Overheard a marina manager say something about anchor chains that stuck with me

I was grabbing coffee at the dock in Port Townsend last week and heard this old-timer telling a new guy that "your chain is only as good as the last 3 feet." Been thinking about that ever since. He was talking about how the section near the anchor takes the worst beating from rocks and sand. Has anyone else had a chain fail right at the connection point instead of somewhere in the middle?

3 comments

3 Comments

ninaw881mo ago

Oh wow, that's wild to think about! I always figured the chain would wear evenly or snap somewhere random in the middle. So the last few feet near the anchor basically take all the abuse from grinding on the bottom?

rowan_hayes1mo ago

Yeah exactly, had that happen on my rig a few years back!

james_ross1d ago

Saw a diving engineer talk about this once - he said the last 10 feet of chain take like 75% of the wear because of constant salt water, sand, and current action. Makes sense when you think about it, that section never lifts clear of the seabed like the rest does. Heard it's why some big operators just flip their chains end for end every couple years to even out the damage.