Consigned To Spares

We’ve been scrutinizing our anchor chain when deploying the anchor of late. Is the chain stretched and twisted? The bow rollers certainly look a bit worn. It’s a bit of a chicken/egg conundrum. What is causing what? Replacing the rollers might provide some answers, however you can’t just buy them.

We trawled through old photos. What did the bow roller originally look like? What kind of profile did they have to begin with? In any instance 97mm width replacements were nowhere to be found. They’d need to be machined for us. 

Bermagui proved an opportunity too good to miss. We would be tied up to the Fishing Co-op Wharf for 4-5 nights meaning we would not be dependent on our anchor. There's a reasonably big fishing fleet based in Bermagui and a boat yard to support it. There was a fair chance we’d be able to get a new replacement pair of bow rollers machined.

Wear was very evident on both rollers and it was quite square on one of them. No wonder the chain was bouncing under the anchor locker lid.

The Bloke walked across to the boat yard each day to check on progress and luckily they were able to manufacture the replacements. They are not white but apparently made of a much stronger material. Fingers are crossed that twisted anchor chain is a thing of the past. If not, our problem could be associated with stretched links. This would point to the need to replace the anchor chain. In truth it's probably a bit of both. Fingers are crossed for improvement and the original rollers have been consigned to ‘spares’.

Post script: The groove in the new roller was not deep enough so we had it re-machined in Bundaberg. The workshop asked for a sample of our 10mm short link chain to better model the guide channels. We are now delighted with the outcome. The chain deploys with less twists. The Blokes enthusiasm caused 3 more boats to get their rollers re/done too!