Heavy duty stainless steel spring snubbers

[hornblower]

I have been searching the web for some heavy duty spring snubbers for my mooring warps but can only find fairly small ones. The typ I would like are the ones that have rubber buffers at each end.

Has anyone seen these in any chandleries or online recently?

 

[pvb]

I have been searching the web for some heavy duty spring snubbers for my mooring warps but can only find fairly small ones. The typ I would like are the ones that have rubber buffers at each end.

Like these? From here.

Or this type? From here.

 

[Sybarite]

Like these? From here.

Or this type? From here.

They can become hellish squeeky after a while. I prefer all rubber ones.

 

[hornblower]

Exactly - thank you.

Where my boat is moored, in the Adriatic, the rubber ones give up the ghost and split. This winter I really need to upgrade to those.

Best,
Rob

 

[nigelmercier]

... the rubber ones give up the ghost and split...

The rubber ones split if you overload them with too many turns; I recon two turns is optimum, you get about 30cm of stretch. Also add a slack second line to pick up the strain when they are almost extended.

The metal ones are very noisy; I think I've used at least one can of spray lubricant going round all the metal ones nearby in the marina at night. Now if I could only silence that fecking wind turbine.

 

[little_roundtop]

I have been searching the web for some heavy duty spring snubbers for my mooring warps but can only find fairly small ones. The typ I would like are the ones that have rubber buffers at each end.

Has anyone seen these in any chandleries or online recently?

I can claim some experience here. In the marina here on Crete we get three or four quite serious surges during the winter. Nothing boat-breaking you understand, but strong steel spring snubbers are essential if you want to keep your fairleads and/or mooring cleats on the boat.

Over the years all of the regulars here have tried just about every combination of spring snubber and based on our collective experience I would strongly advise against stainless steel. It work hardens and goes brittle over quite a short time, then they break. Rarely catastrophically (I've not seen one fall apart yet) but they loose their springiness. We use four metal springs and when they were all stainless we'd break one every winter. On average they would last no more than 2 years.

Also avoid these:

You can see in the picture that they have a plastic insert to prevent the spring from being over-compressed. That does save wear and tear on the spring but when your boat surges the spring compresses until the insert stops it and then all the shock load is transferred to your cleats. In any case they're stainless so see above.

By far the best ones to go for are ordinary galvanised steel. They will go rusty over a couple of seasons and look a bit messy, but they keep doing the job. They only seem to break after wearing away the straight bits that the springs slide on. A friend here has a set that have been working perfectly for 5 years (though they're as rusty as hell).

They're not as noisy as you might think. Yes, we do hear squeaks and groans from ours and the boats around us. Silicon spray works for a day or two, greasing them just attracts dirt that wears them quicker. You pretty soon tune-out these noises anyway, and they're much less annoying than those boats with in-mast furling which have no sails on and nothing to stop the foil banging around inside the mast.

I can't help you on sourcing them, the local chandler here sells them in all sizes, from 6mm to the 12mm we use. But I really would avoid stainless.

 

[jimbaerselman]

Thought for the day - assuming end on mooring with 4m shore lines.

A snubber won't add more than 20cm stretch to a warp. 4m polyester allows about another 20cm. 4m nylon (with no snubber) allows 60cm .

So why not forget snubbers, use longer and lighter nylon to make really soft springs, and back them up with polyester to prevent the nylon stretching past 15% and deforming?

Crossed warps at the stern add length. Say 5m - 75cm stretch. Alternatively, lines from amidships to the shore will give you 8m to 10m - 120 to 150cm stretch. Which method you use depends whether your surge is mainly lateral or longitudinal. Of course, lateral is also demanding on fenders.

That gives the cleats a really soft ride - with a bit of a kick only if the surge is over 15% of the warp length.

Far better than these over-marketed snubbers giving a measly 20cm, eh? And all their squeaks and groans. System tested and proven in winter Kalamata, where 2 or 3 big southerlies a winter create a fine surge.