Galvanised wire rope for mooring strop instead of chain...

[savageseadog]

All the sailing club moorings at Holyhead use galvanised wire strops rather than chain. They have loops formed at the ends with a swages ferrel that you simply make off too a cleat. These on boats upto 45ft long.

We are replacing the pick up chain on our 12m yacht. It is significantly cheaper to have a 13mm, minimum breaking load of over 10tonne galvanised wire strop made up to connect to the top of the mooring.. It will be a tidy fit in the bow roller, articulate properly, no wear and rusty runs between links etc etc and It's less than 1/4 of the price of 12mm chain.

That Means I can simply throw it every season or sooner if it starts too go slightly rusty making a mess on the foredeck.

I can understand the need for chains from the anchors as they will lie on the bottom as the tide falls..

Any thoughts.

 

[penfold]

On the basis that wire is cheap I'd go up to 20mm; 13mm is a bit weeny. Certainly I've known of mooring contractors that use wire strops with no problems

 

[vyv_cox]

Yes, I've used the Holyhead moorings and wonder the same thing. Surely there must be a reason that nowhere else I've been uses them, but I can't think what it is.

From memory I suspect the Holyhead ones are bigger than 13 mm, although it has been a long time. So far as strength is concerned 13 mm cable is far stronger than 12 mm chain, which you probably know already

 

[greenalien]

The only disadvantage that comes to my mind is the possibility of ripping your hand to bits if a strand of the cable breaks. I'd rather use a rope strop, suitably protected against chafe.

 

[Grajan]

Wire rope junks

We used them when I was in the mooring business. very max life is ONE season. we found that they could look ok but given a blow they sheared as if cut with a knife about a foot below the waterline, on closer inspection it was as if the internal strands rusted away first leaving the external wires looking virtually pristine but the cable had minimal strength, we tried Talurit type swages and had none fail but with a NATO base on our doorstep maintaining the submarine nets, there was always a steady stream of volunteers to hand splice both ends of the 3/4" wire for some extra "baccy" money.If using a wire junk make sure the shackle(s) are well moused. we would mushroom the pin at the screw end and wire the eye end of the shackle pin in an attempt to stop them escaping!

 

[William_H]

Mooring Strop

Far better IMHO to use nylon or polypropelene rope for upper parts of mooring. It lasts much loinger and has some spring in it. Of course you should double up on the mooring strop just in case. good luck olewill

 

[sarabande]

at our fairly local auction house for ex-MOD kit, I have seen galvanised strops with what look like aluminium alloy swages. OK for pulling aircraft aroun don runways, but in contact with seawater ?

 

[Chris_Robb]

Far better IMHO to use nylon or polypropelene rope for upper parts of mooring. It lasts much loinger and has some spring in it. Of course you should double up on the mooring strop just in case. good luck olewill

William, I would agree that Nylon can be used, but surely not Polyprop. Polyprop has the tendency to melt internally when stretched. It also sufferes more than nylon from Ultra violet.

My own preference for a long term mooring strop is for one that does NOT stretch, as the act of stretching causes chafe at the fairleads. I use nylon as a chain snubber when on anchor, as I want the stretch to avoid shock loads, but you have to watch the chafe.