Page 134 - Barbara Merry - The Splicing Handbook

CHAFE PROTECTION

Somewhere along the line between the magnificent sailing vessels of the mid-
1800s and today, chafing gear on ropes has disappeared. And that’s a shame
because today’s ropes, with their high-tech fiber blends and state-of-the-art
construction, demand protection for more reasons than the twisted manila, linen,
and cotton rigging of old.
Good synthetic ropes are expensive, but they do not rot away. If you choose
your ropes carefully and spend a little extra time applying chafing gear where
needed, you should get years of useful service from them. I can assure you that
you’ll save both money and worry.

Lengths of garden hose or vinyl tubing are often used as chafing sleeves on
mooring and anchor lines and sometimes in rigging, but the methods described
here provide a more handsome alternative.

For the sake of simplicity, let us assume you are purchasing new ropes with
plans to add chafing gear to the eye and/or at a point of probable wear on the
standing part—that is, any place where the rope will repeatedly rub against a
hard surface or another rope.
One type of chafe sleeve is fashioned from the coat of a double-braid rope. I
like to use this for chafe protection on three-strand, hollow-braid, and plaited
ropes. (For chafe protection on double-braid, I prefer to use leather, for reasons
given later.)

Buy a short piece of double-braid the same diameter as your rope to make the
chafe sleeve. There is no hard-and-fast rule on how long to make the sleeve.
Decide how much length you’ll need for the eye; then add 3 or 4 inches (75 to
100 mm) to allow for raveling at the ends of the sleeve and for the tendency of
the sleeve to “collapse”—or shrink lengthwise—when you slide it over the rope