Best Material for Mooring lines?

[hoped4]

What is the best material for mooring lines? I suppose I would like to know whether it is polyester or nylon which goes really stifff? I have one inherited line which is really stifff and would like to avoid that if I possibly can.

 

[Gin]

Can't answer you yet but I've had ,previously used, 16mm nylon mooring lines on my for and aft trot moorings for two seasons.
They are still OK for another season or two( but that's what I said a season or two ago !!)
They are now rather stiff and a pain to remove from the mooring buoys at the end of the season.

So I've now purchased 4 new lines from these people, they are polyester- high strength and low abrasion(Marlow) allegedly, and as cheap as chips- PM at the end of the year and I'll tell you how I got on with them

http://www.ropeybuoys.com/
(£28 for 4 x 4.5 metre lines each with a soft eye

 

[bobgoode]

Nylon has a tendency to go stiff, especially the matt stuff.

 

[BlueSkyNick]

Jimmy Green's site technical pages might help you.

I often post links to this but have no connection - I just find the information is very useful

 

[Gin]

Too expensive!

 

[BlueSkyNick]

Maybe, Gin

I wasnt referring to the prices, just showing the description of the different materials.

 

[Searush]

Second hand climbing ropes - provided you don't want them for a permanent marina set up.

Strong, stretchy, soft & good to handle. And best of all, if you can get condemned ones off the local climbing club they are dead cheap!

 

[FAITIRA]

Corlene (light green with a white fleck), a mix of poly prop and nylon, was great on my 44ft 20ton boat for 6yrs, bought at a commercial fishing chandlers, very good value. Bill.

 

[Sixpence]

[ QUOTE ]
if you can get condemned ones off the local climbing club they are dead cheap!

[/ QUOTE ]

We don't have many climbing clubs around here /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif
Any idea if they sell them online anywhere ?

 

[VicS]

[ QUOTE ]
climbing clubs

[/ QUOTE ] These days they would not dare sell you old climbing ropes. Elf and safety. You might use them to go climbing, fall off a mountain and kill yourself. They would then be at fault.

 

[Sixpence]

Surely not ?, if I choose to use certain lines for certain uses they weren't supposed to be for, that's my choice isn't it ?.

 

[Billjratt]

What are you - mobo or yottie? Up here yotties replace worn running rigging and use the old stuff for mooring etc. a never-ending supply. Climbing rope is good for springs but it does go hard (like any other) if it's overworked, Stiffness can be due to heating/melting of the fibres resulting from friction during stress which gives the 'hard' feeling.

 

[Sixpence]

[ QUOTE ]
What are you - mobo or yottie?

[/ QUOTE ]

Er, both /forums/images/graemlins/blush.gif

 

[Searush]

If mine get a bit hard I pop 'em in the washing machine. Most of it is due to salt in the fibres. washing, with a bit of fabric softener does the job a treat.

VicS. Some clubs do insist on cutting up their ropes into short (6' ish) lengths to stop them being used for climbing. But not every one is completely paranoid about elfin safety. There may not be many mountains in Lincs, but there will be climbing clubs at the Uni's even if they spend a lot of time on indoor walls.

 

[Malcb]

[ QUOTE ]
What are you - mobo or yottie? Up here yotties replace worn running rigging and use the old stuff for mooring etc. a never-ending supply. Climbing rope is good for springs but it does go hard (like any other) if it's overworked, Stiffness can be due to heating/melting of the fibres resulting from friction during stress which gives the 'hard' feeling.

[/ QUOTE ]

It never ceases to amaze me that 'sailors' will often use ropes that they have decided not to use for their original purpose, for what ever reasons, but will still use them to moor up their 2nd/3rd most expensive purchase. When new, purpose mooring ropes are not really that expensive.

 

[Sixpence]

Steve, good thinking, I think Lincoln Uni has just such a team. As you know, I am most definately not into all this Elfish nonsense, I have even been known to walk on pontoons without a lifejacket.

 

[roly_voya]

Nylon is definatly the way to go, especially for shorter lines. When the boat surges a low stretch line must bring it to a sudden stop and even at a slow speed several tons of boat has quite a lot of energy so bringing it up short puts lots of strain both on the rope and the cleats. A springy rope disipates shock in stretch so lessems the load. 3st nylon is cheap but goes hard. Multiplait anchor line costs more but doesnt harden and has most stretch (hence its use in anchor warps) also coils well and dosn't tangle, definatly the best bet and after all how much is a set of lines compared to the value of the boat? Old halyards are about as bad as you can get but having said all that if you moore in a marina with no surge there is neglagable strain on the lines anyway.

 

[whipper_snapper]

[ QUOTE ]
It never ceases to amaze me that 'sailors' will often use ropes that they have decided not to use for their original purpose, for what ever reasons, but will still use them to moor up their 2nd/3rd most expensive purchase. When new, purpose mooring ropes are not really that expensive.

[/ QUOTE ]


Oh no. The bl**dy thought police are here again. Consider the possibility that people have sufficient intelligence to make that call for themselves. If you know of some hidden 'gotcha' then it would be useful to let people know. But a general "why-o-why can't people agree with me", is pointless.

Personally I have had a couple of 150' x 11mm ex-climbing ropes on board for years and consider them incredibly valuable for all sorts of things. Notably when coming outside a raft, I am often the only person able to put a line ashore. I also have several ex halyards which have worn at 2 or 3 points, then been end for ended to wear at 2 or 3 different points, then relegated to use as springs.

It never ceases to amaze me that 'sailors' will throw money at a problem without understanding the issues. I presume you put 'sailors' in quotes to indicate that careful use and re-use of rope was unseamanlike behaviour. I beg to differ.

 

[Gin]

Apologies!

 

[Strathglass]

Discarded climbing ropes make very good mooring lines.
They are well UV protected and they have a good give.
I have been on a 32 ft yacht which had them and was quite impressed.

In the world of boating one must always be on the lookout for maintaining costs at respectable levels by using alternative sources for hardware.

Very often alternative materials are much superior to that marketed for 'yachting' use.

Many but not all mass produced consumer products are now of quite an accectable standard for use on boats.

One must not be blinkered by ' It doesn't say Yachting so I cannot use it'

Iain