About a month ago I purchased a new bow line and put it on my mooring with a stainless steel swivel purchased from West Marine. Yesterday the harbor master performed his bi annual mooring inspection and noted a lot of wear on my two year old mooring chain. He strongly suggested removal of the stainless swivel since it has an adverse reaction to galvinized chain.
alewifehouse@mainecoast.net
Stainless Swivel and Steel Mooring/Anchor Chain
Moderator: Jim Walsh
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Harris
What size chain?
A swivel generally goes where the heavier bottom chain joins the lighter top chain. I am not familiar with a stainless swivel and question if it is intended for mooring use. I thnink the problem is not galvanic but that the stainless is so much harder and starts to wear. I learned the hard way to go much heavier with the chain that most books suggest. They judge strength......and do not take into account wear and the corrosion. My boat is 3400# and 3/8 is the suggested bottm chain and 1/4 is the top. Problem is that the chain in the ooze layer disolves in about 2 years. I now have 3/4 inch bottom chain (each link is the size of a bagel!) and 1/2 top chain. The boat is alot more dampened and the bottom chain seldoms moves and doesnt wrap the anchor. Also the new mooring bouys with the hole passing through works great and prevents the mooring rode from entangling.
hg@myhost.com
hg@myhost.com