What size and type of rope for a mooring strop??

[mickywillis]

Will be moving my Westerly Pageant to a swinging mooring in Langstone harbour soon and the club which I have joined (Tudor SC) require owners to make and check theire own mooring tackle.
I now have all the necessary chains, swivels and shackles, along with a buoy, but I need to construct a mooring strop.
Can anyone suggest a suitable diameter rope that I should use? Also what type of rope is best suited to the jobe (3 strand polyester, hemp, etc) and lastly, how long should the strop be from the buoy shackle to the cleat on the bow?
Or scrap the rope and fit chain???

Thanks

 

[johnalison]

Almost anything will be strong enough but the main problem is chafe. Braid won't mind a bit of twisting either way. Just not too big to go on your cleat/post, and lots of chafe protection, and more chafe protection. I always left one line short and the other long, to stop them tightening up when twisted.

 

[colinmi]

Mick

Im wondering the same thing myself. Boat has always been on a pontoon and now thinking about a sheltered mooring on trots is a quite fast flowing tidal river.

For what its worth, I will probably go with chain. This will take away the common worry of chaffe, which no matter what you do, is difficult to feel confident you have dealt with. This said, chain has no stretch, so I will have a secondary nylon line which will take the strain. Should this fail (through chaffe or whatever) the chain will be there to take up the strain.

As to the size of the nylon rope... my feeling is as big a diameter as the cleats on your boat will sensibly cope with.

All of this said, Im still on the pontoon and have no ahhh... proof of the pudding, if you know what I mean.

What ever you decide...if it lets you sleep at night, its right for you.

Cheers

Colin

 

[exfinnsailor]

If your boat runs over the mooring on the turn of tide like ours does you would not want to use chain .. We are on a swing mooring on the Deben and the strop from the bouy is 25mm nylon 3 platt with a loop in the end .. We bring this over the bow roller and then uses a mooring line from the cleat on one side through the loop and to the other side .. Double it back a couple of times and fasten it off ..

 

[srm]

I have keep different boats on moorings, ranging from 28 ft catamaran, thrugh monohull yachts up to 42 ft and a 50ft MFV. I always used a chain strop from the buoy and over the anchor roller. Heavy rope tails then led to two cleats. Chain and rope tails were 1 size larger than anchor chain / warp. No problems with chafe and the rope tails kept the deck clear of rust stains as the galvanising wore off the chain.

Never had any problems with this system though would also rig a slack rope strop as back up in the winter on the basis of preparing for the worse while hoping for the best.

 

[William_H]

As said multiple ropes with chafe protection. The rope should be as short as possible to reduce the swing area your boat takes up. Or reduce the risk of bumping another boat at slack tide indeterminate wind.

I think it preferable to raise the buoy up onto the deck. Weed growth here is big problem so keeps the buoy clean. However if you have a long chain you will need a large buoy to support the weight. A large buoy can be too heavy to lift onto deck.
Obviously if you are going to lift the buoy then the transition from chain to rope is made below the buoy.

The important thing is to be able to lift as much of the chain as possible on low tide to allow inspection of the chain. However good chain at the top doesn't mean good chain at the bottom. Heavy chain needs to be inspected every year while litgher stuff won't last that long. good luck olewill

 

[Refueler]

I used to be at Tudor Club and initially I used chain up to the post with insurance rope to another strong point.
But my best was 3 strops of 3 strand rope. One went to mooring post, second went to windlass, third went to mast base. the size of rope being maximum I could get in the bow roller. The main problem with Tudor moorings : not so much Tudors but other moorings south - odd boats have broken free and drifted north up to the motorway wall. They have to pass through Tudor's !

My reasoning for 3 ropes being - previously I'd had a mooring post give way and I wanted a way to ensure the boat would never break free. Second that 3 ropes making up total diameter as a single rope is stronger and able to absorb chafe / damage better.

One other note - please take care about strop length as Tudor moorings are reasonably close together and additional length needs to be carefully judged. My mooring was oversized in chain, but lengths were as per Langstone harbour board.

The strops were then just enough to lift riding chain end clear of water ... The buoy being lashed to pulpit to stop chafe against bow. The 3 strops were attached to different links below the buoy. One strop eye had a light lashing that was used to collect all 3 together when letting go.... I would release 2 strops, lash to the third and then drop overboard. That way when coming back - I had all three in hand when pick-up.

Tudor club moorings generally all boats lie well in line, but one spot when looking from motorway southward ... on the east side there is a small cut that runs into the marshes ... that can cause a boat to sit out of line sometimes. My boat used to be on next block from that. We had a limbo lift keel job two boats ahead of me and he often sat strange to everyone else.

Tudor is a good club and I only really left because of my work and being away from country so much - felt it better to have boat on a pontoon drying berth.

I don't know if the slipway is altered in any way - but beware of the end of it ... it has a very low gradient and is long - as you probably know. Just past the Posts at the bottom it was uneven and not best to stand boat on.

 

[jerryat]

[ QUOTE ]
If your boat runs over the mooring on the turn of tide like ours does you would not want to use chain .. We are on a swing mooring on the Deben and the strop from the bouy is 25mm nylon 3 platt with a loop in the end .. We bring this over the bow roller and then uses a mooring line from the cleat on one side through the loop and to the other side .. Double it back a couple of times and fasten it off ..

[/ QUOTE ]

Yep, agree with that. We use two 25mm nylon strops, but don't have loops as we like to vary the bearing points over the bow rollers.

The breaking strain is such that just one of them would come pretty near to being able to lift the boat!

 

[simonfraser]

exposed swinging mooring:
25mm nylon with loop over deck cleat, 2x, moused.
covered with transparent hose.
when the hose cracks, 2 full seasons, i replace the lot.