How to protect against rope chafe

Aye, there's the rub: Alex and Daria Blackwell warn of the inherent dangers of rope chafe and advocate a simple method of protection

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Now is the perfect time to check all your lines and halyards for chafe.

Chafe can occur very quickly with rope rodes. We saw a boat break its rode when a raft-up was suddenly subjected to choppy seas. The wind had turned against the current and the rode started moving against the metal toerail. In a matter of minutes, all three boats in the raft-up started drifting towards a reef.

In another instance, with a raft-up of multiple vessels of different descriptions, a catamaran tied between a sloop and a trawler started surging forward and back when the waves kicked up across a broad fetch. That motion against the motion of the sloop and trawler on either side acted like a saw blade. Luckily we noticed this, but watched in horror as the first of the ropes parted like a shot. In this instance we were able to quickly disengage the raft-up before any further damage occurred.

Any rope that touches edges or is exposed to objects that can rub – including other ropes – runs the risk of chafing through. Adequate protection against chafe is therefore essential.

Plan ahead to beat rope chafe

With a little attention to detail and some advance planning, protecting your rode or dock line from chafe is quite easy. Look for any place your rope may potentially come into contact with something else: these are the places where you need to add a chafe protector.

We use reinforced plastic hose split along its length to allow us to place the chafe guard anywhere on the rode. We secure it to the rode with some line that we’ve tied through holes at either end of the length of hose.

The reason for this is that we do not want the rope to move inside the hose: this causes friction, which causes chafe and we’re back to square one. Instead, we want the
sacrificial hose to move against the opposing object and be subjected to the abrasion.

Your chafe protector should be positioned so that it protects the rode anywhere it might rub against something: note the protector extending beyond the bow of the boat in the picture above. It must also be long enough to protect the rode when the rode stretches under load.

Chafe is caused by friction as a result of the following:

  • boat movement
  • rope/rode stretch
  • rope/rode movement
  • if there are objects the rope may touch
  • if it bends around objects –cleats, bollards, quay edges etc
  •  if it moves against chocks, toerails, etc

A home-made chafe protector

A homemade rope chafe protector

Credit: Alex and Daria Blackwell

Appropriately-sized reinforced plastic tubing is slit along one side and holes are drilled in either end to accommodate lanyards. The tube is then slid over the rope and secured with the lanyards. You can also buy commercial chafe guards, usually made of similar plastic or leather.

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