How many spare ropes are enough?

[deblen]

I am lucky to live in a fishing / atlantic salmon aquaculture community.
Besides the spare"yacht rope"that I keep aboard.
I have access to a monstrous supply of polyester 3/8 to1-1/2 polysteel lobster potwarp/groundline and salmon cage anchor rope.
Here is a pic of our community dump/recycle station-rope pile.
Not really "yacht rope"-but handy for many projects-land and water & it's free.

It is amazing how valuable rope is to people that live a few miles inland.
Cheers/Len

[HC Sailing]

Very much agree with with you Ded Reckoner.
It depends on where you are and a single high quality dyneema rope that can be used for various replacements in case of failure.
In my bay sailing days I always had one or max two spare with me. They were used as replacements until back in the harbour when the proper replacement was sorted out.
I have yet to prepare for an ocean passage.
I assume I will duplicate lines for most things and have one or two extra ropes.

[Fidsplice]

Apart from the social relationships management, I find it interesting that responders have talked about the purpose of various lines (ropes) ( going for a storm of abuse here), rather than the type of line you need.

You don’t go into the chandlery and ask “do you have a main halyard 45m long in 12mm double braid”. You buy a length of rope appropriate to the task. Until you cut and prepare the rope for the purpose you intend - it is rope.

What you need to identify is how much of each broad type of rope you need to have in your locker. Types? Stretch (laid line) or non stretch (braided synthetic). Diameter / strength? If a temporary larger diameter fits through the working path you don’t need the lesser diameters. In other words you can get by with a lesser number of diameters than you would prefer to rig for a permanent situation, than when in a make do situation. Then there is the longest length that you need for any particular line.
OK that’s your spare line locker. One piece of each diameter for the longest possible use.

If one of your lines fails, you need to replace it with whatever you have that will do the trick. When you can you will replace it with an appropriate rope. (!). You probably should chuck the failed.
So the formula is:
Do I have every fully identified purpose line I want? (None of this - this could be useful for……..). That’s your required inventory. Then:
Do I have enough spare rope to make a serviceable, albeit temporary, replacement for a failed line.

So this is your base inventory.
Then you may decide to keep extra. But please consult someone like Marie Kondo to advise. You have to have the courage to chuck junk. Damn. Agree that the number of times I’ve thrown something, only to discover I really could use it a few milliseconds later. OK, a month later.

But the essence of this OP is finding the balance. Not the argument by your personal minister for war and home finance, whether they be he or she. Because keeping what you don’t need is unarguable.

Work out the least possible resource stock that you must have.
Argue about what you’d like to keep, but understand that you don’t need it.