Dock Lines

Went to the yard today to start getting the CAL ready for winter, pumped the bilge, topped off the gas tank, did some other odds and ends, brought the dock lines home because I wanted to see how they were. The answer is damaged, and they were new this year. That 5 day NE gale really took it's toll. They are all seriously abraded, and unfit for service next year, but they held. Three strand from West, but I think I will replace them with Sampson from Defender Marine.David Dobbs CAL29 411

On 10/19/2015 5:17 PM, david dobbs tm… [at] yahoo.com [Cal_Boats] wrote: > > > Went to the yard today to start getting the CAL ready for winter, > pumped the bilge, topped off the gas tank, did some other odds and > ends, brought the dock lines home because I wanted to see how they > were. The answer is damaged, and they were new this year. That 5 day > NE gale really took it's toll. They are all seriously abraded, and > unfit for service next year, but they held. Three strand from West, > but I think I will replace them with Sampson from Defender Marine. > David Dobbs CAL29 411 The failure mode on nylon lines tends to be via internal friction and heating when they are repeatedly stressed. The stretching that we prize in nylon creates internal movement of the fibers and internal wear. They'll be stressed more at points where they turn, as in a chock. Years ago there was a huge gale when our local schooner was moored in a less-protected location than she enjoys now. We eventually organized hourly boat watches and started cutting up the big anchor rode to make replacement dock lines. They kept wearing out. Nylon's big advantage--stretching to minimize abrupt forces on the boat--is also a disadvantage because it leads to the internal friction. There's always a balance to be struck between oversized lines, which don't stretch much and put more force on the boat's cleats and bitts, and smaller ones, which do stretch more but pay the price in wear. I had a small-boat mooring buoy out in the Saginaw Bay over on the Lake Huron side. I had secured it with some small nylon line around a thimble, then via shackle to a chain. It gave out in that big NE storm. Happily, a shoreline neighbor saw it floating down the shore shortly after it let loose and snagged it for me with a boat hook. That saved me a trip out in the aluminum boat to remove the ball for the winter. I had checked the line a couple weeks earlier and it looked fine. In Bay City, there were NE winds for about 8 days. That's unusual. The standard NE blow is three days. The same storm also flipped the aluminum pram, a 13' boat, up and over a concrete sea wall section about 2-1/2' higher than the concrete pad the boat sits on, inverted. That was a first. Chris Campbell > >

I just switched from 3 strand (I think WM is a cheap 3 strand) to Mega Braid by New England rope. Pam Wall http://www.pamwall.com/ spoke very highly about it in her seminar at last year's Stickily Sail Boat Show in Oakland. She says long lasting, stays supple/flexible and easy to coil, does not kink, and very good abrasion resistance. So far it is living up to her description! Mike RobinsonS/V Eleanor May(916) 705-3200 our blog:http://www.sailblogs.com/member/eleanormay/ To: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com From: Ca… [at] yahoogroups.com Date: Mon, 19 Oct 2015 21:17:29 +0000 Subject: [Cal_Boats] Dock Lines Went to the yard today to start getting the CAL ready for winter, pumped the bilge, topped off the gas tank, did some other odds and ends, brought the dock lines home because I wanted to see how they were. The answer is damaged, and they were new this year. That 5 day NE gale really took it's toll. They are all seriously abraded, and unfit for service next year, but they held. Three strand from West, but I think I will replace them with Sampson from Defender Marine.David Dobbs CAL29 411