Mooring strop/chain solution sought

skyflyer

skyflyer

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Our club moorings (professionally serviced) are fitted with 12mm chain with a soft eye to loop over a cleat etc.
On my and some other boats this means bringing the chain over the bow roller and across the foredeck to a central cleat.
That has two undesirable effects: the chain rusts and stains the deck and it also chafes and damages the deck as it moves when the boat is pulling against the mooring in anything other than benign weather.

My solution had been to have the chain replaced with a rope strop. Then last year two boats broke similar strops in a blow causing thousands in damage to themselves and other boats and in one case being out of use for the entire season. I want to heed that warning and revert to chain - at least when I’m not onboard

I was wondering if anyone has an elegant simple solution?
 
Get a piece of decent plywood and cut it to size so that it’ll cover the path of the chain from roller to cleat. Paint it with some brand of hard wearing varnish or deck paint. If needs be, put hinges at the mid point to make it easier to stow. Put in place before mooring, stow after you’ve gone sailing.
Or get some firehose and use it to cover the chain.
 
I use the chain as a backup to the strop- ie connect a strop to the chain a few feet away from the bow roller which comes back over the bow roller to a cleat. The chain still comes up over the bow roller as well, and again goes to a cleat. Shorten the strop enough that it is taking all the strain and the chain is slack. This has two effects, firstly a strop helps when there is a blow as it has some give and prevents snatching, and secondly the chain on deck is slack so does not damage the deck. I put a piece of old carpet under the chain to prevent any rust on the deck.
To do this method you really need a double bow roller- one for the chain and one for the strop and ideally a cleat for each, unless you can fit both on a large central cleat.

If the strop should wear through in a gale you still have the chain as backup. I presume you are on a swinging mooring.
 
Swinging mooring, yes, should have said!

I thought of the double strop idea but was struggling with how to make a connection as there’s not much space between chain links for a d-shackle. I do t think the mooring contractor will like me cutting his chain into two parts just so I can fit a decent shackle!

One answer I guess is to ask him to fit a shorter length and then I supply both strop and extra chain length after that.
 
I have a 10mm rising chain on a relatively light boat and I did find a D shackle that would fit - just! I would have thought you should be able to find a D shackle and put the pin through your 12mm chain. It is better to have the rising chain continuous onto the deck with no shackles if you can . The only shackle I have is to make a loop in the end of the chain which then fits over the cleat.
 
Thicker rope? My strop is supplied by the chap who services the mooring - I've never measured it, but I think it's 24mm eight-plait, which in Liros octoplait form has a breaking load of 11.6 tonnes. That's significantly stronger than 12mm G40 chain, which goes bang at about 10 tonnes.
 
The first strop I used ( 18mm eight-plait)) chafed quite badly so I bought one of these - works very well - I know the price seems extortionate but it is cheaper than replacing strops and does seem to work extremely well.
Spiroll Rope Protection | Rope Protector

It is very unusual for a chain to break ( it should be replaced if there are any links with 20% wear) except in exceptional circumstances. It is nearly always a shackle that fails.
 
There's sense in several of the above....

I'd modify Coveman's suggestion ( #5 ) by use of a 'snubber', not a strop. This should be in 'stretchy' nylon, run from aft along the sidedeck, and be secured by a rolling hitch to the chain several feet forward, so the chain is unloaded/dangling in a 3-foot'ish loop. This is essentially Neeve's concept.

A rolling hitch is easy to do, reliable, and lots cheaper than a shackle and a manufactured strop.

The use of plastic matting, Astroturf or similar, along the foredeck and under the chain is also an excellent idea.
 
skyflyer said:
Our club moorings (professionally serviced) are fitted with 12mm chain with a soft eye to loop over a cleat etc.
On my and some other boats this means bringing the chain over the bow roller and across the foredeck to a central cleat.
That has two undesirable effects: the chain rusts and stains the deck and it also chafes and damages the deck as it moves when the boat is pulling against the mooring in anything other than benign weather.

My solution had been to have the chain replaced with a rope strop. Then last year two boats broke similar strops in a blow causing thousands in damage to themselves and other boats and in one case being out of use for the entire season. I want to heed that warning and revert to chain - at least when I’m not onboard

I was wondering if anyone has an elegant simple solution?
Click to expand...


I believe in safety in numbers ............ because I used to leave my boat on swinging mooring for extensive periods while away on jobs ... I never trusted one strop.

I have had an oak samson post broken on my Alacrity years ago and that taught me a lesson.

I usually used 3 strops ..... #1 to the mooring point via roller to cleat or post as you would normally. #2 was a lighter but still sufficient strop to a different cleat. #3 was what I termed my insurance line ... which went to base of the mast tabernacle.

#1 carried the weight with #2 and #3 slightly slack ... 2 & 3 do not need the roller .... just via forward fairleads.

Others in the club used to comment saying I was being overcautious .... till one day a boat broke free and did its work down through the moorings ...
Surprise surprise ... I noted others started adding a 'security' second strop !!
 
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Both boats that broke free last year had their strips chafe through under the water around the thimble - or depending how you look at it, at the splice!
If you aren’t in a position to check the mooring when the weather turns (and I’m not, being 4 hours away) then I have to leave the mooring safe to withstand any conditions that might arise
Until this incident with the other boats last May ( and there were two others did the same on the marina’s swinging moorings rather than club moorings ) I was happy with my strop
But now I am less confident.
 
skyflyer said:
Both boats that broke free last year had their strips chafe through under the water around the thimble - or depending how you look at it, at the splice!
If you aren’t in a position to check the mooring when the weather turns (and I’m not, being 4 hours away) then I have to leave the mooring safe to withstand any conditions that might arise
Until this incident with the other boats last May ( and there were two others did the same on the marina’s swinging moorings rather than club moorings ) I was happy with my strop
But now I am less confident.
Click to expand...


My 3 strops were never made to same point of the riding chain ...
 
skyflyer said:
Both boats that broke free last year had their strips chafe through under the water around the thimble - or depending how you look at it, at the splice!
If you aren’t in a position to check the mooring when the weather turns (and I’m not, being 4 hours away) then I have to leave the mooring safe to withstand any conditions that might arise
Until this incident with the other boats last May ( and there were two others did the same on the marina’s swinging moorings rather than club moorings ) I was happy with my strop
But now I am less confident.
Click to expand...
I would reiterate that it is essential, in my view, to have the rising chain attached to the cleat on the deck - in this way the chain is a backup if the strop or snubber as #10 suggests, fails. I have to leave my boat for long periods
unattended and doing it this way gives me confidence. Having said that, I hate looking at wind forecasts,when a storm comes through!!
Most of the mooring failures at our club are chafed strops or failed shackles.
 
I put put chain in a hose - sorts noise and rust.

However we also have a nylon (aka stretchy) mooring strop in a protective pipe), shorter than chain that takes the strain. If it breaks the chain takes over.
 
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