Product information
Custom sets — made to your chain, not to a catalogue.
Every Anchoright set from 13mm upwards is manufactured for the specific chain on your boat. Not because it sounds impressive, but because calibrated chain of the same nominal size genuinely isn't the same size.
You describe the chain. We make the set.
We build the markers, the guide and the colour sequence to whatever is commissioned, so what arrives is exactly what the boat needs rather than the closest thing off a shelf.
What a custom set includes
- Markers sized to your chain — made to the link dimensions you send us, in any of our fifteen colours
- A guide plate made to match — A5 or A6, black, white or silver backing, in your colour scheme
- Your boat's name on the plate, in the font of your choice, if you can supply the artwork or font file
- Bagged and labelled by position — the markers for each point on the chain come separately and clearly marked, so whoever fits them knows exactly which set goes where
The guide plate colours and numbers are manufactured into the face, so they never wear off — whatever the plate goes through.
Longer or heavier chain
Standard sets cover leisure chain up to about 120m and fifteen marked positions. If you have a longer chain, a heavier-duty chain, or want more than fifteen positions, that is exactly what this service is for. The largest we have quoted for so far is a commercial vessel with 78mm stud link.
Why we custom build for 13mm upwards.
Short version: there is no such thing as a standard calibrated chain, from a chain marker's point of view. Even chain sold as calibrated DIN766 and manufactured to the same specification is not the same size from one maker to the next — or from one batch to the next.
We know this because we have been fitting larger boats for a few years now. For calibrated 14mm chain alone we currently have fifteen different marker designs to draw from, and we add more each time an owner turns up with a 14mm chain that measures differently again. Speak to the chain manufacturers and they won't quote you link dimensions either, unless they go and physically measure that particular batch.
So if it's calibrated, why does it vary?
Because DIN766 allows a considerable tolerance in the link width. Take 14mm chain as the example.
A typical 14mm diagram from one of the largest chain manufacturers in Europe gives a maximum outer width of 50mm and a minimum inner width of 17mm.
Work it through. If the wire diameter is 14mm and the outer width is 50mm, the inner width is the outer minus two sides of the link: 50 − 14 − 14 = 22mm. That is 5mm larger than the stated 17mm minimum — and both are inside the specification.
On top of that, DIN766 allows a 0.6mm tolerance on the wire diameter itself, which can add another 1.2mm to the inner-width variance.
So for nominally identical 14mm calibrated chain, the specification permits a spread of up to 6.2mm in the dimension that actually matters to us.
Pitch — the inner length — should always be about 41mm. It isn't. Owners have sent us pitch lengths anywhere from 37mm to 42mm.
Why it matters
The link dimensions decide whether we can give you a properly fitting marker. Make a standard 14mm marker and there is a good chance it will not fit the chain in front of you. Too large and it simply will not go into the link. Too small and the gypsy will punch it back out — which is precisely the failure mode people complain about with push-fit markers.
That is why every larger set is made for the customer's boat. Below 13mm the tolerances are tight enough that a stocked marker fits reliably, which is why 6mm to 12mm ships from the shelf.
Oyster 885 — 200m of 14mm, 21 rows.
One of the sets we are most often asked about. The skipper had a specific colour scheme in mind and 200 metres of 14mm chain to mark.
- A 21-row guide plate to cover every marked position on the chain
- Three sets of markers at each point, so each position reads clearly at a distance
- Markers for every position bagged separately and labelled, so they all got to the right place on the chain
- The skipper's own colour sequence, not ours
Crews who have fitted these tell us the same thing: put five or more markers at each section and identification gets easier again. It is worth saying at the quote stage rather than after.
Submit chain dimensions
Send us four measurements and we'll do the rest.
If you can get callipers on the chain, these are the numbers we need to make a marker that actually fits. If you can't, send what you have and a couple of photographs — we can usually work it out from there.
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1 — Wire diameterThe thickness of the metal forming the linkMeasure five different links, avoiding any joining link, and average them.
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2 — Inner widthAcross the inside of the link, at its widestThis is the dimension that decides whether the marker fits at all.
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3 — PitchThe inner length of one linkNominally 41mm on 14mm chain. In practice, anywhere from 37 to 42.
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4 — Total chain lengthSo we can propose a sequenceRoughly is fine — leave the last rows of the guide plate empty if you overshoot.
Your chain dimensions
We'll come back with a quote, a proposed colour sequence and a guide plate layout.