Silent mooring ropes

maby said:
My wife makes her own snubbed mooring lines by weaving in shock cord and that seems to be a good solution. Get a decent 3 ply rope which is suitable as a mooring line for your boat and a yard or two of medium thickness shock core. Cut the shock cord into three equal lengths then, using a fid or suitable tool, weave it into the lay of the rope. I don't have any pictures here, so you'll have to use some imagination - leave enough rope to attach to your cleat on the boat and get past the fairlead, then slip one end of the shock cord under one of the plies of the rope. Work your way along the rope weaving the shock cord in, going over one ply and under the next - all in a straight line along the rope. Then turn it through a third of a turn and weave in another length of shock cord, then do it all over again with the third length. Tidy up the ends of the shock cord, then whip or tape over them to keep everything neat and in place. The result is a very strong snubbed line - the shock cord slightly expands the lay of the rope and when the rope is placed under load, the rubber of the cord is compressed, allowing the rope to stretch by a fraction of an inch. The impact on the strength of the rope is minimal and it remains a general purpose line unlike lines which have those great big lumps of rubber hooked onto them. You can adjust the amount of give in the rope by adjusting the length and thickness of shock cord that you weave in.

These days, my wife can do one from scratch in about ten minutes. We have shown other people how to do it and we've seen others make more decorative versions with more complex weaving patterns - personally, I think life is too short for that - the approach above takes the jerk off your cleat, greatly reduces the noise and does it all in ten minutes at an extra expense of a couple of pounds over the price of a basic mooring line.
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Like it. Like it.
 
The answer is to tie your boat up properly. Springs tight and brests loose. Then no creaky-creaky....
 
Seajet said:
I've only used a mooring for 40 years so what would I know ?

ANY sort or rope is vulnerable to chafe - even with plastic tubing which is another subject - and a short scope is usually a recipe for an unpleasant time at a mooring.
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Go try it in really harsh conditions the real world and see how tough it is, til then how could you know? We're talking about a material you seem to have never come across or used, D12 MAX. Materials have come on a very very long way in 40 years.

What short scope are you on about?
 
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Graham376 said:
It seems you have missed the point, GHA and I are talking about short tails, NOT short scope. The stretching of line through a fairlead or over a bow roller is waht creates the noise and does the damage.

With only 25 years on moorings, for strops I've found that polysteel (no stretch) outlasts stretchy nylon by a couple of years. The 19mm chain from riser to concrete block acts as a snubber.
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No, I was talking about the topchain - as I regard best - or suit yourself, top line.

Thing is, chain doesn't chafe through, and having seen the carnage of October 1987 I won't forget it.
 
Bobc said:
The answer is to tie your boat up properly. Springs tight and brests loose. Then no creaky-creaky....
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For a conventional alongside mooring that is true, as is the use of long crossed springs to reduce the pivoting movement, but not all moorings are like this. The attachments on some finger moorings, and certainly boxes, means that one or other line may take much of the load. Sometimes a bit of creative line usage will help, as when I put additional lines from the mid-cleats forwards to the shore in a box mooring when high winds are expected.

For those occasions when snatch loads are unavoidable, the use of the right line can help a lot. My boat came with polyester 3-ply which was fine for several years but then became impossibly squeaky. Plaited nylon has always been good, and I have some with snubbers incorporated, but our current braided dock lines have been fine for about the last ten years and show no signs of wear.
 
Well sized rope will help - thicker rope will stretch less. Dyneema will hardly stretch, so the short Dyneema tail idea mentioned above will work. Less rope around the cleat will help, so make a loop instead of a cow hitch. Use an extra line to a spare cleat maybe.

Or just use ear plugs. Has other advantages.
 
Seajet said:
No, I was talking about the topchain - as I regard best - or suit yourself, top line.

Thing is, chain doesn't chafe through, and having seen the carnage of October 1987 I won't forget it.
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I think we're talking about different applications here, I took the OP's original post as moored alongside, which is where we had the squeaking lines, cured by a short non-stretch tail. You it seems assumed he was talking about a mooring. As far as my mooring is concerned, I use polysteel strops to the boat, won't have chain near it or, after chafe, stretchy nylon.
 
Zing said:
... Less rope around the cleat will help, so make a loop instead of a cow hitch ...
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I have tried this and it is much quieter but I can't rid myself of the fear that it's insecure, though plenty of other boats in my marina just throw the loop over the cleat. I know that in theory the loop won't come off as gravity is helping to keep it on, especially if there is some tension in the rope to hold it against the body of the cleat but still....

Graham376 said:
... I took the OP's original post as moored alongside, which is where we had the squeaking lines...
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Yes I'm talking about mooring alongside.
 
Graham376 said:
I think we're talking about different applications here, I took the OP's original post as moored alongside, which is where we had the squeaking lines, cured by a short non-stretch tail. You it seems assumed he was talking about a mooring. As far as my mooring is concerned, I use polysteel strops to the boat, won't have chain near it or, after chafe, stretchy nylon.
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This is where the confusion came from; you don't ' moor ' alongside, it's called berthing.
 
I've tried oil and soap but the only solution that worked for me was to wrap the lines with tough rubble sack plastic in way of the fairlead and side of the hull. Just use some light line to tie them in place.
It doesn't last forever of course but it's a quick solution for a few restful nights on a mooring buoy.
 
Ian_Edwards said:
+1 for 8 strand multiplait nylon.

I have both 3 strand black polyester and 14mm nylon multiplait.

The 3 strand squeaks as the load comes on and off the rope, the multiplait is silent.

The oldest nylon multiplait I have is 12 years old, getting a bit stiff and frayed around the edges but still fully serviceable (a bit like me):)

It also has very good shock loading characteristics, but if space is tight, I pretension the mooring lines, especially the springs.
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+1
 
The problem I find is that the cleats/berthing points on pontoons are never at the right distance for me, whatever boat class I use.
Take an adjustable spanner to the pontoon cleats to make them fit you.

Or maybe that is thread drift.
 
Stracken said:
I've tried oil and soap but the only solution that worked for me was to wrap the lines with tough rubble sack plastic in way of the fairlead and side of the hull. Just use some light line to tie them in place.
It doesn't last forever of course but it's a quick solution for a few restful nights on a mooring buoy.
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That's a good suggestion.
Another is to cut a section from a plastic milk bottle and ty-wrap it to the rope, but that's more for reducing chafe than noise. polythene is a useful plastic for low cost, low friction sometimes.
 
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