Mine is 15 metre for a 58 foot boat.
It is said that it should only be long enough to reach the back end but not long enough to go into the water and get wrapped round the prop. But that makes it too short for lots of locks.
Should have said ‘are’ as I have two of them.
Living retirement in the slow lane.
20 years hiring, 6 years of shared ownership and a Continuous Cruiser since 2007 but still learning!
pearley said
Mine is 15 metre for a 58 foot boat.It is said that it should only be long enough to reach the back end but not long enough to go into the water and get wrapped round the prop. But that makes it too short for lots of locks.
Should have said ‘are’ as I have two of them.
…and such a length doesn’t allow you to control the boat if you want to step off the back holding the centre line. The stern line is much more likely to get wrapped around the prop than the centre line, no mater how long it is.
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I can’t remember how long mine are (I am not on the boat) but they are much longer than the stern. It also depends what you are going to do – river cruising requires longer ropes. Also long ropes enable you to step off at the entrance to the lock with the centre line, going uphill, and you need a fair bit spare to pass over the lock gate. The boat I shared the Stockton flight with tried to copy me and failed as the centre line was not long enough.
Retired; Somerset/Dorset border when not out and about on Lucy Lowther
Days without name and hours without number
http://thelovelylisanarrowboat.blogspot.co.uk
Hi There
We changed our single centre rope last year and now have two so one for each side. I worked on 30′ for each side, but (oops) forgot the length needed between the centre point and the cleat on the edge of the boat so I come about 2′ short of the back of the boat. Ours is 57′ as well by the way.
It’s only deeper double locks (8′ is okayish, 10′ are a problem) that we tend to come up short with, but I’ve spliced in loops at the ends and have an additional length of rope that I have to hand and loop through when we’re going into deep locks.
Regards,
Keith
Enjoying the Dream ( Keith & Nicky http://narrowboatboysontour.bl…..gspot.com/ )
Another thumb’s up for two centre ropes. I have three 100w solar panels on the roof on the back end of the cabin so my centre line was forever getting caught on them, and the pole and plank when I tried to flick it from one side to the other. Now, with two ropes, there’s no problem at all.
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Paul Smith said
pearley said
Mine is 15 metre for a 58 foot boat.It is said that it should only be long enough to reach the back end but not long enough to go into the water and get wrapped round the prop. But that makes it too short for lots of locks.
Should have said ‘are’ as I have two of them.
…and such a length doesn’t allow you to control the boat if you want to step off the back holding the centre line. The stern line is much more likely to get wrapped around the prop than the centre line, no mater how long it is.
I didn’t mean to imply mine aren’t longer than the boat. They are probably a good 5 metres longer. I don’t like short ropes.
Living retirement in the slow lane.
20 years hiring, 6 years of shared ownership and a Continuous Cruiser since 2007 but still learning!
I have two centre ropes both are approx. 2ft short of reaching the stern end they have been fine doing locks single handed on river Weaver but not sure about other rivers my concern is my stern & bow ropes which seem to short to me as I prefer to fasten off on board the boat & not the bank where some toerag can untie me whilst asleep instead they have to climb aboard to do there worst at which point the dog will have them
Norman
Stern lines should be around 10 metres if you want to tie off on the boat and 11 or 12 metres for the bow line. If you are moored and worried about being let loose then try a cable tie around the ropes at one end or the other.
Regards
Pete
Living retirement in the slow lane.
20 years hiring, 6 years of shared ownership and a Continuous Cruiser since 2007 but still learning!
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