What warps do I need?

Take5

Take5

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Hello,

I finally got my boat yesterday in what I would describe as the most nerve wracking 24 hours of my life (collecting and trailering from Southampton to Porth Daniel in the Menai Straights), but thats a differnet story.

I need to now start getting my "kit" together.

I am currently sourcing my mooring warps, expecting it to be a 2 minute "i'll have that one" type decision. Little did I know how many different materials, thickness, colour etc etc they came in.

The boat is 27 ft long. The weight is 2,800 Kgs. Could you recommend what warps (and how many) I should get.

Also could I use the same for fenders?

Help on how many fenders should I be getting, and of what size would also be appreciated.

It's a minefield out there for us noobs.

Thanks in advance.
 
A massive compromise. Much depends where you want to moor, apart from the marina. I've collected together a variety of ropes, though I threw the nylon things away, they go stiff and orible.

A good idea, is quite big ropes for the marina, twisted not braided. You can make them to fit and just leave them behind. Sort of as big as possible, but make sure they fit your cleats. You would be amazed how many boats are tied with bits of string, then try to escape in winter storms. Black or blue are a good colour, they never look dirty. We carry a couple of 12mm ropes, bought in a packet with eyes ready in them. We use these for cruising, but the 20mm ones come out if theres a hint of bad weather. Dont think you need 20mm.

Are you going to raft, or tie to harbour walls? If rafting, you will need ropes long enough to reach the shore, besides ones to tie the two boat together with springs.

Fenders, again a compromise, but bigger is better, 8 would be good. But take up loads of space. Four perhaps minimum. Thinner rope than warps, but not so thin it cuts your hands with the fender on the end.

One must, is a big round fender for the bow, sausage shaped ones are rubbish here. It becomes the poor mans bow thruster, much more effective too.
 
Good advice from hib regarding the warps.

My experience has shown much the same, thick ropes for winter/bad weather mooring. Lighter ropes for on the move mooring. For this I have a pair of eyed ropes for forward and aft long enough to double back for easy letting go. A pair of springs 1m longer than the boat with made eyes. As I've replaced ropes for pretty ones the old ones are used to double up on the other side when I'm working the upper Thames or Dutch canals single handed. I run a head rope down each side plus 2 stern ropes so I can moor Port or Starboard at short notice and not need to dash about changing ropes.
The same goes for fenders I have 6 round ones, 2 Forward, 2 Aft, 2 Stern for stern to mooring. 4 sausage fenders tied 2 each side. 1 or 2 spare fenders are handy for when it all goes wrong the crew can drop one in and walk it back saving a lot of damage.
You will have to find the best position to tie your fenders from trial and error coming along side, the height of docks, and lock walls etc. Coming into Gouda the canal lock has timbers at the water line while the next lock has an inward leaning wall, so it's a quick hoisting job.

Why not try one of the companys advertising in Praticle Boat mag etc. I bought mine as a job lot from Aladines Cave near Chatham.

Good luck and stay tied.
 
An Old Salt once told Me.
"The only Rope on a Boat, is the one yer grabs to ring the Bell "
Rest are Warps or lines.
Or in the Raggie World sheets and stuff. "Sheets" now that is weird!
So, We have a "Painter" a Bow Line a Stern Line, springs (nowt to with neeps) An Anchor "Rode", Warps and stuff.
Warts an all!
There is a lot of Tradition, Superstition and Forward Vision connected to Boats.
Well, without forward vision?
Good "Ropework" see the whole Boaty World is a Contradiction!
Test for the Trad Nautical types on ere(Is there any!), explain the uses of the following.
If yer can be arsed!!!
Perhaps I should stick this into the "Scuttlers", Nay even the "Clasisc Guys"?
So here We are (bit of a "what now skip!") It,s blowin a good un, The Optics could be in danger of tipping a bit out. (Force 3 Sheltered Marina)
SWMBO is complaining, the TV reception is a bit Duff, The Barbie is a bit slow firing up, The Barbie with the big Knockers on the Sunseeker two berths away is giving good vibes, the friggin fridge is playing up.
The Pontoon is wobbling cos MajorCatasrophe has just gone by jumping up and down cos He,s caught a Bass ( this is Fiction bye the way) So you are in this difficult situation.
"How to keep the Boat Steady?"
Would You use a Smillen Line plus a Frawcett knott?
Now an Old Salt once told Me.
But can any of You peeps tell Me?
 
That is good Fender advice LazyDaysADLS.
Lots of big Fenders, tiss the way to go.
Especially when You are new to boating.
Loads of fenders, never mind the onlookers etc etc.
Plus "Dead Slow" and No squirting the Throttle!
 
Thanks for the web links guys. Very useful.

To ALL the above posters THANK YOU yet again. Plenty to think about and looks like I was correct to post and ask the question rather than just order without any thought.

CHEERS
 
Must agree, good advice, we to are looking for some new "warps and lines"
Let us know how you get on with the course
 
[ QUOTE ]
Must agree, good advice, we to are looking for some new "warps and lines"
Let us know how you get on with the course

[/ QUOTE ]

Will do mate. If you've not heard from us by Tuesday evening contact Holyhead Coastguard for me please. Looking for 2 Males. (don't mention SWMBO please) easy mistake to make.
 
12mm three strand polyester will do nicely. Strong, sufficient elasticity and you can easily splice eyes into them yourself. Don't get polypropelene. Braided lines seem nice to handle but they don't have enough spring in them and they tend to get their outer jackets snagged on rough docks. Also, much more difficult to splice.
Minimum would be 2 x 30' and 2 x 45'.
 
As suggested, somewhat depends on what mooring you will be doing. For the marina, its good to have two lines that will go from the front cleat/pontoon, and all the way to the back cleat/pontoon-so thats about 30-35ft maybe?These you will then use when saying goodbye each w/e. I like having some nice ones for that-proper ones sold as warps!
But then its good to have a couple of shorter ones that you can just make up yourself (its quite fun,actually)for a quick loop around a cleat when you dont really want metres of the stuff piled up on the floor or pontoon! Dont go crazy to start with..get a small number of lines, and especially if you are visiting the same places you ll soon find that maybe one a bit longer/shorter would be handy. By then you are such an expert in putting in an eye/splice you can just buy some rope .
I d guess I use not more than four over whole a season.
Fenders.. start with the storage.. no point in having some monsters if theres no where to keep them, but big as you can. And the most important one is a good size balloon type-use that as the pivot point when getting out of a tough alongside mooring, along with a line. Probably three fenders for along side the pontoon, and if space it getting tight a few smaller ones one the other side in case your neighbour needs some berthing practice. Six and a balloon will get you started.. you can always buy more.. but no point in having two you never need!
 
Dont go for the reqady made dock lines which are a braided sheath with a loose lay core , as soon as the sheath wers through the core follows quickly, total crap.

Look on the www.englishbraids.com website there is loads of information there .

I use three strand polyester which is much harder wearing and probably 12 or 14MM perhaps an owner of a similar size boat can suggest size.

I personally dont have eyes spliced in my mooring lines I tie a bowlin as required and i dont backsplice the ends as you cant pull them through a cleat on a ponton from the boat with a backsplice ( a spliced knob on the end ) they always jam. The ends of my lines are all heat sealed with a electric hot rope gun.

Fenders probably 8 or 10mm three strand again with a 10 inch eye so you an move the line to the other end of the fender when the top end starts to suffer from the sun. The fenders will need to be able to touch the water when tied off on the highest part of your deck rails.

There is loads of info on the website about ropes and splicing etc.
 
If you are a light sleeper (like me) you will want braided not twisted warps. Twisted warps are much noisier when the boat is being strained on it's warps by the wind.

Just got a new raggie at 29ft and 3 tonnes, so not a long way away from yours and went 14 mm double briad in dark blue. 2 * 10 metres for bow and stern and 1* 15 metres plus 1*20 metres for springs.
 
Thanks again to you all for the info.

I am now sorted with my Warps(well awaiting delivery).

CHEERS
 
Money no object then get anchorplait but 3 strand is much chheaper and easier to work, for the mooring warps in nylon if your berthing is subject to a lot of snatch or poleyester otherwise. 12mm will be plenty strong enough..you can always double up the line made off on pontoon and boat if you are worried abouta passing gale.

Put 8mm on the fenders..get some nice soft polyester.

Don't buy readymade splices. Get a fid and google how to splice 3 strand...have some fun this winter putting the splices in. (Practice on some cheap stuff first)
 
I wish money was no object but unfortunately that's not the case.

You have more or less hit the nail on the head. I ordered 12mm 3 strand polyester for the warps in black, and 8mm 3 strand polyester for the fenders in white (and I decided against the pre made ones so I could learn the art myself).

Thanks for the info.
 
Lot's of advice here. My tuppence worth would be:
- Polyester or polyamide for elasticity
- Three stand not braided (insufficient stretch)
- 12 or 14mm for your size boat (shocking the 'string' that you see securing some big boats - personally I would go for 14mm but the size of your cleats may influence this)
- Splice the eyes in as tying a bowline reduces the strength of the rope
- If you get a lot of movement in your marina then making up some permanent lines with rubber shock absorbers fitted would be good (we use them and they reduce 'snatching' when it is rough)
- For cruising have one bow line that is at least the length of the boat + 25% and at least two stern lines (these can be shorter - around the length of the boat). This is what we carry plus one larger diameter line (16mm) as a backup, which we rarely use.
 
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