The first Wednesday of September, join The Triton for networking at Secure Chain & Anchor, right across the street from The Triton in Ft. Lauderdale (10 S.W. 23rd St., one block north of State Road 84, a half block west of Andrews Avenue).

We meet the first Wednesday of every month for casual networking from 6-8 p.m. There will be good music, nice food and beverages, along with tours of the warehouse and offices where Secure handles all things anchor.

Until then, read more about the company from Todd Loar, part of the team at Secure Chain & Anchor.

Q. To start, please tell us about Secure Chain & Anchor.

The founders started the company about 10 years ago as a distributor for chain and quickly expanded into the anchor part of the industry.

They began to specialize in the yachting market when they discovered that there weren’t other companies that were as hands-on with their clients as they wanted to be.

We work with agents and chandlers, the yard and surveyors, as well as the master to identify their problems, survey their needs and provide the right material to meet all the yacht’s requirements for chains and anchors.

And we don’t walk away from a boat. We’re always here to help a yacht on anything that has to do with their anchors or chains.

Q. So what is it that you do? Do you actually make the anchors and chains, or are you a distributor?

We are a distributor of chains and swivels from various manufacturers around the world. We supply all sizes of anchor chains.

As for the anchors, we do make our own right here in Ft. Lauderdale out of galvanized or stainless steel, and to ABS standards. We’ve built a reputation for doing solid custom work.

Q. So what can you do for yachts? Outfit just new builds or do your repair/replace old stuff? Do anchors and chains ever really wear out?

We repair windlasses, survey and suggest new equipment to replace old equipment, and we remove and dispose of the old and install the new equipment. We pick up and deliver anchors and chains.

Anchors don’t really wear out, but they break, they get lost, they get rusty, they bend. We fix all those problems.

We remove the damaged anchor, bring it to our shop, cut the bent or broken blades off and put new ones on.

We are very service oriented. We’re all boaters and sailors, so we’ve broken a few knuckles on boats. We know the consequences of doing something wrong.

Q. What’s the biggest problem you see on yachts when it comes to anchors and chains?

The mismatch of equipment. The yacht might have the right chain but the wrong swivel and that becomes a weak link.

A few months ago, we got a call from a captain who was complaining because the anchor chains would wiggle in 10 knots of wind. Well, the chain was too small for the yacht and the anchors it was holding. So we went in and fixed that.

It’s just experience. No one means to put the wrong equipment on a boat, but an anchor chain and anchor are important pieces of equipment and should be sited by someone who knows what they are doing.

Q. Do you simply ship anchors and chain to people who order them or is your installation part of the deal?

We don’t just provide anchors. We ask a lot of questions so that the equipment we ship will work. The last thing we want is to ship some equipment and the captain says it doesn’t fit, take it back.

Anchors aren’t cheap, so we’ll go to the boat and measure what they need. We pattern a custom anchor for their needs and build it to order.

We didn’t always do that, but all our procedures come from experience. We’ve learned how to do this job really well.

Q. I’ve seen a bunch of RIBs in your warehouse. Tell us about that part of your business.

I joined the company about three years ago and I have about 10 years of inflatable boat repair experience. So last year, the company decided to open a repair division for inflatables. We service all brands, and even fenders.