What length of mooring lines?

JoeQ

Well-Known Member
Joined
30 Jan 2004
Messages
319
Location
Glasgow
www.use.me.uk
What length of mooring lines should you carry on board relative to the length of boat should you carry on board for tying up in port.
 
Cheoy Lee 63?
I suggest you either buy out Jimmy Green Marine, or form a good friendship with the Production Director at Marlow Ropes!
4x warps x 1 x length Fore, Aft & 2 mid cleated
2x warps x 1.5 x length Springs (minimum, pref 2x length)
absolute minimum
Suggest more for rafting out, so very much longer.
In fact difficult to carry enough usually.
 
Is this your first 'non dinghy' boat? wow!

Are you planning to dry out with big tides, raft, just use pontoons?

This is not to sound arrogant, or clique like, but I really feel with the size of craft you have and your questions, you should start reading about the principles of going alongside and boat handling. This is a very big boat and is going to need careful handling.

It sounds bad, but I would hope a skipper of such a craft would not be asking such questions, it is quite frightening really.
 
Joe, You have just asked a question that will make a lot of forum'ites squirm!

Are you in a marina? are you along side a quay? If your along side a quay what's the tidal range? Etc etc etc"!!!

Come on son think about it!

Regards.

peter
 
Entirely agree! This is really scary, but perhaps he's sailed on lots of other sizeable cruisers and has picked up some experience there. Hope so!!

Sorry JoeQ, but don't be offended. I don't think anyone's being condescending about your question, but you are asking VERY basic questions relative to your apparent experience and the size of boat.

FWIW, Jim's suggestion is good, though as he also says, it's difficult to carry too much.

Cheers Jerry
 
head, stern, & springs: 150% loa
breast ropes: 75% loa
and a couple of 2-3 x loa for those awkward places.

now a question for you: what diameter and material are you planning to use?
 
Well I don't think its a dumb question - jeez this forum is getting a bit cliquey! Whats the point of having an advice forum when every time someone asks for advice the answer is a petty "well if you don't know that you shouldn't be sailing". Was everyone else born with a hard wired nautical instinct? No I thought not, everyone starts somewhere.
As for this question - I cannot recall anywhere in any of my courses or experience anyone, ever mentioning the rules of thumb when buying warps. Both my boats have come with warps and i've snaffled others from surplus bins at boat jumbles and boat shows. I know which line can do which job on my boat, but I coulnd't tell you that the spring line is x.xx metres long, and I bet most others couldn't either.

Anyhoo to answer your question, Jims advice is spot on, Jimmy Green have some useful tables with all this info in, and also a table of line size against boat size.
Also Check Ebay - some guy has been selling off some pretty cheap "Docklines" recently.

Also, you can never have enough!. I have a proper set of warps for my boat, I also have a set actually permanently tied to my berth, and then some spares I've picked up on the cheap.
 
It seems a reasonable question to me from someone who is entering the boating world. I was given some very helpful advice from a boating friend about the height of the wall at Port St Mary and the need to carry some very long ropes - just in case! We all have to start somewhere, and asking for advice before setting sail seems a very prudent course of action.
 
IF joeq were kicking off with a 63 footer it would be cause for concern to anyone moored nearby but without more detailed biography i think that's an unfair assumption.
 
Well, with a boat of these dimensions:

LOA - 63'4"
DWL - 54'2"
Beam - 18'6"
Draft - 6'6"
Displacement - 98,500Lbs

Engines - Twin Caterpillar 210HP

I would think that the sort of recommendations made by Classification Societies might be one place to start, since warps and cables come within the scope of classification. The Equipment Numeral on which the requirement for warps is calculated makes allowance for windage, etc.
 
In addition Snowleopard was too modest to mention
that he has three different lengths all well marked
and he takes the trouble to brief his crew as to exactly
how he expects them to be used.
An object lesson in how to Skipper a boat

Regards Briani
 
Lerwick Harbour, range is only 2 metres so 4 x 100% boat length. Outer basin at Barry Dock range is about 12 metres - dont go there without a couple of coils (220m) to make up mooring lines :-)

Seriously, you want the boat to lie parallel to the quay and go up and down with the tide, 4 long lines (20 metres or so, longer in big tidal ranges) are minimum as you can always coil up the ends you don't use.
Also two long shore lines, (50 metre or so) essential in Scandinavia for mooring between anchor and shore plus useful when rafting up.

Sean.
 
Design Water Line is a purely fictional concept of where the boat will float, dreamed up by a designer with hopelessly optimistic ideas of lightweight construction and the assumption that the owner will never take luggage, food or crew on board.

LWL is a line at least 6" further up the topsides reflecting presence of a crew of fat b******s, a lifetime's accumulation of junk and a cargo of rusty tind of fray bentos.
 
How do you know what size craft he is asking about? This is a question as to how how the forum works. On the post there was no mention of the boat size
ever learning KW
 
Ahh. Look in his profile Dear Lady, by clicking on his name at the left hand side of the post. Note that I am declared as Nonuffinnobber. It says so.

Jim
 
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