How much does chain stretch and is it important?
Some people on a thread below claim -- in essence -- that chain has no need to
stretch in an anchoring environment any more than it needs to stretch when used
to tie a boat to a dock or a rock on shore, while others claim chain
"stretches" at a rate of double digit percent of its length and thus is just
fine.
So, I ask of these people to tell us what the shock load is on a boat jerking
up and down a three foot wave, its chain rode pulled tight. Compare the
"stretch" of that chain with the stretch of an appropriate mixed rode in terms
of orders of magnitude difference in shock loads.
hint: it is a bunch. it is also so easy to understand than millions of high
school boys across the can do explain it.
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