Mooring Lines

[Laundryman]

I spent the night in West Cowes Yacht Haven last night and even though i was tied to an inner pontoon, there was a large continuous swell. My mooring lines definately need replacing as the creaking was unbearable. Ive used the search function but there seems to be much confusion as to which is best, polyester or nylon. What i want is to stop the horrible creaking. Which one is best please?

 

[kingfisher]

What you need is a rubber block damper or metal spring damper on you warps. Just by placing a rubber block on one of your lines has a impressive damping effect. I always thought they were just a gimmick, untill I bought some on a jumble at a price too low to refuse. I'll never go without anymore.

 

[ianat182]

Mooring lines.....

Quite apart from the swell in the Haven ,the better ropes for the mooring up are the three strand ropes, or anchorplait type rope ,which have some elasticity .The plaited ropes snatch with little stretch.
As Kingfisher says using the rubber snubbers helps a lot with all types .

 

[VicS]

From Jimmy Green's website

Nylon:
Very strong and very good stretch - Excellent abrasion resistance - Very good UV resistance - Not very acid-proof - Tends to go stiff when wet, particularly in the larger 3-strand sizes - It can be plaited (as in *Anchorplait) to give great handling and flexibility - Sinks

Polyester:
Nearly as strong as nylon, but not so much stretch - Can be braided or pre-stretched to give very low stretch - Excellent uv resistance - Very good chemical resistance - Great flexibility - Excellent abrasion resistance - Sinks

Polypropylene:
Not so strong as nylon or polyester - Stretch between nylon and polyester, depending on type - Excellent chemical resistance - Not very resistance to UV - Satisfactory wear resistance, depending on type - Floats - NB. Monofilament is prone to splintering in its later life


I suspect your noise problem was due to using a stretchy nylon warp.

You may prevent the noise by wrapping some rag around the rope where it passes through the fair-leads, or by enclosing in a length of split plastic tube.

 

[lw395]

Much of the creaking is caused by rope stretching between the fairlead and cleat on deck. You can either reduce the rubbing with padding, or try to eliminate it by moving the cleat closer to the fairlead- my lw had the bow cleat a long way back which gave exactly this problem.
I also found that mooring using the spinnaker guy eye bolts on the rail for the springs avoided any chafe points and noise.
Swinging moorings are much quieter!

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Q lw395....Swinging moorings are much quieter!

Not if you'r inexperienced, with a very sick crew and tie up on the first buoy you come to in Poole harbour entrance in a F7, wind over tide with no snubbers.......

 

[Robin]

Q lw395....Swinging moorings are much quieter!

Not if you'r inexperienced, with a very sick crew and tie up on the first buoy you come to in Poole harbour entrance in a F7, wind over tide with no snubbers.......

Poole has some very exposed moorings depending on wind direction and wind over tide doesn't help as although the tidal range is small the double HW means it all goes out in half the time - very fast!

However there is always somewhere in the harbour to hide from the wind and depending on draught dodge the worst of the tide or at least drop the hook and have wind across the tide. If the wind is SW-NW then giving a few seahorses a headache anchoring in Studland is better!

As for mooring lines, we have nylon with rubber snubbers on our home berth lines and when away carry 3 lines with snubbers if needed. However we had a creaky night in St Peter Port (see other post) with two biggies arrive after we went to bed rafted outside and hanging off us and whilst our lines didn't creak and jerk theirs on us did. I suppose I could have offered them the use of our snubber lines as well since they were already hanging on our shore lines.

 

[Seafort]

Desperate?

What i want is to stop the horrible creaking.

Use washing up liquid where necessary.

Probably get "Told off" for this but is does work.


Dave.

 

[Scotty_Tradewind]

Q "However there is always somewhere in the harbour to hide from the wind and depending on draught dodge the worst of the tide or at least drop the hook and have wind across the tide. If the wind is SW-NW then giving a few seahorses a headache anchoring in Studland is better!"

This is true, but years ago in my first days it wasn't.

 

[alexrunic]

Nylon is the best by far the more stretch the better less shock loading on cleats etc. No good using only sheets like you see some people use.

 

[johnalison]

I agree that old sheets are pretty useless, but not that stretch is necessarily a good thing. There are times when one does not want a mooring line to stretch unduly, especially when quite a long line is used. It is not always practicable to have snubbers permanently attached either as they make the line heavier and clumsier, especially when a coil is thrown - a practice I try to discourage.

Certain kinds of shore mooring cleat seem particularly prone to creaking; the alloy ones seem worst, and the problem sometimes happens during the second night after the coils have tightened.

My 3 ply polyester lines seemed to get worse as they aged and are being replaced, but my usual solution is to double up a problem line with a nylon line (taking the load) with or without a snubber.

 

[puddock]

I agree that old sheets are pretty useless, but not that stretch is necessarily a good thing. There are times when one does not want a mooring line to stretch unduly, especially when quite a long line is used. It is not always practicable to have snubbers permanently attached either as they make the line heavier and clumsier, especially when a coil is thrown - a practice I try to discourage.

Certain kinds of shore mooring cleat seem particularly prone to creaking; the alloy ones seem worst, and the problem sometimes happens during the second night after the coils have tightened.

My 3 ply polyester lines seemed to get worse as they aged and are being replaced, but my usual solution is to double up a problem line with a nylon line (taking the load) with or without a snubber.

I launched in early March and was onboard in the marina during some pretty boisterous weather. I too suffered the irritating "squeak" until after a forecast of still stronger winds, when I doubled up my lines (Boat cleat-marina cleat-boat cleat). A side effect I noticed was signicantly less "squeak".
Might be worth a try..........

 

[lw395]

Q lw395....Swinging moorings are much quieter!

Not if you'r inexperienced, with a very sick crew and tie up on the first buoy you come to in Poole harbour entrance in a F7, wind over tide with no snubbers.......

Yes, it's unsafe to generalise. The noisiest mooring I have ever used was a swinger outside Lyme Regis. The forecast light N wind went South F4 at about 2 am. We endured it until 4 am and set off into the sunrise. Sleep was resumed alongside a pontoon in Weymouth!

 

[snowleopard]

All mine are the hairy polypropylene type. I get very little noise, they have lasted for 9 years to date, they float so very hard to wrap round a prop and, being cheap, you can afford lots of them. I carry 4 x 10m, 2 x 20m, 2 x 30m and the remaining 80m from the original coil sits at the bottom of the locker as a reserve or to make replacements.

Here's a tip - to save time rummaging for a line of the right length, I use 1, 2 or 3 whippings on each end to indicate 10, 20 or 30m.

 

[3buoysailing]

I have a 10 year old Nauticat 331 which I bought from new. When I recieved the boat I was supplied with 3 hanks of 50meters x 18mm anchorplait. I have been using this for mooring on a pontoon berth since new. I still have one hank remaining and recently had a spring break on a newly replaced warp. The warp has been stored inside the boat in a dry locker and looks as good as the day it was made! The boat is kept in a marina on the Portuguese Algarve and suffers from a lot of swell and this year has been especialy bad! I have been told that the warp has a shelf life and could be out of date is there any truth in this or is it still safe to use. I am now worried and wonder if I should dispose of this perfectly new looking hank and buy new warps. Can anyone help please.
Paul