Chafe and Chafing

Quite a few comments within other Irma threads about chafe. I understand the various reasons that lines part. (Heat loadsfrom stretching, sawing action on sharp edges, etc.)

In different situations, what are you using to prevent chafe?

I belive whatever material is used, that it is snug or attached to the line in such a way it moves with the line, not the line within it.

In the case of vinyl tubing, it has been shown to generate enough heat to weaken the line, but I am not sure the study mentioned whether the tubing was fastened to the line in some fashion.

"In different situations, what are you using to prevent chafe?"

Chain

My storm lines terminate, on the shore side, with SS thimbles in the eye splice. Chain, with enough length to extend past possible abrasion points (pier or dock edges and features), secured to the shoreside hard points (cleats, piling, structural steel, etc). Thimble then attached to chain with shackle.

That takes care of the dockside chafe. Still have to protect the line on the vessel side.

Chain from your cleats through your chocks? Chain when tied dockside? In a slip? (I'm thinking 'no'.)

A lot of TF-ers spoke of being dockside or in a slip during Irma. Lines got chafed through across finger piers, at chocks, etc.
That's the sort of situation I'm asking about.
Hard to prevent heat loads - esp. with 3-strand - but there's a lot of chafing gear out there from store-bought to garden hose.

I had about 50' of old, smaller firehose I used to cut into pieces...it wasn't bad, actually. Had a rubber core. Kinda hard to hold in place on the lines though.

"I had about 50' of old, smaller firehose I used to cut into pieces...it wasn't bad, actually. Had a rubber core. Kinda hard to hold in place on the lines though."

Fire hose works as an insulator adding to the heat wows of the dock lines.

"Chain from your cleats through your chocks? Chain when tied dockside? In a slip?"

(I'm thinking 'no')

When anchored in a big bow yes we use 5/8 chain at the end of the anchor line to go over the bow. Its not even noisy in a good breeze.

In a slip we use oversized line with rubber boots .

The deck hardware is oversized to handle the fatter line.

I have not tried this with the boat, but I like the idea of using continuous loop rigging chokers at the boat end, with a more stretchy dock line spliced and shackled to it past any potential chafe points. I have used them extensively for industrial rigging work and they seem to be incredibly resistant to chafe. Also, they use some sort of super low stretch high tech fiber core, so they wouldn't work back and forth over surfaces as the load changes. They are also pretty cheap.

The majority of my docking lines (six) lead directly to cleats. No chafing there. The two bow lines pass through eyes, but have chafing guards protecting. Definitely helps to have no surge.

The simplest solution is found on some TT.

A bronze fairlead has ears cast on it, to use as a cleat.

. The very short distance between the ears and the lead means very little distance for stretch to occur.

The only cautions are , the cleat portion eats ankles ,

and some of the fairleads were made with sharp corners to make fitting faster.

Rounded like a beer can is far kinder to the dock lines.