Quote:
Originally Posted by JohnnyC
This discussion has been a gold mine of information. Like Island Mike, we are replacing 3 strand nylon dock lines (that I believe came from a retired anchor line). In our case the lines are getting replaced because of chafe (sp?) which seems to have occured primarily at the fairleads. How does the megabraid line (octoplait?) stand up to chafe? How about double braid vs 3 strand? I suspect part of our trouble was the lines were actually oversized for the fairleads. They were 3/4 in. This seems excessive for a 35 ft boat at 15,000 lbs. Then again, with a full keel and strong currents by the dock, perhaps 3/4 in is appropriate? What do you think?
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Megabraid (made by Samson) is not actually an Octiplait it's a 12 strand and may I say, damn sexy stuff,
price excluded. Way to flash for use as marina lines but good as dock lines.
Marina V's Dock lines in our speak.
Marina lines are fixed to your marina (maybe 'dock' in your speak) and stay there. This is the boats permanently parked place.
Dock lines are kept on the boat for use when rafting up, fueling up and so on. For use while using the boat.
The construction of the rope does not have a huge bearing on the chafe resistance more the fibre the rope is made from.
Best to worse of the more common fibres when talking chafe resistance:
Vectran
Kevlar
Dyneema
Polyester (Dacron is another name)
=Nylon (Polyamide or Polyamid are other names)
= some higher garde polyprops
Ployprops
35fter in a marina 3/4"/20mm is what I'd use. For Dock lines I'd go down to a 5/8" / 16mm.
For marina lines just use a 3 strand purely for
price reasons. For dock lines I'd look at the octiplait.
Good post by Rick above which explains a few things well. I'm not sure I'd muck around splicing polyester to nylons and so on but them maybe I'm just lazier