Mooring Warps

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neil1967

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My newly acquired Oyster 406 came with a motley collection of mooring warps, few of which appear up to much. What quantity, length, diameter and material would you recommend (and which suppliers)? The 406 is 40' 6" LOA and displaces around 9500 Kg but in cruising trim probably closer to 11000 Kg. she will be S Coast based for a few years before going liveaboard cruising.

Thanks

Neil
 
I'm a firm believer in 'one rope/one job' and, although you'll almost certainly carry more, my rule of thumb for the basic set is:

4 warps of boat length
2 of 1 1/2 times boat length
2 longish ones (for shorelines when rafting out etc) - say about 25m each.

As for material, I like 3 strand polyester as it's easy to handle. doesn't go hard and stiff in the same way as nylon does yet still offers reasonable stretch characteristics. I would think 16mm would be about right.

Last time I renewed ours, it paid to buy one long length and divide it into suitable lengths ourselves. Beaulieu boat jumble's coming up, maybe some possibilities there?
 
See the Jimmy Green website for recommendations of number and size. Not necessarily the best place to buy, although reel prices are usually competitive.
 
Moving up from a smaller yacht to a bigger one - just interested in opinions. Like Goldie, I'm a one job, one rope person. If you'd seen what was left on the yacht you'd be seriously worried!

Neil
 
This company offers rope at very good prices, so I have found: -

http://www.ropesandtwines.com/

I am a fan of staple spun polypropylene rope. This can be purchased with UV stabilisation and the hairs offer good resistance to chaff. I used this type of line for 5 years on a yacht which sailed all over the UK, mooring in various locations and conditions. The snatch loads that nylon would have absorbed were never really noticeable.

I would recommend 18 mm diameter.
 
Goldie said:
As for material, I like 3 strand polyester as it's easy to handle. doesn't go hard and stiff in the same way as nylon does yet still offers reasonable stretch characteristics.
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Strangely I did a test and made one warp in nylon and one in polyester, for the same reasons.
The polyester one snapped below water level after 2 years. The nylon one, whilst hard was still perfectly sound. This was in fresh water, and I used to inspect line every month at least.

And as usual, don't use plastic pipe over the warp. Apart from the cracking and cutting I have seen some pipe chafing the line where it emerges.

Yep that one broke at the crack near the fairlead

Mitsybrokenmooring2.jpg


This one is just starting the cutting process

RoseAnnbrokenmooring3.jpg


This one went at then end of the plastic pipe

chafedline.jpg
 
Seajet said:
While not wishing to be rude, I doubt I'm the only one to find it alarming that someone with a boat like that is asking that...
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The ignorants are not the ones not asking questions - they are the ones not listening to the answers!
 
Well I'm scratching my head over the same question as we launch our new boat today and our longest line (47ft boat) we found on board is just 22ft long. We need hefty mooring lines for our berth but also some longish ones that are not too heavy to handle for visitor berths, rafting and so on. Oddly prices here in the USA are eye watering so I'm thinking a trip to West Marine when they open this am to get one at least then think and plan the others later when we have a bit more time. So no I don't think it is a dumb question at all, because moving up in size of boat needs bigger lines but then they are not so easy to handle and so you think smaller maybe for routine use. I do know that whatever we get it will always be a foot too short for what we need...
 
Seajet said:
While not wishing to be rude, I doubt I'm the only one to find it alarming that someone with a boat like that is asking that...
Click to expand...

Oyster envy.

Sensible question sensible advice that whats great about this Forum.

I did recently hesitantly asked what could have appeared to be a stupid question when Snoops described a different way of berthing. Reassuringly it appeared that most bigger boat owners used astern to stop while many smaller boat owners (easier to reach out to laso the cleat) used a warp to stop. Having read some of the responses on here I did expect some stick in a few of the replies but was pleased that they were all informative.
 
neil1967 said:
My newly acquired Oyster 406 came with a motley collection of mooring warps, few of which appear up to much. What quantity, length, diameter and material would you recommend (and which suppliers)? The 406 is 40' 6" LOA and displaces around 9500 Kg but in cruising trim probably closer to 11000 Kg. she will be S Coast based for a few years before going liveaboard cruising.

Thanks

Neil
Click to expand...

We are a few feet longer than you, and a bit heavier. We have 18mm and it is more than enough. 16mm should be fine for you.

As to quantities and lengths, it is worth considering where you will normally be mooring up, and make sure you have what you will use most frequently.

If in a marina you will normally need two lines for the bow (if bows in), one for the stern and two springs. So, five warps. For these we have 10m warps and the boat is about 13m. These warps serve us well when alongside mooring.

When we are rafted we sometimes call upon two extras we carry at 14m for the bow and stern.

We also carry a couple of 20m warps, but to date these has only been deployed for towing. Another story!
 
16mm is quite big IMHO. Are all the cleats really big enough for this? Can you get a proper oxo on?
No point upsizing to something you don't really have the cleats for.
12mm is probably more than strong enough. Obviously a fat rope has more reserve for chafe, but will only take perhaps 50% longer to chafe through.
IMHO shorelines generally do not come under huge shockloads so don't need to be as big as the short lines on a marina berth.
A well moored boat does not put huge loads on the warps.
Having said all that, my mooring pendant on the swinging mooring was 30mm polyester for a light 40ft boat. But that had a spliced eye that dropped on a cleat.
So the answer is 'it depends'!
 
lw395 said:
16mm is quite big IMHO. Are all the cleats really big enough for this? Can you get a proper oxo on?
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Ours (on a 37') are either 14 or 16 - one OXO is fine - but if cleats are in short supply then getting a second line on usually requires a loop for one of the lines. Not always ideal though ...
 
You do tend to accumulate ropes on a boat! I've got a locker full. The favourites are on the top but lurking beneath are all sorts of old sheets (braid on braid) and other lengths that 'may be useful'. You do have to be careful with using the correct type. We had a bow line (old sheet, braided) part during the night last year at Wicklow due to chafe overnight. It went with a bang and I've never seen my crew emerge from their berths so quickly!
 
neil1967 said:
My newly acquired Oyster 406 came with a motley collection of mooring warps, few of which appear up to much. What quantity, length, diameter and material would you recommend (and which suppliers)? The 406 is 40' 6" LOA and displaces around 9500 Kg but in cruising trim probably closer to 11000 Kg. she will be S Coast based for a few years before going liveaboard cruising.

Thanks

Neil
Click to expand...

There will be a few occasions when you must lie alongside a wall in rough and tumble weather, and your warps will be led over the quayside edge to rings or bollards.... or you will be lying alongside a rusty steel trawler in much the same conditons.

In such circumstances, expensive warps may chafe through, across a rough edge, pdq. For such events, I carry a couple of short lengths of chain, each about 2 metres long, which I can attach to a hard eye in the end of a warp, using a shackle to make a chain-loop. Thus the chain takes the abrasion on the rough edge and not the warp. ;)
 
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