Chafe Protection Ideas

[FSMike]

Everybody always says that fire hose keeps the rope dry and promotes heat. Maybe so, but after using the stuff for over 10 years I've never noticed a problem. The ID of fire hose is much larger than the OD of typical anchor rode, which probably explains why I've never found dry anchor rode under the fire hose after riding out some bad weather. It gets wet under there.

I punch a couple of small holes in each end of the hose and run some small stuff through them and tie the hose off to the rode. I make a point of using more than enough length of fire hose to allow for the rode stretching in strong winds.

[bobconnie]

15 yrs ago I bought a Hide that was tanned for Blacksmiths aprons sorta like thick suede, really good stuff wears like iron !! great for chafeing gear. I don't have a heavy duty sewing machine but do have a palm and waxed thread,gives me something to do cus I don't care for TV LOL Bob and Connie

[Ocean Girl]

Thanks, I have tried leather chafe but not the good blacksmith aprons. Where can I find a blacksmith apron?
Mrs. Rain Dog

[CaptForce]

When I am anchoring in big winds or harsh conditions I am using an all chain rode and my chafe concerns are with the, usually 5/8" nylon three-strand snubber lines from a chain hook to my bow cleats. These lines are absorbing the shock load and doing much stretching. I usually have cloth chafing guards, but I often in the case of tropical storms, arrange a series of three separate snubbers that may take on the role when the first or second fail. This does complicate by ability to adjust my rode, but in a storm I've usually committed to a plan that won't adapt to much change during the big winds.

[forsailbyowner]

Call me old school but I believe in worming parcelling and serving my snubber. After doing this once Ive been using the same snubber for years of fulltime liveaboard on the hook cruising. This method has been used forever on wooden ships with all rope standing rigging and for critical lines.

[thinwater]

Originally Posted by forsailbyowner

Call me old school but I believe in worming parcelling and serving my snubber.... This method has been used forever on wooden ships with all rope standing rigging and for critical lines.

Also kerosene lanterns, sextants, hemp rope, hard tack and bully, and water in barrels....

Really, old school does look very nice on 3-strand, on a traditional boat. That's a good enough reason. I wonder if I'd cover it during storms, to keep it nice ?

[Target9000]

Originally Posted by forsailbyowner

Call me old school but I believe in worming parcelling and serving my snubber. After doing this once Ive been using the same snubber for years of fulltime liveaboard on the hook cruising. This method has been used forever on wooden ships with all rope standing rigging and for critical lines.

Forgive me for being wet behind the ears but what exactly is this process?

[forsailbyowner]

Worming is wrapping a line in the grooves of the 3 strand ropes, parcelling is wrapping canvas in a spiral around the line after worming, serving is taking another line and wrapping it in a tight spiral around parcelling, old saying worm and parcel with the lay, turn the serving the other way. I used 1/8" nylon braid for worming 1" nylon webbing for parcelling and 1/4" polyester braid for serving the 5/8" nylon 3 strand snubber.

San Francisco Maritime National Historical Park - Worm Parcel Serve (U.S. National Park Service)

[CaptForce]

Originally Posted by forsailbyowner

Call me old school but I believe in worming parcelling and serving my snubber. After doing this once Ive been using the same snubber for years of fulltime liveaboard on the hook cruising. This method has been used forever on wooden ships with all rope standing rigging and for critical lines.

I do like "Old School" and tradition, but sometimes this work is more of a honored hobby than a modern function. There's no doubt that this worm, parcel, and serve can be a chafing guard, but not by it's original purpose. As I noted in the San Francisco Maritime link, "Rope is wormed, parceled, and served to protect it against the wet, which is liable to rot it." I like pretty, but if I'm just after chafing guard for a storm, I'll use some of those denim scraps like Zeehag. 'never had a problem with rotting nylon and my boat was designed with the looks of a Chlorox bottle anyway.

[IslandHopper]

Originally Posted by forsailbyowner

Call me old school but I believe in worming parcelling and serving my snubber. After doing this once Ive been using the same snubber for years of fulltime liveaboard on the hook cruising. This method has been used forever on wooden ships with all rope standing rigging and for critical lines.

You’ve just made it into my top 10.....

[Ocean Girl]

Worm/parcel/serving

I guess we got away from this highly effective technique because it requires a lot of work and knowledge. It's easier to throw a chafe guard of some kind on the rope in question, and it is also more flexible.

But you have inspired me to try to learn it :-)
Mrs. Rain Dog

[janders]

Caveat: this really only applies to anchoring loads and would only for a few boats out there - definitely not a universal solution.

We have a bowsprit on our boat and the way the forward chocks are setup, our anchor snubber will end up chafing on our bobstay and side-loading the stay as we sail at anchor. If we run the snubber over the bowsprit and bowroller, then we introduce anchor loads onto our bowsprit and into our rigging. I wasn't happy with either solution. While a bit more of a drastic solution, we chose to move the mounting point of the anchor snubber down to the stem iron (the fitting that attaches the bobstay to the hull).





This gives us a few advantages:

* No chafing line needed, the line runs to our rode without passing over any other piece of the boat.
* The snubber is in the water so heating up is less of a concern.
* It reduces our scope. In 20' of water, we used to have to calculate scope based on 24' since the snubber was 4' off the height of the water. No more. 100' of rode is a true 5:1 in 20' of water.
* We sail way less at anchor.

There are a few disadvantages:

* Since the snubber attaches down at the waterline we leave it attached all the time. There is a risk of the line entering the water while underway. We deliberately sized the line so it can't reach back and get entangled in our prop.
* In an emergency, casting off our ground tackle is problematic. There are ways to do it but none of them are ideal.
* Leaving it attached all the time does expose it to light chafing on the deck hardware. More of a long term inspection kind of problem.

Overall, I feel the advantages far outweigh the disadvantages.



The stem iron fitting with its big backing plates. We bought this from Caliber directly so we feel pretty confident about the engineering. They sell new boats with this fitting and market it as able to handle storm anchoring loads. The fiberglass at the stem where we installed it is 1.5 inches thick. And the fitting is built like a brick sh*t house. I had a stainless steel guy go over it to check the welds and build quality. He said it looked awesome.