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Newbie question about mooring ropes. What size and type of rope, will 8mm be ok? What length for springs, bow and stern?

G'day Brett,
12mm silver is the best size for a small yacht. 8mm is a bit light. 14 mm is far too big and wont coil down tightly for storage. 8mm is a good size for the Dinghy painter.

Splice a loop in one end about 200 to 300mm long. You'll find it really handy as you can pass the working part throught the loop and turn the loop inside out to form a running loop to put over mooring posts. It'll slip over the winch. The winches are usually stronger than the cleats. The other end can be melted (butane back splice).

Ive got two warps about a boat lenght long for bow and stern lines, they're a bit short at times. 10m long would be better. Another one or two lines 10m long can be used for springs.

Dont forget a long line of 30 to 50m long for a tow rope. It comes in handy for towing power boats and can be used for spare warps.

The working load limit (WLL) for silver rope is the square of its diameter. 8mm is 64kg, 12mm is 144kg. Its breaking strain will be about twice that.

Always use only silver rope on the painter as it floats. It wont sink and foul the propellor.

Hope it helps.
Greg.

If you can find the ready made black ones with an eye spliced in one end, I think they are 10 or 12mm & about 8 m long are ok, the good ones have a (maybe a rubber) snubber built into the line near the eye splice.
If I was starting from scratch with no other lines I could use. I'd probably get 100m of 12mm (or the cheaper 10mm) Nylon (or silver, whichever is the most stretchy), Cut it in half put a long eye splice in the 50m (that's the end you pass to the motor boater if they need a tow). Then make 5x 10m lengths with an eye splice in one end of each line, you can join them together with the eye splice when needed.

Thanks for the info Shaun and Dolphin. Ended up in with pre-made black lines 2x 12mm and 2x 14mm (hedged my bets). I was in a hurry, they seem to work quite well. I really don't like roping up only on one side to a pontoon .... too much movement.