HOW MUCH EXTRA LINE DO YOU CARRY?

[hpeer]

Originally Posted by a64pilot

I keep my old sheets and halyards and use them up for things like the dinghy painter etc. Sometimes give some away too.
However I have 1,000 ft of 5/8” line, two old 300’ pieces of anchor line and one new 300’ piece meant for the sea anchor and a 100’ for whatever, then of course dock lines.
The two 300’ pieces of old anchor line would be my go to to start cutting up for storm prep and or to tie myself into mangroves. 1,000 ft sounds like a whole lot, but I bet I’d use it all tying into mangroves.

I’m similar, my Wife says it’s a fetish.

But we sail some places where there is no marine store and it might come in handy in a blow.

[zeehag]

i keep 250 ft spare chain and a spool and a half of anchor/dock/kedging line with thimble on for emergencies. i receive all extras no one wants as docklines and hurricane lines and over tarp lines and safety lines and such are made of extra line..ditto dinghy painter line..is resources old line. i was taught that one can never have too much line. once tossed it is always needed

[OS2Dude]

We have a 1985 Catalina 30 and sail on a large lake. We have spring and dock lines for & aft, port & starboard that stay on the dock when we go out. We carry enough spare line to tie up to a transient dock (spring & dock) and/or raft up with friends. We have 30' of chain and 180' or line for our primary anchor, and 150' of line on our auxiliary/stern anchor. Our 4 large fenders are tied to dock and we carry 6 smaller fenders for other times.

Look into using something like Davis Instruments Shockles instead of the hard rubber snubbers. I see so many boats in our marina with broken snubbers. We used snubbers at first, and they help somewhat until they harden. We switched to shockles a few years back and they are an improvement in comfort when waves come into the marina. They are made with several elastic bands of varying resistance, so the energy is absorbed in stages not all at once.

[tarian]

Simply Answer will be had if you let us know your sailing routine

Long term cruising not going to land to much all over the world ,

1. Always good to have spares to be able to deal with repairs and emgegencies
2. Coastal sailing heading back after a weekend , using it for a holiday trip
then you can get rid of most of it and have only a couple of essential spares ,
Dock lines , anchor rode, Halyard
The rest can be taken home and cleaned and hung in the Garage for spares or for the big adventure

All that clutter in your boat takes up essential room for fenders , etc, and carries more weight.

There are those out there that just cannot get rid of anything on their boat because they have created every doomsday scenario in their head multiplied it by 10 and then worry about it.

Over 20 refuse sacks full of Junk, spare upon spare upon spare spanners, ropes , screws , etv I took of my First boat I bought , the water line had to be changed because of the Junk on it .
It is the same as your garage or house , Just in case

[Maka]

As mentioned already: Depends on what kind of sailing you are doing.
Excellent answers here, but note what size boats the answers are coming from and adjust accordingly for your boat.
I cant tell you how much extra line of various types and lengths I have .... but there is a lot of it.
3 sides of my large ( 6' X 6' ) sail locker are stocked with various sizes and lengths hanging on the perimeter. Additionally there is a spool of new 3 strand nylon anchor line sitting on the sail locker floor.
The trick is not to let extra line consume space you need for other important things.
Otherwise: If some is good, more is better. IMHO

[Sea King]

Zengirl...
You live in Florida...
I assume the P.O. of your boat lived in Florida...
I live in Florida...
"Dorian", the soon to be hurricane, is coming to Florida...
You gonna need that rope like I do every summer, of late.
You dig?

[MAJICDAN]

We travel six to eight months a year. Last season we traveled about six thousand miles.
I want to be self-reliant no matter where we go.
We have a 53 ft ketch.
We currently have a total of six hundred feet of 3/8 chain, 250 ft of 1-inch line, a total of 600 feet of 3/4 line for our four anchors.
For running rigging, we have one spool of 9/16 halliard line, one spool of 1/2 inch, one spool of 3/8, one spool of 5/16 line.

[Tempest245]

I think it depends on how far afield from home waters you will be traveling.

I have a complete set of spare dock lines.
have 2 spare halyards all set up ready to go. (Rigged, not in a locker)
have a topping pole lift line rigged, but not normally needed or used with my
asymmetrical.
have a spare anchor and rode.

A few bits and pieces on board and that's all, if I'm not making big trips. that's all I need.

If you're somewhere in the middle of nowhere, then, by all means carry spares for everything. Otherwise it's just getting in the way. And, if your're going to carry it, take it all out , inspect it and make sure it's functional. Not dry rotted from sitting in a locker for years.

[Lepke]

I buy my line in spools, usually 600'. I have whatever was left on the spool tucked away, but I have a lot of space. My dock lines are 1", so a spare 200' sometimes serves as a stern anchor line.

[model 10]

[QUOTE=Dockhead; cordage itself, not put to a specific purpose, is rope, cable, or small stuff.)[/QUOTE]


For example; I had a 150' of rope and I made 4 dock lines from it.

[sailcrazy]

It really depends on how you chose to use your "extra" storage space! If you've got lots....it's a non-issue. But if you're tight, like us, extra line...that you don't directly need, takes up storage space that you may want for something else. We went through all our extra line, IDed a specific replacement for each key line on the boat, marked it, and put those lines in a special bag for storage/emergency use. The rest we kept, as they made great trading with fishermen in Asia....and even in the Medd. But here in the E Caribb-not so much. We've IDed and kept a few long lines, cut out any suspect areas and redid all our fender lines. And the rest.....well, we dumped them! We need to storage space! And we're just 2 on a 43' monohull.

[CatNewBee]

Firs find out what they are.

I assume, the bucket with the chain and rope are a second anchor tackle, we have a light second anchor with15m chain and about 60m rope.

Next thing is a long line, 80...100m to tie up stern to shore in a tight or deep anchorage and prevent swinging.

Then 4...6 docklines, bow, stern, 2 spring lines and maybe 2 mor if docking between poles with bowlines.

At least one spare line of thebigest diameter used on the running rigging, e.g. 14mm, 40m to replace a snapped halyard or sheet.

If you have a spinnacker or code 0 you may need 2 or 4 or 6 extra lines, not permanently rigged, 2 sheets, 2 downhauler, guylines, lines for the spi pole.

You may need a 20..50m floating line for safety at sea dragged behind you on passages in case of a MOB.

Your dinghy may also have an anchor with a short chain and a line.

You need some shorter lines to fix things on deck sometimes too, like a dinghi, paddleboard etc.

This is what you should consider normal equipment, not spare stuff. Old dyneema core lines can be refurbished if the core is in good shape, they can be re-bridled in a line factory for half the price of new lines.

[belizesailor]

A whole locker full seems excessive, but I too keep and repurpose old line. A section of my retired main sheet is now my dinghy painter...still way strong for that application.

I also keep a "small stuff" bag...this is where all the shorter length remants of line go. Ive kept this bag for decades across several boats. I dip into it, or add to it, almost daily when aboard.

[Mike Banks]

You need ten times as much scope as the maximum depth of water in which you propose to lie to an anchor.

Of course you can get away with less than that in most conditions, but in really bad weather and with a kellet to assist, a scope of ten to one is as much as one will ever need.

If you are in a hurricane area, you need hurricane tie-off ropes if you are in a mangrove creek, which is probably the safest place to be. My vessel sat through a cat 4/5 Cyclone without harm, but it was tied off using LONG stretchy nylon ropes to allow for tidal and storm surges. In all, I had at my disposal eight hundred feet of line as well as two sets of anchor tackle.

I think you need to take out all of this rope you have and lay it out so you know if it is all in one length, and if it is not, to coil it in labelled lengths, so you can grab the appropriate length of line quickly. In an emergency--everything can happen with only short notice.

[zengirl]

You guys are just great! Thanks for all the input. I will sort it all out and keep as much as reasonable for emergencies etc.