[quote="chrisdevans" post=332]As per my earlier post, we do have a stainless swivel from Kong - new this year so latest version. My understanding is that stainless only becomes a potential problem when immersed in salt water for long periods. So not useful for permanent moorings, or I guess for sitting swinging for weeks on end without raising. We sometimes sit for a few days at a time, but rarely longer, and we are always very vigilant in washing down immediately with fresh water on the swivel after use.

Is this enough? I guess time will tell.[/quote]

If you 're only there a few days, why bother with a swivel? Instead, weigh anchor slowly and allow it to untwist.

During the off season, we always take the chain out - mainly to inspect, sometimes to re-paint markings. I guess this would be a good time to untwist the chain - if it were severely twisted - however I don 't remember any issues with twisted chain during this process - and I don 't use a swivel.

Bill Balme

I have paced a new survey designed to answer the stainless debate in a new topic. called "stailess versus galvanised"

Many years ago when I was a bit less informed I used a stainless steel thimble connecting to a heavy duty galvanized shackle. This was completely submerged in salty water, part of a trot mooring system. Towards the end of the Scottish sailing season the thimble was in perfect condition, the shackle was half eaten through. It was replaced with an all galvanized system. Any comments?

Yes we can certainly do that. Are there any othe questions people would like answering on anchoring so that I can put together a useful follow up questionnaire?

As per my earlier post, we do have a stainless swivel from Kong - new this year so latest version. My understanding is that stainless only becomes a potential problem when immersed in salt water for long periods. So not useful for permanent moorings, or I guess for sitting swinging for weeks on end without raising. We sometimes sit for a few days at a time, but rarely longer, and we are always very vigilant in washing down immediately with fresh water on the swivel after use.

Is this enough? I guess time will tell.

After hearing the comments on stainless steel in a salt-water environment, there appears to be many stainless steel swivels on the market, far more than the galvanised types. As a result of the anchoring survey, can we find out what percentage of members use stainless steel or others for their swivel?

I 'm with you John, about SS being tricky. I would not trust it for any part of the tackle arrangement, except possibly the anchor. Again PS did a good job of reviewing the issues.

http://insidepracticalsailor.com/is-stainless-steel-really-the-best-metal-for-use-in-an-anchor/

Happy Hooking!

Vice Commodore, OCC 

Stainless steel is a tricky material at the best of times. In spite of excellent tensile strength it is susceptible to stress corrosion cracking, especially in the presence of chlorides. I would not have stainless steel in any part of my ground tackle - not shackles, anchor or chain. Remember, the strength of your ground tackle assembly is the strength of the weakest link.

There was a very revealing article on stainless steel chain published in Flying Fish a couple of years ago...

The (top) photo on John Herries ' post is in fact a (much better!) photo by John of my failed swivel.
John F

When we bought Freya our ground tackle consisted of a 30Kg claw (Bruce) and 5/16" HT chain. The two joined by a galvanised shackle. We were swithering about an anchor swivel and as we were in the USA (North Carolina) at the time, West Marine had the perfect answer, or so we thought - a swivel matched to 5/16" HT chain. We bought one, it lasted a few months before disintegrating in a 25 knot wind in the Spanish Virgins. We 've never used one since, instead we use 2 proof tested galvanised shackles.

If anyone wants a nice Bruce anchor, we can give you an approximate lat and long .... We spent 3 days trying to find it, but it was lost in the silt and the viz. was almost zero. :(

Around this time we started investigating shackles and their performance and were astounded to find the difference between the standard shackle and a proof tested shackle. Even using proof tested shackles we were not able to buy shackles that matched the size of the chain and the strength of the chain.

Knowing the inter-action between stainless steel and galvanised steel and the phenominal strength of stainless steel shackles does anyone have any comment on the use of stainless steel between the chain and the anchor on a long term basis?