Tight Lines or Loose Lines?

Richard10002

Richard10002

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Some boats in the marina have loose lines which allow the boat to move freely with the wind and current... albeit, prevented from bashing the bow and the boat next door.

Others have tight lines which hold the boat in position, albeit, the boat can move a bit.

I lean towards the latter, but am guessing that there could be circumstances where one or the other would be preferable.

Any ideas?
 
I was instructed that the bow and stern warps should same a little play in them so it's not pinning the boat against the pontoon, but the springs should be reasnably tight to stop the boat from rubbing forwards & backwards if the wind has pushed the boat against the pontoon.

S.
 
Loose(ish) gives less wear at the fairlead and also - more important - if you're sleeping on board, a quieter night. Tight lines creak, and noise means stress. remember, you may not be there to see the snatch when the worst waves happen.
 
Ahh... now there's a thing!!
Why is that then??
Why are the lines always slack after a week or so? Can't be stretch. If it were so my warps would be twice as long by now!
 
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Easy. You tie the lines reasonably tight. When you come back a month or so later, there slack and the boat is about 3ft off the pontoon. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif

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This is exactly what has happened. left the boat with reasonably tight lines on 20 September. Came back on Wednesday to loose lines. I actually wondered if maybe the marina staff had spotted something going wrong and slackened them off.... probably not.
 
Well, some boats in a Marina are tied up with bits of frayed string, copying ignorance doesn't make it a good idea no matter how many are doing something!

As already said, if you start off tight, after a short while the ropes will "magically" stretch so the question should be:-

a) do I start off with the ropes slack?;

or

b) do I start off with ropes tight and then wait for them to slacken of their own accord in a manner that is arbitary and over which I have no say?

The answer I beleive is in the question!

If you start off with the ropes slack enough so that she can move, but still not bash against the pontoon then she will stay as you tied her up (knots permitting!) you will also find that when she is subject to wash that their is not so much of a tendency to roll with or against the pontoon, as she will do "her own thing" seperate from 30 other boats and 150 foot of Pontoon.
 
Not sure I go along with this.

I use big heavy ropes. What happens is the knots get pulled tighter and tighter, thus lengthening the ropes. If I started with them slack. The boat would be half way out the marina after a week or two. /forums/images/graemlins/crazy.gif
 
Obviously you knwo your boat better than me, so don't want to get into a slanging match! - As I presume you are also using springs perhaps we differ on the definitions of "tight" and "slack"??

Anyway must go, have spent too long on here tonight!
 
What's all this Marina cr*p. Just get your self a swinging mooring in the mud and do some proper boating - or if you can't cope with that retire to a cottage in the country well away from winds & tides that might wobble your boat!!! /forums/images/graemlins/wink.gif
 
If in a marina, springs reasonably tight and breast lines slack for rise & fall. If in the Med, then surely tighter when the submerged lines will have some allowance for rise & fall or weather, and pontoon lines on rubbers or other spring devices or not. /forums/images/graemlins/confused.gif Not in the med yet.
When we had our mobo in basin with stern to, we tried to leave stern lines a bit slack to cope with 3-4ft tide and sprung off a post for'ard fairly tightly fore & aft.
 
I would suggest mooring lines should always be as loose as possible comensurate with their being able to do the joib. ie tether the boat in the required location. olewill
 
Minimise the strain, let the boat roam. Lines should be slack enough to allow the boat to shuffle around in a normal chop without coming up tight. This reduces wear.

Yet not so slack that they will allow the boat to hit anything solid nearby in more extreme conditions - for obvious reasons.

Depends partly on the line material. Nylon allows stretch - so doesn't need to be so slack.

And also partly depends on the length of line you can use between cleat and shore - the longer the better.

And then depends on the space available in your berth! So there's no one answer.
 
Slack lines allow the boat to accelerate away under surges and the like... Then the snatching can be horrible. I use snubbers and keep the lines fairly tight. This also ensures a comfy night's sleep (which some will know, if very important to me!).
 
Definitely both!

1. Use as many different cleats as possible, both on boat and pontoon, to spead any excess loads.

2. Wherever you start with the end of the rope, make it off with a locking turn at the other end, then lead it back to where it came from and make it off with a bit of extra slack in it. That way if it starts to snub in a storm, the tighter one will take up first and if over stressed will share the load with the second. If the first fails in extremis, if you have locked it off before returning it, the fall back will still be secure.

If you double up with exactly the same length or tension, you are potentially doubling the snatch load on the cleats.
 
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