivel should also be galvanized. But try and get one with American galvanizing. The Chinese, may be 2 to 3 mills, and good American fittings can be 10 to 20 mils of galvanizing....!

The issue I see with Stainless, is not only with the dissimilar metals, but also many SS swivels are now Chinese made--and there have been a number of cases of failures.

 

[RoseDoctor]

Bob,
Thanks - excellent answer. It is a permanent moorage and the rest of the
metal is all galvanized.
Gary

 

[hardee]

...Or with NO swivel?

I know, that is a hard concept to bite into and swallow but it can be done.

Last summer, after changing out my anchor to a Rocna, and repainting my rode, I struggled with the same thing. A good friend of mine with years of experience, and tons of knowledge talked me in to trying with out the swivel. I had always used one before. After nearly 90 nights of anchoring last year, all without a swivel, I'm OK now. (I am using 70 feet of chain and 180 feet of 1/2 inch 3 strand. It all works well, self launching with a Swift 600 windlass.

Oh, did I mention, I carried my stainless swivel with me for the entire season, in the box under my feet? I don't think I need it anymore.

Now on a mooring ball, that may be a different matter.

Harvey
SleepyC:moon

 

[Pandion]

Harvey, why did you repaint your rode? I've not heard of that practice.

 

[Foggy]

My experience is a swivel will be the weak point in a rode/mooring system, all
else being proper.

Aye.

 

[thataway]

For a permanent single mooring, a swivel is the norm. It can be oversized, so it is not the weakest link--often a shackle is the weakest link, be cause it has to go into a certain sized chain. An oversized link is often forged onto a mooring chain, to take an oversized, and adequate SWL shackle.

If the mooring is two "anchors" and the bow and stern moorings are connected by a "sand line"--that is when one picks up the mooring pennant; there is a bow loop, which goes on the forward create. There is also a line (sand line--which normally takes no load) which is pulled up and leads to a stern mooring line. These are common in some West Coast semi exposed anchorages--where one wants to keep either the bow or stern into the swell or prevailing wind.

 

[rjmcnabb]

Hi Bob,
Would you please explain, or post a reference for, the two anchor—sand line method for a mooring?
Thanks,
Rod

 

[thataway]

One picture worth.....

[/url]

 

[BTDT]

There's a youtube video on "how to moor your boat in Avalon' that will give you a more in depth and 'scenic' description of the method :roll:

 

[Jazzmanic]

There's a youtube video on "how to moor your boat in Avalon' that will give you a more in depth and ''scenic' description of the method :roll:

The "scenery" was exquisite John. :smiled

Peter

 

[hardee]

Harvey, why did you repaint your rode? I've not heard of that practice.

I painted color coded length (or depth) markings. Red was very visible, Yellow was good, black was useless, and they are due repainting again for the new season, after 60 nights on anchor last season.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

 

[thataway]

For rode length, I use colored zip ties. Goes thru the windlass well, lasts a long times and much easier to replace than painting.

 

[Pandion]

I painted color coded length (or depth) markings. Red was very visible, Yellow was good, black was useless, and they are due repainting again for the new season, after 60 nights on anchor last season.

Doh. I thought you were talking about painting the entire chain. I've been using those chain markers from West Marine.

 

[hardee]

I painted color coded length (or depth) markings. Red was very visible, Yellow was good, black was useless, and they are due repainting again for the new season, after 60 nights on anchor last season.

Doh. I thought you were talking about painting the entire chain. I've been using those chain markers from West Marine.

I forgot to mention that I did paint some of the chain with spray-can galvanize paint. That was because there were some sections that were showing some light rusting.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

 

[Pandion]

Harvey, any idea how that stuff holds up in salt water?

 

[hardee]

Harvey, any idea how that stuff holds up in salt water?

For the color paint I used "High Temp" spray cans. (Used for hot engine parts, or brake parts.) And it seemed to hold reasonably. The galvanizing worked better I think, because the colors seemed to flake or wear but it is still very evident where the painting was done.

The black was a wood stove paint I had already, and it was a bad choice due to the color was just too hard to see. I may switch to using the black sip ties where I had black paint, and skip repainting.

Harvey
SleepyC :moon

 

[thataway]

Harvey, any idea how that stuff holds up in salt water?

I have used several "cold galvanizing paints". The good ones contain in the 90% range of zinc powder. If there is no wear, they will hold up fairly well--such as on a trailer frame. You have to wire brush the metal, or os-phos it, to get rid of all rust. On anchor chains, not as well, since the cold galvanizing does not particularly wear well going thru the windlass. When it gets to the point where there is significant rust, I try and find some-one who is going to have a batch galvanized. When I had bigger boats, and galvanized 200 feet of 3/8" HT chain, and several 70# anchors, I could easily get 300 lbs--and make it worth while. We have a good galvanizer in Alabama, so often a number of boats will get-together a batch. There we get at least 10 mill--and often closer to 20 mil of hot dip galvanizing. That lasts, because it is "better" Than new. There is a caveat--that is there can be lumping of the zinc, and you have to break the links apart before use.
The galvanizing is a process: