[Renoir]

I've been using a double braid polyester-to-chain attachment for some time now and consider it superior to any nylon-to-chain splice and here's why: Polyester will not significantly stretch and abraid around the last link of a chain as will/can nylon. A small properly balanced eye splice (5/8" nylon will fit into a 3/8" BBB chain link) is stronger than a three-strand crown or other type of knot.

First carefully dress the zinc circumferentially where the splice will bear to make it smooth. Next cover the link there with a butterfly-cut sail mending tape (or anti-chafe tape) making it smooth with no winkles.

Next make a good tight-as-possible eye splice. I prefer to use about 20 ft of polyester to do this as it makes it easy to draw up both ends of the line when making the eye splices....short pieces may be more work to be easy, and any extra length of polyester is just fine...merely costs more than the nylon that you will attach for stretch and give under load.

Make an eye splice at the other end sufficiently large so as to pass the entire coil of nylon to which you will attach to the polyester. This polyester "interface" will give you the best worlds of both nylon and polyester just where you need them. Make an eye in the bitter end of the nylon rode only sufficiently large so as to accommodate the two diameters of polyester to which it attaches. Pass the polyester eye through the nylon eye then pass all of the nylon rode through the polyester eye and draw it up to make what looks like a square knot that is entirely balanced (as good a balance as the worst eye that you made...if you did a good job I doubt that if the rode fails it will NOT be at the joins of the nylon/polyester or the polyester/chain).

Each join should easily pass through the chain pipe from your windlass. As long as you keep a watch during retreival on the gypsy and wildcat (if you have both with a combo arrangement that good windlasses have) you will be able to easily control the wind-up where the joins pass over the various drums.

Keep a well secured small diameter line attached rearward of the windlass that allows you to clap on a one-handed prussic hitch or rolling hitch to the chain just when you have to stop and unwrap the rode from the wildcat drum and transfer the chain to the gypsy. The small line will temporarily take up the weight of the chain and anchor to let you make the transfer easily. All of this operation should take place inboard with no leaning over or through the pulpit if you arrange everything correctly.