Have just gone thru this with 6 anchors - only 2 were mine - the rest
from nearby boats. I was in Bellingham WA at the time - nearest
re-galv place was Ballard (Seattle) - Ace ??.

1. Do not spray paint anything (eg paint) on an anchor. The re-galv
process doesn't work over paint and the process doesn't remove it - so
it needs to be sand blasted off before re-galv - this costs more than
the re-galv does.

2. Re-galv is priced by the pound of material - was about $0.45 per
pound if I remember right. Then there was a min charge - maybe $50. -
don't remember but we were way over it.

3. Some anchors - eg fake CQRs - are really hollow & lead filled for
weight and the co will drill holes in the body to see - because the
lead/hollow can have water intrusion which will steam explode upon
immersion - serious injuries. If it's lead they will melt it out -
leaving you with a lighter anchor. They suggested tapping the hole for
a pipe plug and filling the cavity with lead shot (shotgun shell
stuff) to regain some of the weight. Real CQRs are solid - but they
drill them all to check.

4. My 75 lb and 65 lb genuine CQR anchors would cost $1500?? to buy
new - cost about $100 to get a HD re-galv job.




On Sat, 06 Mar 2004 00:42:02 GMT, "Jeffrey P. Vasquez"
wrote:

Hello again all,

Today's issue:
--------------
I have a spare anchor that came with the boat that I'd like to return to
active standby and I noted quite a bit of rust on it after finally
getting around to pulling it out. My thought was to remove the rust and
have it re-galvanized at some local electroplating shop.

I took a wire brush to it thinking I might be able to determine what I
was getting myself into and found that as I brushed, more oxidized
galvanization would come off revealing new rust. Thinking I might assess
how far moisture had traveled under this layer of galvanizing I move to a
rust-free point as far from any existing rust as possible and knocked
some off. Of course, it uncovered a huge patch of ancient rust.

Questions:
----------
1) Is my intent from the outset bogus? Do people re-galvanize anchors? Do
they do it at their local electroplating shop? Is there some marine
specification for galvanizing?

2) Is it possible this anchor was somehow "dipped" at some point and some
kind of coating put over an already rusty anchor?

3) Is it possible the entire anchor could rust under the
last/original/whenever coating that was put on it as soon as it started
to fail? Iow, it's counterintuitive, but if I nick the galvanizing (or
whatever material protects anchors) off the tip of a blade should I
expect for the oxidation to travel under the coating through the entirety
of the anchor?

4) What do I do now?


As always, thanks to all who can help! -jeffrey