Chafe

[Thresher]

I've had my boat for 20 years, had it in many places, many different marinas for various amounts of time. I've just come back after 14 nights away back to my boat in Sada marina in A Coruna to find one of my bow mooring lines chafed halfway through. I have never experienced this before but have read about it many times on this forum. It occurs to me that if I had left my boat here for the winter then it would have eaten its way all the way through. Does anyone have any similar experiences?

 

[MontyMariner]

No.
Have you identified what the line was rubbing against to cause the chafe?

 

[RupertW]

When leaving a boat for more than a couple of days I always have a backup line (slightly slack) for every line. Even after a winter or hurricane season I’ve rarely seen chafe and it’s been something I should have spotted as a chafe point.

 

[dunedin]

No.
Have you identified what the line was rubbing against to cause the chafe?

This.
Perhaps if you can explain where the chafe happened you may be able to get more helpful suggestions.

As noted on here, ropes looped round cleats or through eyes and back to the boat can chafe much faster than ones fixed firmly at each end to avoid movement. But also can be at boat fairleads; where two lines cross - or in our case where there was a hidden sharp spot on the edge of the pontoon.
Like others, when leaving boat key ropes are doubled up for safety.

 

[Daydream believer]

On my boat the fairleads are key cafe points, so I do not use them. My cleats are right on the edge, so the lines can go straight over the side to whatever is holding the other end.
One year I left my berth for 12 weeks. When I returned it seems that the marina had let the space to a single craft. No issue with that. Problem is that they had clearly used my berthing lines. Once again I would not have minded.
What did irk me, was that 2 of the lines were almost cut right through. Presumably from where they had passed through the other boats fairleads. I had to change them for new lines.
As a result, I no longer use decent dock lines & when my boat comes ashore in the winter, I remove them so anyone going in the berth has to use their own.

 

[Stemar]

Chafe is caused by the line rubbing on something. The solution is to prevent the rubbing, either by fixing the line on the cleat or putting some sort of protection on it, A piece of hose of a suitable size will go a long way to preventing chafe at a fairlead or similar.

 

[Thresher]

Crikey, it worse than thought. I found this in the cockpit this morning. My boat must have got loose and someone re-tied it for me. It's my stern line, it was looped around a cleat and chafed through at the fairlead.
I will double up my lines when leaving the boat in the future.

 

[Boathook]

Crikey, it worse than thought. I found this in the cockpit this morning. My boat must have got loose and someone re-tied it for me. It's my stern line, it was looped around a cleat and chafed through at the fairlead.
I will double up my lines when leaving the boat in the future.

I would work out away to stop the wear. Has the fairlead got a sharp edge that's causing the problem ?

 

[RupertW]

Crikey, it worse than thought. I found this in the cockpit this morning. My boat must have got loose and someone re-tied it for me. It's my stern line, it was looped around a cleat and chafed through at the fairlead.
I will double up my lines when leaving the boat in the future.

Makes sense but I’d also suggest getting some transparent hose of the right diameter in areas where you think their might be chafe. They are a pain to take on and off every time but perfect for those tie-ups before you leave the boat for a period. They will chafe instead of the boat as long as you are careful to ensure the end points of the hose aren’t chafe points themselves. I don’t use any at the moment but when I was at a marina subject to swell they were very useful where two stern ropes had to cross each other to prevent the stern moving wildly from side to side.

 

[capnsensible]

Using non stretch multiplat won't help......

 

[Sandy]

Crikey, it worse than thought. I found this in the cockpit this morning. My boat must have got loose and someone re-tied it for me. It's my stern line, it was looped around a cleat and chafed through at the fairlead.
I will double up my lines when leaving the boat in the future.

A Victor Meldrew moment...

You never used that for a warp!

 

[MontyMariner]

it was looped around a cleat and chafed through at the fairlead.
I will double up my lines when leaving the boat in the future

If you don't protect the lines you have two chafed lines when you return in the future