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What Length of Ropes and is there a best type


DandGNWales

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9 minutes ago, Fly Navy said:

98 replies about the correct length of rope! You couldn't make it up.

Is the Narrowboat fraternity really this intellectual?

Is this the answer to life?

 

I'm going to watch some paint drying...................

99 now.....might be better to watch the paint than to waste time posting irrelevant stuff like this.....enjoy the fumes.

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3 hours ago, Fly Navy said:

98 replies about the correct length of rope! You couldn't make it up.

Is the Narrowboat fraternity really this intellectual?

Is this the answer to life?

 

I'm going to watch some paint drying...................

Come back to us when your centre line is round your prop

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3 hours ago, Fly Navy said:

98 replies about the correct length of rope! You couldn't make it up.

Is the Narrowboat fraternity really this intellectual?

Is this the answer to life?

 

I'm going to watch some paint drying...................

Yes we are  Suggest watching grass grow,more interesting than paint drying,and no fumes.

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  • 7 months later...
  • 2 months later...

We really need to get new centre lines for our 58ft boat - the others are looking shabby. The current ones are 10 metres long, but we find them a little short as they are just really long enough to step off the boat with at the stern - not long enough to throw up/tie around a bollard in a double lock etc...

 

I was thing maybe we'd need to go for something like 12m, possibly longer - any recommendations for length?  is 15m ott??

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2 minutes ago, robtheplod said:

I was thing maybe we'd need to go for something like 12m, possibly longer - any recommendations for length?  is 15m ott??

If in doubt, go longer.....you can always make them shorter with an eye/back splice or a propeller/sharp knife.

Edited by rusty69
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8 hours ago, robtheplod said:

We really need to get new centre lines for our 58ft boat - the others are looking shabby. The current ones are 10 metres long, but we find them a little short as they are just really long enough to step off the boat with at the stern - not long enough to throw up/tie around a bollard in a double lock etc...

 

I was thing maybe we'd need to go for something like 12m, possibly longer - any recommendations for length?  is 15m ott??

I use a 12m for the centre line on a 57ft.  Gives a few coils spare when throwing.

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8 hours ago, Rebotco said:

Maximum length of a centre rope is Distance from ring to prop minus 1".

Which makes it pretty much useless if you are singlehanded on a 40’ boat in a deep lock. Learn not to drop it in the water.

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4 hours ago, Mike Tee said:

Which makes it pretty much useless if you are singlehanded on a 40’ boat in a deep lock. Learn not to drop it in the water.

True, but as the OP boat is 60 ft that's somewhat irrelevant to him.

Even more so now, as this thread started about 7 years ago!

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  • 2 years later...
On 30/09/2013 at 23:04, grahame r said:

I like nice thick soft ropes so would go for 14 or 16mm nylon.

As to length, I like to keep the centre lines just too short to reach the prop. in our case with a 57ft boat 30ft centre ropes are safe. Stern ropes are always going to be a danger so keep them maneageable to store on the counter, say 20ft. I'd go for a nice long bow line which is handy if sturdy mooring points are few and far between.

I have lots of ropes from my salt water days, so I have settled on a variety, mostly Marlow, absolutely not the soft red or blue mooring ropes of unknown strength, from China. 

Two bow lines, are usually tied on a with a bowline, which is easy to swap over but not as strong as a hitch due to knot. 

I have each lying looped over the well deck gunwhale so I can grab from the shore. 

Length, maybe 4 metres

Two centre lines. I use a Certified bow shackle, with Green pin (Jimmy Green Marine) I think its 11/13 mm, anyway it also fits the very heavy anchor chain. Very strong as it has to be as strong as the centreline attachment. 

The ropes fit side by side with a round turn and two half hitches ie NOT a knot which then becomes a weak link. I can adjust them every few months usage to check for wear. 

1) thick braid long enough to handle almost any depth of lock 15m

2) second centreline so I can handle boat either side, three strand braid, about 10m

Stern line, attached to dollie by clove hitch and two half hitches, thick braid about 7m.

First few locks I did, I had a fairly thin braid line which immediate took to the water, and ended up exactly the length from centreline to prop. 

If buying new ropes I'd have 14mm floating hemp look a like as main centre line, looks good. 

I mostly single hand, and if using a wide lock without a companion boat I need both length and strength. Using narrow locks is a lot easier, as you just need worry about leaking gates at one end, and the Cill at the other. 

Edited by LadyG
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On 31/12/2019 at 21:20, ditchcrawler said:

Seen it more than once, rope slips off the lock side or roof as the boat goes ahead to leave the lock

I try to throw mine down the hatch rather than on the roof till I sort things out. Longer ropes can be thrown up off the boat as you coil a few metres for weight. 

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2 hours ago, LadyG said:

I try to throw mine down the hatch rather than on the roof till I sort things out. Longer ropes can be thrown up off the boat as you coil a few metres for weight. 

I was referring to long centre lines, not easy to throw them down into the hatch

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9 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I was referring to long centre lines, not easy to throw them down into the hatch

 

Coil the excess length and drop the coil through the hatch.  If there's not enough to coil they aren't long centrelines!

 

Mine (one each side) go about 20 feet past the stern which need handling with care but make it much easier when singlehanding locks or swingbridges.

 

2 hours ago, LadyG said:

Longer ropes can be thrown up off the boat as you coil a few metres for weight. 

 

Absolutely.  It still surprises me how few inland boaters can correctly throw a line, and I've seen many try it!

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18 minutes ago, ditchcrawler said:

I was referring to long centre lines, not easy to throw them down into the hatch

 Ditchcrawler will doubtless recall being shown how to flick lines off when he was with us. Handling lines is an acquired skill, but if you have the wrong weight or wrong type it makes it much more difficult or even impossible.

https://www.facebook.com/100001513232105/videos/3242737045786705

 

Tam

 

Edited by Tam & Di
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3 minutes ago, Tam & Di said:

 Ditchcrawler will doubtless recall being shown how to flick lines off when he was with us. Handling lines is an acquired skill, but if you have the wrong weight or wrong type it makes it much more difficult or even impossible.

https://www.facebook.com/100001513232105/videos/3242737045786705

 

Tam

 

I remember it well but still have problems throwing a rope doubled so that it goes round a bollard. I think every time I have been on a boat with a professional boater I have learned something, probably reaching the stage now where I am forgetting them.

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  • 2 months later...
On 30/09/2013 at 22:45, DandGNWales said:

As some of you know we are re-fitting our Narrowboat out but have to bring her from Barrow on Soar to Chirk Marina in North Wales, so checking on the ropes they are not in very good condition, so my question today is :

 

1. Is there a certain type that will last longer than the others?

 

2. What is the typical length we would need for bow, stern and middle ropes

 

1. Yes, a good stainless steel line of the same type as used for Swiss or German cable car support wires will last until we are all dead.

 

2. UMMM! How long is a piece of string ??

  OK, BUY A DRUM and then chop off 4 lots of Panama Canal approved 100ft lengths of one inch cheap Poly, (Can't be spliced or knotted so you will need to splice a loop in one end. You can also use those lines for anchor rodes, or real tricky long lines to shore required when you have rafted up too many barges for your normal dock lines.

  4 lots of LOA short docking lines, and 4 lot of 2 times LOA for springs or bank grapnel hooks etc. You might also need one light Monkey ball line if the locks are real deep ones. I'd much rather throw a monkey ball up to a lock keeper or linesman that have the ball thrown down at my me, as they are nearly as hard as a cricket ball.

 

Rope is like fenders, I've never heard any type of boat lover say they have too many on their boat. Some do say their lines, or crew were too thin, or even too thick. The worlds best fender is a big black tyre chained to some seriously good back plated cleats of a steel boat, you need at least 4 for the Panama canal, 

Edited by TNLI
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PS: Anyone spring cleaning their boat or garage that has spare fenders, please PM me, as all I have is one drum of 1/4 inch orange Polyprop for loopy lines and the crawl nets. The only fender left on the wreck when it wa salvaged is a medium size blue one, 

 

  My hull up build is being done on a charity basis for some old friends of mine in Trinidad, BUT I'm talking to some new friends who have already returned from Blighty to the new UK, and they seem to think I might be tempted to take them on some kind of trip along the Dnieper River, (It has 3 big lakes), as same type of ambulance and general stores boat. All the bridges are down, so the local volunteers do need a few more boats and lunatic crews. I can make fenders, but definitely lack the lines, and already have a serious set of anchors for the 3 big lakes, (CQR, Bruce, Danforth and Grapnel). 

 

  Anyone done the UK rivers holiday along the Dnieseter, Southern Bug, Donets or most important Dnieper rivers/lakes ?? 

Never had a PM, but I would think it better to keep any new UK, (Half the former British Marines and Paras are on there way already).

 

Spoke to Ivan a few times in 2020 and 21 on the 40m band. He was probably helping with UK Army communications, but never made it home a few weeks ago.

UR8GX/SK | QRZ Forums

 

ukraine-physical-map2.jpg

UR8GX (Ivan) RIP.jpg

IVAN 2022.jpeg

flag of ukraine.jpg

Edited by TNLI
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2 hours ago, TNLI said:

 

1. Yes, a good stainless steel line of the same type as used for Swiss or German cable car support wires will last until we are all dead.

 

2. UMMM! How long is a piece of string ??

  OK, BUY A DRUM and then chop off 4 lots of Panama Canal approved 100ft lengths of one inch cheap Poly, (Can't be spliced or knotted so you will need to splice a loop in one end. You can also use those lines for anchor rodes, or real tricky long lines to shore required when you have rafted up too many barges for your normal dock lines.

  4 lots of LOA short docking lines, and 4 lot of 2 times LOA for springs or bank grapnel hooks etc. You might also need one light Monkey ball line if the locks are real deep ones. I'd much rather throw a monkey ball up to a lock keeper or linesman that have the ball thrown down at my me, as they are nearly as hard as a cricket ball.

 

Rope is like fenders, I've never heard any type of boat lover say they have too many on their boat. Some do say their lines, or crew were too thin, or even too thick. The worlds best fender is a big black tyre chained to some seriously good back plated cleats of a steel boat, you need at least 4 for the Panama canal, 

 

Errm, if it "can't be spliced or knotted" how do you "splice a loop in one end"? 🤔😅

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2 hours ago, cuthound said:

 

Errm, if it "can't be spliced or knotted" how do you "splice a loop in one end"? 🤔😅

AHHH, half asleep, you can splice Polypropylene, (Hereinafter PP), you just can't knot it or even whip it with thin cord. The thing I like about PP is that it floats, which helps a lot if you have new crew that drop lines in the water. I also like using is for some special anchoring set ups, as it does not finish up wrapped around a coral head of some sunken barge. If you have to run lines ashore the natives are far less inclined to steal orange PP than Marlow Multiplat, as that high strength difficult to splice line costs about 10 times as much. Only used it on posers big boats, but if anyone is trying to reduce their theft target profile, then it is a rather good lightweight line, but half inch Marlow Multi is not so common on canal boats or small yachts.

 

Rope Selection Guide - Jimmy Green Marine

 

That's a good guide, BUT if you use PP don't buy it in black, as it does eventually rot in the sun. The white and light orange does not. J. Green is a good supplier of high quality rope and lines, including rigging in particular, although the cheapest place to buy drums of PP, is a fisherman's co-operative or nearby hardware shop if the local fishermen recommend it. 

Edited by TNLI
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