OMG!
That has been left way too long without maintenance. Lucky you guys were around.
Only just had our new mooring laid, I wonder how long it has taken to end up like that.

keensailor said..

OMG!
That has been left way too long without maintenance. Lucky you guys were around.
Only just had our new mooring laid, I wonder how long it has taken to end up like that.

Actually the mooring is only about 3 years old. The problem is the mix of metals. Apart from the SS mousing which is never a good idea, the chain and shackles need to be as close as possible in quality. Perhaps the chain should be the best quality and shackles/swivel Chinese quality but oversize. Replace the shackles/ swivel regularly. My new mooring[to me] has been down two years, last 12 months vacant. I dived and swapped a shackle in the middle of June, it was moused with SS by the same contractor and was similar to the shackle above.

The pitting on the shackle and chain is electrolysis from the SS mousing, and the thinning of the shackle pin. When I first pulled this lot out of the water the shackle looked like it was SS it was so shiny, notice how the swivel above the chain is not shiny and has some pitting. I would say at low tide the shackle and chain are in the sand but the swivel is not. The links are not pitted where they contact the next link but worn. The moorings here are in an estuary that has several tide changes a day so this chain can spend a fair bit of time being dragged through the sand.

A concrete trawler on a mooring only a 100 metres away came off a few months ago. His chain looked exactly the same. The chain on my mooring has very large links and in normal wind/tide conditions stays buried with the swivel to the riser clear of the bottom at low tide. Fortunately my links are as new.