How to: Custom Rope to Chain Builder

To start you will need to know who made your winch, that dictates the preferred rope construction, and the chain size your gypsy is designed to take. Getting the chain size correct is very important, get it wrong and bad stuff will happen. If you don’t know the chain size have a look at this page which will help you identify it.  Or if your old chain fits well you can measure that, how we measure chain can be found here. Once you have that chain size sorted the rest is easy.

We have limited the options to the standard pairings which will cover 99% of winches. The builder will not allow pairings that the winches are not designed to take.

Chain and Rope pairings –

6mm and 7mm chain to 12mm warp (an old school name for rope used in anchor rodes)

8mm chains to 14mm warp

10mm chains to 16mm warp but a small few prefer 19mm warps.

• Most winches will allow you to go up one size in the rope but that does come with downsides like filling anchor lockers faster, more cost and more niggle around the splice.
• The ropes we offer are top end in quality and strength so going up a size to gain more strength is not really worth it.

What Rope construction is best? These are what the manufacturers say they prefer –

• Maxwell – ProWarp8 or ProWarp3 strand.
• Lofrans – ProWarp3
• Muir – ProWarp3. If you have a horizontal with a big length of chain, go up one size in rope
• Lewmar – the smaller ones can use ProWarp3 and ProWarp8 but 1size larger. From V4 upwards they prefer ProWrap3 only.
• Quick – ProWarp3
• Sea Star and other direct from China winches – ProWarp3 only
• all others ask us

Some use differing rope constructions on the winches with varying results from works fine to doesn’t work at all. Use another at your risk.

The Chains offered –

• Short link chain China is made in China, a Grade 30 and what everyone else uses
• Riga is made in Italy, and a Grade 40 is 33% stronger than Grade 30
• MF is also made in Italy and a G40
• Force is Turkish and a G40
• DIN is the Specification the chains are built to. Some of our chains exceed the DIN specified strength
• All are Hot Dip Galvanised except for the Solid Zinc which is a super coating and very good.
• The price shown is ‘per metre including GST’

The Ropes offered –

• ProWarp3 – 3 Strand. designed specifically for R2C winches. Going through Certification right now.
• PR (ProSet) – 3 Strand. Made in the US and often called Lewmar Rope. Manufacturer has Type Approval
• ProWarp8 – the only high strength Certified 8 braid on the market
• White Polyester – 3 Strand. Not recommended in R2C winches but great for everything else.
• The price shown is ‘per metre including GST’

OK so you know who made your winch, the chain size and have read the info above, let’s get building.

• Pick your preferred rope type.
• Enter how many meters you would like. Think about this as there is no point buying 100m if you only ever anchor in 5. But be careful not to make it too short for those once in a while deeper fishing spot.
• Next click the word SPLICE in the bottom right
• The Splice is pre-set as you have no options.
• Next click the word CHAIN in the bottom right
• Pick your preferred chain.
• Enter how many meters you would like. The base guide is 1.5 times the boat length and more is better than less. About 2-2.5 times boat length is the most common.
• Next click the REVIEW AND PURCHASE in the bottom right. You’re not buying anything yet
• Now you see the summery of what you entered and the total cost for it all spliced up ready to drop in and then use.
• If you like what you see click the ‘ADD TO CART’ button, do the business and it will be in your hands in a day or 2.

If we see anything unusual, we will contact you just to make sure there isn’t a mistake or glitch.

Any questions, please feel free to contact us.