Silly me I was hoping to avoid the debate between HDG (Hot Dipped Galvanized) and SS
But in answer to some of the questions:
To refresh my statement and put it in context I would have bought SS chain knowing now what I know and doing what I have done. Cruising about 16 years living on board, about 120,000nm , four anchor chains later and broke one chain. 50ft mono about 20 tons .
Some like numbers, here ya go for 3/8 anchor chain
Safe working load of G30 is about 2650lbs
Safe working load of G40 is about 5400lbs
Safe working load of High Tensile is about 5400ilbs
Safe working load of Stainless chain is about 3500lbs
Safe working load of BBB is 2650lbs
Most of us would be quite fine G30 or BBB. My boat was delivered new with 8mm (5/16)G30, a safe working load of 1900lbs. So clearly Hunter didn’t think it was going to break and my SS chain that I should have bought has a SWL .3500lbs about 80% more than how it as delivered.
Those that know me, would know I test as much as possible. So how do I really know the load on my anchor gear. Very hard for the average cruiser to test this. So in the early days I made up a snubber with a 5 ton breaking strength (not SWL) It wasn’t long after I made it, that I broke it. I was thinking WTF I have anchor chain at 1900lbs (about 1ton) SWL and just broke a snubber (in Syndey harbor I might add) that was rated at 5 ton breaking. After suggesting to Whitworths there rope wasn’t as rated I bought some more and had it tested at CSIRO along with a piece of my chain. The snubber rope in fact broke just under 5 ton in a slow test and my chain broke at just over 7 ton.. Then I was told that typical the safety factor on chain is at least 5:1 up to about 7 :1 and up to 12:1 on rope. So now I knew that in about 60knots of wind I could get 5 ton load on my chain. which was clearly more than the SWL of what I had but less than breaking.
So over the years cruisers went from BBB, to G30, G40,G70 increasing the SWL
How many of you have a SS shackle or SS swivel connecting your chain to you anchor. A Gal swivel would for sure wear off the Gal quite quick I would imagine and most of the swivels I have seen on cruisers boats are SS. How many of you know that your Gal shackle is also G40 and not BBB or G30. So when my ordinal 5/16 chain wore out I upped the size and decided to stick wiht my 5/16 Stainless shackle as a test and I added a 3/8 Stainless shackle in parallel so I could sleep at night. The idea being to prove how long and just how good SS was. 12 years later it was still there doing all the work and my backup 3/8 one was doing nothing
Those that don’t know suggest stainless steel is not good underwater as an anchor chain. That is in fact totally wrong. Stainless by nature gets its protection in part from being in and out of water (oxidization), like an anchor chain. Yep its no good as a mooring shackle always down there for sure, but its many times better as a material for going in and out of salt water.
So the anchor chain I broke was due to lack of knowledge on my part and because it was Galvanized chain. Had it been stainless, this would not have happened, and I was lucky. In essence due to my own lack of knowledge as my chain started to age I inspected it around the first 3 or 4m from the anchor and then again around 20m mark and again around 40m mark, all was good. Of course up around the 40m mark was nearly like new. Interestingly so to was the 3 &4m mark. What I did not realize at the time was the ware point is in my case is around 15M to 20M mark, ie the point where the chain is constantly being lifted up and down off the bottom at anchor. It wares in the corner of the links where they touch and it works. Of course because its working there it seldom show sign of rust because its working. But for example I have found an 8mm chain can easily become 6mm in the corner of the links at this ware point. Without close inspection parting each link to the first timer (ie me then) it can and was missed, so yep in 40knots the chain broke. This would not have happened with SS.
Moreover one of the so called benefit of a steel Gal chain is its said to not be so brittle you get warning signs etc. Well of course that’s not true either when you're talking HT steel like G40 etc.
SS chain will stack much better, it will not bunch up at the windlass. Those that have small anchor lockers will not need to be up the front pushing the chain around with a stick or having it jam.
If your always in a 1st world country the chances are pretty good you can flip your old Gal chain around and get it re galvanized. But I can assure you many that do this have all sorts of trouble and centrifugal galvanizers capable of doing 60+ meters of chain are not on every corner. Then getting your chain to and from them in a foreign country, yep doable for shore but a challenge with questionable quality.
You will not need to replace SS chain, it in fact loves being in and out of water.
Right now 4 chains later I'm only mildly better of financially. Once I replace this one, it will be about breakeven dollar wise. I could go on but this subject is a bit like Cat’s verse Mono’s or the old argument about Led Acid verse LifePo4. I think the tide is turning on that debate. SS chain perhaps has a bit further to go, and Cat Verse Mono' I expect will be around long after me. Happy cruising