softline mooring warps: any good?

[tsadpt]

Hello everyone,

I think I micht replace my ageing and stiff mooring warps with new ones on my 36 footer (5.4 tonnes displacement)

Note they are NOT used for mooring the boat for extended periods (I have heavy fixed warps with snubbers and protectors on my permanent berth), but rather are used for weekend mooring, overnight stays, rafting up etc.

At the moment I have 16mm polyester warps, and always moor with at least bow, stern and two spring lines. I have found that a rope called "softline" is both far cheaper and also buoyant. I presume this is a composite rope containing polypropylene, but I am not sure. It is listed as having a breaking strain of 3770 kg, compared to polyester's 5000kg or there abouts.

16mm is about as big as I can go on my cleats for regular use. While I would be able to spot wear on the ropes early (she would not be on these for weeks, or even day at a time), I don't really want my wrapt to part if I happened to be moored on an exposed berth in a blow, even if was just an overnight stop!

So, anyone have views on using softline for mooring?

David

 

[tsadpt]

Bump.....

 

[sailorman]

i think you know the answer

 

[tsadpt]

if I know the answer, I would not be asking!

Bararias are delivered with (I believe) 14mm rope, which is quite a similar breaking strain to the 16mm softline

 

[Deleted member 36384]

Consider Staple Spun Polypropylene

It looks as if its aimed at the canal boat market based on this supplier: -

http://www.trafalgarmarineservices.co.uk/detail/24/black-softline-rope-14mm/

I have used staple spun polypropylene on another yacht for years and it worked well. I believe that one can have too much stretch in Nylon, which is an overrated feature for a mooring warp anyway. The hairy aspect of staple spun gives good abrasion resistance and it doesn't go stiff. An example here: -

http://www.ropesandtwines.com/proddetail.asp?prod=staple12

 

[LadyInBed]

16mm is about as big as I can go on my cleats for regular use.

The only issue that I can see with using the largest rope that your cleats will take is that it doesn't leave much space for anyone rafting off to also use your cleat and if you are rafting off another boat, will there be enough space to put your line on securely.

 

[nigelmercier]

So, anyone have views on using softline for mooring?

I bought something similar last year, nice braided flexible warps, lightweight, easy to throw. I put one on a winch, and it pulled a bunch of threads out of the sleeve. A few weeks later we were moored with slips for a while, the sleeve was worn right through.

I've gone back to 3-ply nylon.

 

[KellysEye]

>I believe that one can have too much stretch in Nylon, which is an overrated feature for a mooring warp anyway.

Sorry I don't agree. If you use warps that have no or little stretch in any sort blow the snatch loads on the cleats will be enormous. We use multiplait that doesn't kink/keep a memory and stretches enough to reduce the loads.

 

[sailorman]

I bought something similar last year, nice braided flexible warps, lightweight, easy to throw. I put one on a winch, and it pulled a bunch of threads out of the sleeve. A few weeks later we were moored with slips for a while, the sleeve was worn right through.

I've gone back to 3-ply nylon.

anchorplait is the stuff