Rope storage drum...

Mark-1

Mark-1

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I've got 50m of 6mm 3 strand nylon rope [1]. It won't coil in any compact/tidy/sane/practical fashion.

Currently I wrap it around a flat bit of 40cm x 20cm plywood which works ok.

Anyone care to suggest a 'better' solution - lighter, more compact & faster to deploy and retrieve?

Must cost pennies or be available in skips! (Obviously.)

[1] You can guess what it's used for. [2]
[2] Don't judge me.
 
Go to your local rigger or chandler and beg an empty spool - should be free. If you don't mind splashing some cash - garden hose reel - wait till Aldi or Lidl have them on special.
 
If you roll it onto a drum, you will need to unroll, not pull it off the side of the drum or it will twist horribly.
If you wind it onto a rectangular frame like those used for lawnmower cables, the twists are not so bad, because uncoiling is the exact reverse of coiling.
So I'd consider knocking up a rectangular frame from a few bits of wood, unless rolling and unrolling with a drum suits whatever use you have for this string.

A big version of this:
http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/2x-Kite-H...338698?hash=item2cc195278a:g:f6MAAOSw~rpZTO3x
 
I would find a local company that does MIG welding and ask them for an empty MIG welding wire drum.

s-l200.jpg


The other way is wit a power lead tidy

s-l500.jpg


I have a drum like this, mine can take 100m of 20mm octoplait anchor line

leELmIP.jpg
 
One thing to remember is not to wind the rope on when it is heavily loaded. Otherwise you accumulate tension and end up with enough power to squash the reel.
 
Many thanks everyone.

On the face of it a plastic power lead tidy will do the job and is available for £3, plus I can prove the concept with one I have in my garage on a mains lead.

It's quite similar to what I already use, but won't deteriorate or give me splinters.

Glad I asked now, YBW at its best.
 
Neeves said:
Go to your local rigger or chandler and beg an empty spool - should be free. If you don't mind splashing some cash - garden hose reel - wait till Aldi or Lidl have them on special.
Click to expand...

+1 - I picked up 100m polysteel for cheap in Mylor and asked for an old rope reel, plastic one. Said he had plenty of those laying around and they even wound it on the reel for us - no extra charge for the reel or the winding. Combined with an alu pole from a destroyed waterbrush and some string, it hangs on the stern arch in the shade of a solar panel:

leaving.jpg
 
I have 50m of nylon line, probably 12-14mm. I find it no trouble to coil in the conventional fashion. Just coil until your collecting hand is full, then slip the coil over your wrist onto your forearm, thus leaving the hand free to collect the rest. Leave yourself enough line to wrap around the coil to make a compact and tidy finish.
 
Thanks all, I'm well chuffed. Tidy and compact, at the expense of a bit of time wrapping it round.

Before and after here:

IMG_20170921_175301.jpg

Will it coil? Not at all when new. Not brilliantly now, even after the softening effect of a year of use.

What is it? Well it's for anything I fancy but its main purpose has been getting attached to a short bit of thin chain and used as my Anchor cable. Usually with an angel to stop it tangling up with bits of the boat. As I said, don't judge me. :)
 
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lw395 said:
Strong enough to stop for lunch.
Or to kedge against the tide.
Click to expand...

I wouldn't have thought strength was the issue, abrasion resistance might be, but it only seems to wear in the 30-40cm nearest the chain and I can cut that last bit off periodically (although after a year it's still not bad enough to do that.)

The biggest issue by far is swinging room. It's ok in winter when nobody's about but in summer in the busy area I sail these days the amount swinging room I need is a monumental ballache - I sometimes end up either setting an alarm to adjust it with the tide or just chancing using cable that's shorter than I'd like. Plus the awkwardness of occasionally having to ask newcomers not to anchor too close! Mind you it's a strong incentive to seek out places nobody else thinks to go which is no bad thing.

There's just no substitute for 100pc chain and a lot of it.

Having said that, a bit of thin springy nylon makes for a very comfy night at anchor in any kind of wind/seastate. It's effectively a big elastic band, there is never any shock loading at all. That aspect is a total revelation. I've never used a snubber in my life before - I'm starting to think I should have!
 
MM5AHO said:
With nylons UV sensitivity, how will you shade it?
Click to expand...

Not an issue I've ever considered WRT nylon. It lives in a locker so it's in the dark most of the time but yeah, it has seen some daylight. I'm sure I've seen plenty of nylon mooring lines that are left out in the sun 24/7 for years without coming to any harm. But yes, I haven't thought about it in this context and I don't to anything specifically to mitigate it in relation to this specific bit of string.
 
Nylon, often with no chain is very common as a rode in the Baltic and is often housed on dedicated reels. Nylon is also very common on reels in higher latitudes but used as shore lines, think anything upto 4 lengths of 200m each. Equally common is to replace the rope with tape wound on dedicated flat reels, Ultra make them. Ultra supply both flat nylon or dyneema tape of varying lengths (and appropriately sized reels). I've also heard of racing yachts using dyneema on a reel to anchor to stem a tide, with a Fortress, (when the elasticity is not necessary).

Our snubbers are now, upto, 30m long - the extra elasticity makes a noticeable difference.
 
I think the whole idea of coiling the rope is bad. The best stowage is to make a bag out of old sail cloth or similar perhaps 80cm long 40cms wide./ Put a hole in the bottom so one end protrudes. Stuff the rope in after getting all the kinks out of it.
Push about 1 metre of rope in at a time. If you sew in some velcro at the top you can close it off leaving the end protruding.
The rope is easily pulled out without kinks or twists. Ideal for MOB throwing rope. Use cheap rope that floats. You anchor the bottom end where it protrudes from the bag and pull out as much as you need. easy peasy olewill
 
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