Marking Anchor Lines

[briandunnington]

I used some whipping twine in different colors to mark my rode. I used a system of:

green = 25'
orange = 50'
black = 100'

With that system, I can mark every 25' with just a few marks up to a few hundred feet, and it is non-directional (order is not important). Bonus points: it was fun to learn how to do the line whipping (I had never done it before) and relaxing (kind of zen-like) to spend an hour or so actually doing it all.

 

[Todd Tugnut]

The Navy mnemonic for the color coding of rode is: Rub Your Belly With Grease. This stands for Red, Yellow, Blue, White, and Green. When deploying and retrieving rode, you know when you see a color how much line is out. So, if you mark every 25’, and you see blue at your bow, you know you have 75’ out without having to read a tag.

 

[FlyMeAway]

Across several boats I've used zip ties, the fabric markers already mentioned, little plastic nubbins that fit in the chain, and Rustoleum pavement paint.

All four work. I think it's really personal preference, though I have found the paint to be most visible (especially if you have to let out or take in scope at night).

 

[baz]

It's a shame the windless doesn't provide an indication of how much rode has been passed through its roller. 😱

 

[Capt’nKarl]

I use bright orange spray paint and mark every several links of chain every ten feet with the paint. Of course you have to be close to the windlass to count the markings but where we live we typically anchor in 10-15 feet so there’s not a lot of counting to do.
Cheers

 

[Submariner]

I marked my anchor rode using line whipping.

I have 50' of chain, so I just tied some white whipping line at the 1/2 way point of the chain (25' mark).
For the 200' of 8 plait rode, I marked it every 30 foot. (I picked 30 foot as that's also 5 fathoms, so I can use either unit of measure).

The line whipping seems to hold up pretty well and runs through the anchor windlass easily.

I'm a bit of a nerd by trade, so I used white and black whippings with 3 markings every 30 feet. I mark the number in binary.
I use white as 0 and black as 1.
001 = 1
010 = 2
011 = 3
100 = 4
101 = 5

So, if I read the markings to be #4. I know it's 4 * 30ft = 120' plus another 50' of chain. (170 ft total).

It works out pretty well. I do the math before I drop the anchor so I know what mark I'm looking for. I drop the anchor from the helm, as the anchor pays out, I can visually see the markings go by and I count them... one, two, three... etc... and stop when I get to the right number I need.

I understand that binary numbers aren't something most folks work with. You could substitute a color scheme of your choosing instead. The key thing to know is there's only 5 numbers spaced 30ft apart on 200' of rode.

Line Whipping and Binary Code for marking our anchor line
https://youtu.be/tKjZ8Oc2WVw

Around the San Juan's where we anchor mostly, I usually lay down 5:1, set the Rocna 10, then I reel in the rode to 3:1 (crowded anchorages, keep my swing radius small and allow more room for others).

 

[Diatom]

I installed an Electromaax ChainMate "rode counter" (I suppose it's just an Arduino-brained timer) at the helm. Simple 4-wire install, small digital gauge displays rode deployed. $300.

The second question - stern tie: bought the Ultraline Quickline contraption, delighted with it. Pricey but worth it, esp. in my abbreviated cockpit (C26). Quick-mounts perfectly to canvas frame - easy to remove/stow out of sight.

/tmm