Anchor Locker

[jmagel]

How do you all keep your anchor locker fresh -- ours smells particularly dank. My previous boats all had access hatches on deck so we could at least rinse with fresh water or dry it out from time to time.

[jim rosenthal]

Air it out, including all the anchor rode, which frequently gets put away before it's dried. Also, there should be drainage at the foot of the locker, because water coming in via the saturated rode pools at the bottom.

[jmagel]

I'm curious how you would air it out. I'd prefer not to foul the bow stateroom since we have guests staying in there most weekends, but seems like that's the only access. Does anyone rinse the chain after use while hauling it in? I could probably extend my midship washdown hose up to the bow. I wonder if that would make a difference?

[TROUBLE]

because of the mud where i anchor, i have to wash the chain everytime i put it away. sometimes when the mud dries and it gets wet again the smell comes back. I have also brought a hose thru the forward hatch and rinsed out the chain locker and let the forward bilge pump take the water out.


Art
TROUBLE

[jim rosenthal]

I think I'd wash the anchor rode and chain and lay it out to dry; meanwhile stick a fan in the anchor locker and let it get good and dry. You might have to do this every so often.

[sgharford]

You could buy a cheapy Ozone Generator on ebay (http://www.ebay.com/itm/NEW-COMMERCIAL-INDUSTRIAL-OZONE-GENERATOR-PRO-AIR-PURIFIER-MOLD-MILDEW-ODOR-/160781570391?pt=LH_DefaultDomain_0&hash=item256f541157), open the locker, point it in there, set timer for 20 minutes, and come back next day. Works for me. Ozone Generators are the bomb diggity.

[jmagel]

all good ideas - thank you. i think i'll put in the time to pull out all the chain and dry the locker so we can start fresh. after that, maybe just a fresh water rinse and the ozone cleaner will keep us maintained for a while.

[Pascal]

It sounds like you don't have an access hatch from the deck into the anchor locker? This is major design flaw on a number of older Hatteras but one that's easy to fix...

Yes, I usually trip to rinse the chain as it comes in, with fresh water. Gets the mud off and rinse the salt off.

[bobk]

If you haven't been cleaning the rode as it comes up, you will need to clean the locker bottom. I wash down with salt water and pull the entire rode twice a year and rinse it with fresh water. At the least, you need to keep mud and any plant life out.

Bobk

[jmagel]

I've only owned the boat for a few weeks so I can't say for sure how it's been maintained, but I'll be sure to clean down to the bottom when I pull the chain.

[bkafitz]

I would stay away from an ozone generator. Ozone kills any rubber in a heartbeat.