De32 chain locker capacity? Any ideas how modify so it will hold chain!? General Forum Forums

I did what you're assuming is the only answer: I put a 3" pvc pipe from the hawse hole under our manual Sea Tiger windlass through the useless chain locker and into the hold just below the forward part of the V berth. I spent a day with a heat gun and some clamps and forms to get the thing to twist and turn at just the right angles. It turns out that if the pipe doesn't pitch down enough in any section, the chain just won't slide down and bunches up on deck so someone has to go down, lift the cushions and yank the chain down.

I didn't want to have to do that so it took many tries to get the thing slanting down just right all the way from the windlass to the center of the new chain locker. As it is, I still need to pile the chain on deck and then feed it down by hand very quickly so it doesn't mound up under the outlet part of the tube. When it does that, the chain can't fall. It's a delicate balance but it works and it moves all that weight back a few feet which brought the bow up a little. 

I did have to go through the bulkhead at the apex of the V berth but only just barely so the cushions didn't even need to be modified.

Bending the tube (I used electrical grey tube) without kinking or flattening it was the hard part: I had to clamp it between a couple 2 x 4s to keep it round as I bent it and it took a good heat gun (not a hair drier) about 3 minutes each time I needed to heat it up to bend it.

Rick