Softening Ropes - How?

Quigs

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At the end of the last season whilst still on a marina I purchased a new set of 16mm ropes. Since then I have been on a dry berth facility where the ropes have been left tied to the side of the vessel not under strain. However when I used them at the weekend they were all stiff as a board and unless I decide to start practicing Indian Rope tricks, they are pretty much useless at the moment.

Can I do something to make them softer and more pliable?
 

longjohnsilver

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Try putting them in the washing machine on a low heat programme. That should get rid of most of the salt and ingrained dirt which has probably made them stiff in the first place.
 

tcm

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hm - are they mooring ropes (long and slightly ranty)

I hope they are actual ropes suitable for mooring? That means they should be stretchy. This means NOT braided ropes,which are nice to handle and feel (and are) more luxuriously expensive, but not vry good or sometims useless as mooring lines.

I bet they are braided tho hm? - cos indian rope trickery that's what happens to braided ropes have a nice lot of salt and are then used as mooring lines with shock loads applied repeatedly. They go straightened first, and then (if there's a masive swell) they start giving way in places with little exploded bits of braiding.

Don't worry, loads of otherwise not-numpty boaty people use braided rope for mooring lines, pour water over the knots, and reset lines trying to make it nicer and quieter on board, not realising that braided line is the wrong stuff. Cos not in RYA syllabus, see.

The elasticity of rope like 3-strand nylon or octoplait means that the rope dissipates energy in actually getting stretched. So you should use that for mooring. See, with stretchy line, the load applied to the cleats as boat lurches in the swell is transmitted only gradually to the cleats, disspated in stretching the rope too. Of course, it doesn't eliminate the maximum load. Hence you should use correct size - not too thin else it will stretch to maxand then arg fail at max lurchy load. And not too fat, else the smaller loads won't stretch the rope at all.

With the right rope, stretchy mooring lines will be quieter ie no creaking which is what happens when braided rope hits brickwall of non-stretchiness, AND less likely to wreck cleats like a braided rope would be AND nicer snooze on board with no "snatching".

The way to tell (a bit late in the day) that the braided line is the wrong stuff is that braided line eventually partially fails as the braded bits give up in places, as though it has a disease. Then people cut downthe lines to make shorter lines - and the boat snatches even more.

For maximum snatchiness and creaking, copy the wombat catamaran who sat in a swelly marina with really short braided lines set to the inboard side of his boat from the aluminium cleats on aluminium pontoon, plus one or two longer braided lines tightened using the winches. Fab recipie for making the boat and pontoon into giant large screeching squawking all-night musical instrument if you think about it.

Braided ropes are fab, by the way - tho not for mooring. You definitely need them for things like holding up sails where you want all the energy transmitted. Use braided rope for when the load applied (once tightened up) is steady.

But braided ropes are not fine for someting which is likely to go slack and then have load applied, repeatdly. Thus using braided line as gybe preventer on a saily boat is a good way to bust the boom- the braided rope absorbs none of the shock load which mooring-type rope would have done. But the braided rope looked more yotified and boaty, somehow.

Fairline and Marlowe are prime culprits of supplying bradied rope - the wrong type of rope for mooring lines. Ten+ years I've been wingeing about this and still the numpties take no notice. Hence they've been supplying expensive braided line and other similar stuff, wasting loot on wrong materials selection that could have meant the boats were cheaper and less snatchy, and now beneteau are gonna take them apart, dang.

Now some people say that the braded line is nicer to handle, and that's true. There again, i expect it would be easier to moor up using disposable gaffer tape and that's the wrong stuff too. So saying the wrong material is preferable cos it's "nicer" is a bit lame.

Anywa, if you're in a marina on a jerky snatchy powerboat - it's almost certain to be a Fairline. The lines will have been chopped down aftr a while, to cut out the bits that failed as described above. Hence the lines will be short, hence even more snatchy. I suppose Fairline is a better name than Correctline, though.
 

clivew05

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Re: hm - are they mooring ropes (long and slightly ranty)

Thanks tcm - for your extremely long but very explanatory mooring rope edict ....

I have to say though that the nice black braided rope that Fairline give as standard with their boats is very pretty and obviously makes the boat a lot more pleasuarable to behold.

But that said - I agree entirely with your advice - and have used the correct ropes since day one and have not had any troulbe in mooring in any conditions - my ropes (well apart from the nasty blue nylon ones that I bought and disposd of within 3 months ) have never gone Stiff, and have alsways allowed me to untie without problems in any state of weather and time of year .....

Brill

Clive
 

sarabande

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Re: hm - are they mooring ropes (long and slightly ranty)

I live and learn ! Thanks for the ranty info / inf-y rant. /forums/images/graemlins/grin.gif

Anyone want to buy some disintegrating octoplait ? Handily abraided into 3ft lengths.
 

ccscott49

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Re: hm - are they mooring ropes (long and slightly ranty)

Octoplait is ok for mooring, especially nylon, just not braided lines!

As for the original question, I have for years, every couple/three of years, put all my ropes (not at the same time) in net laundry bags, in the washing machine on medium heat, plenty of soap powder, and a double dose of fabric softener, ropes come out, clean and supple.
I have had no problems with my mooring ropes, apart from in Sardinia, (alghero) when I broke six 20mm warps in one night of very high winds and horrendous harbour surge, the pontoons came loose that night! Peeps are gonna now say, "they broke because you had weakend them with washing and conditioner", sorry to disappoint, I hadn't washed these! Admitted these were polyester.
I also Learnt how to short splice pretty quick as well!
 

tcm

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Re: hm - are they mooring ropes (long and slightly ranty)

um "heavy" ...praps they could just be too heavy duty - and hence not stretching? OR...if they are thing then they could have lost some of their elsticity and hence are now a bit les elastic and stiff?

See below for ccscotts washing idea? Spose the 3-strand also gets a bit stiff too. I found that some white line (which actuallynmay have been overloaded..) has gone stiff...but larger fat black nylonline ok aftr some years with boat twanging on it all day for months....
 

Quigs

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TCM - Thanks for your reply but I sort of started to lose the will to live on the third paragraph! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif

For info, they are just 16mm 3 strand nylon however I did purchase them from a swindlery who normally only supplies to commercial stuff so I guess (at the price I paid) they may be a little too 'heavy duty'. I'll try the washing machine trick as most advise.

Thanks
 

fluffc

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DO NOT use FABRIC SOFTENER or conditioner when washing ropes in a washing machine.

Sure, they'll come out all nice and soft and fluffy and stuff, but the 'softener' works by abrading the fabric - ie the fibres of rope. Logical conclusion is it'll weaking your ropes...
 

jcmmarine

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Re: hm - are they mooring ropes (long and slightly ranty)

Agree entirely, and like most sensible people I have 2 sets of ropes. The ones that my wife finds easy to handle, throw and moor with (and she considers looks nice and colour coordinated) - And those I put on when I want to know my boat is secure.
 

ccscott49

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Maybe, but it doesnt seem to have hurt my ropes atall. they dont come out fluffy!!! Smell nice though, the girls like them.
 

tcm

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fabric conditioner

yeah, it might abrade the fibres but it must be a teensy weensy amount compared to whatever the ropes do.

There again though, if "hands that do dishes feel soft as ccscott's face" - it might be really awful dangerous chemicals?
 

ccscott49

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Re: fabric conditioner

Ooooo! Soft hands, now that would be nice!! My face is as rough as a bears posterior, (that was just in case "arse" got censored out)
 
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