Made up some new dock lines

A couple weeks ago my wife was complaining that our traveling dock lines were too old, too stiff, and the eyes weren’t big enough to easily go over our cleats. She wanted new ones.

She wanted black double braid. I would have considered brait but it is too expensive. Rarely does she volunteer to spend money on the boat so I jumped at it. I had an assortment of dock lines, all from the prior owner. There are two 50’ 5/8” lines that are in good shape, but a number of shorter lines that weren’t in great shape. I also had a bunch of 1/2” lines. I ended up buying a 100’ hank of 5/8” cheap double braid from ebay.

This morning, with my 8 month old grandson on my lap, I turned that 100’ into 4 lines with 16” eye splices. I found that the grandson made it more difficult. The lines were very easy to splice. I find that the size of my eye’s are not consistent. I sometimes get eyes that are up to 2” smaller than anticipated.

Anyway, 4 new lines that are long enough to use for typical bow and stern lines. I’m going to keep those 4 plus the 2 50’ lines on board. I’ve never found a need for anything more than that so I don’t want to bother carrying them.

We live and learn.

dhays said:

A couple weeks ago my wife was complaining that our traveling dock lines were too old, too stiff, and the eyes weren’t big enough to easily go over our cleats. She wanted new ones.

She wanted black double braid... I ended up buying a 100’ hank of 5/8” cheap double braid from ebay.

The lines were very easy to splice. I find that the size of my eye’s are not consistent. I sometimes get eyes that are up to 2” smaller than anticipated.

Anyway, 4 new lines that are long enough to use for typical bow and stern lines. I’m going to keep those 4 plus the 2 50’ lines on board. I’ve never found a need for anything more than that so I don’t want to bother carrying them.

Click to expand...

Great work.Stiffness of the old lines may just be salt encrustation which a fresh water wash would fix.
If it is the same stuff as here, the black lines looks smart, but are soft and wear easily.
Within reason, you can`t have too much rope on a boat. Or torches.
The eye presentation is neither here nor there, but it would be frightening in your consulting room.

Ah yes, splicing double braid. Not too difficult with new line, but a killer on your fingers on old line. I did some a year ago, but will not be doing any more! Large eye splices are definitely the way to go. They are quite versatile and retain far more of the line's strength than using knotted loops. And 5/8" is a good size. I do have a couple of 3/4" line, but find that cleats on the docks are often a bit small for them.

My lines are still OK, but I think when the time comes to replace them I'll probably just go with 3 strand silver line. Very easy to splice, and cheap. I tend to have multiple lines on multiple cleats when docked, in part because of ferry wakes so I don't really need the higher performance of double braid.

Since your wife way paying you should have gone for the brait. She would love how supple it is and it doesn't hockle. I switched to brait a few years ago and the lines are as supple now as they were new. They are a bit more tricky to splice though, but only because it is hard to keep track of eight strands.

Black double braid is a great choice for boat lines. Three strand will “Cut” gelcoat without consistent chafing gear and Black lines resist the damaging effects of the Florida sun better than white lines. IMHO.

We never use eye splices. A bowline loop can be as large as needed and on either end of the line. Won't twist and can be untied if other lines are put over it by another boat.