So Many Rope Choices

What size boat are these lines going on?

 

1/4" is pretty small for a 16 ft boat. You might want to upgrade the blocks one day soon.

 

just fer the record, (twisted) the right term is laid rope, and nylon is fine, , manila feels nice, but where can you get it,) Spectra is wonderful and expensive BUT in 7 years of exposure the sheets on the boat I skippered(the owners left the headsails up 7 years ) in the ultra violet rays of this forlorn place, have stood up to the sun, as has the braid
I cant splice braid, so I use laid for tieing up, and also for ground tackle use laid nylon as backup for the chain rode
unless you have togh hands as soemone said, laid is not good for dinghy sheets where you have the main in hand, does;nt lay nicely on winch drums either
I have stopped splicng the mainbrace

 

for dinghys anything will do on halyards, for big boats its wire or spectra as last thing you need is stretch
Roy, the trouble is thse days, hardly any shop assistant will know terylene from nylon,

 

The Boat is a 16 ft. day sailor....22ft mast 9 ft boom about 6 feet or so on the beam. I already have to replace the cleats since most are just broke from being outside and not used for 7 years, and I am missing one block and another one is worn pretty bad so I could see updating all of the blocks and making sure they can hold heavier line...

 

Thanks for the correction. It is indeed laid rope, though about one in ten clerks in chandleries know what you're talking about until you say "Three strand".
If west Marine's "advisor" were here, the most practical, least expensive, and easiest to work rope would probably not get much attention (but then, West's advisor owns stock in West). I think its underrated, considered inferior to braided in every way (due in part to salesmanship, and in part to the way people want what the big boys use). In fact, idacron laid rope is twice the strength of manila and doesn't rot either.

Alan

 

Check out Ronstans for price for the blocks. Whatever material the cleats were made from... do not use the same stuff. Anodized aluminum is expensive, but lasts a long time, and you can trust it. I use bronze on my boat, which is about the same cost as aluminum. It's heavier, but looks great, and lasts forever. You will find that blocks having roller bearings are pricey. For your needs, its false economy. The plain ones are very long lasting and bulletproof.

 

yepp I was only being nostalgic abt manila, my first dinghy had a cotton sail, only one in the fleet and a hand me down at that, every time the sail got wet, it tightened, I finally got a terylene sail, but is was a dog, I was 13. Dinghy racing was my life as a kid, it was in NZ P class where all the champs were made My boat was not competitive and my dad was not rich or much interested so I never rose to the lofty ranks

 

Mine had a cotton sail too, a used MIT training dinghy sail, I was told. The boat was 10 ft, flat iron skiff, a piece of junk really. Good thing it didn't matter what the sail was made from. The boat was too slow to compare, I'm sure.

 

I have just completely re-rigged my 14ft race boat. I used 6mm polester jib sheets, 8mm polypropolene main sheet (6mm is too painful!) and 4mm polyester with a dyneema core (same stuff as spectra) for everyting else (main and jib halyard, vang, cunningham, outhaul etc). Total cost was £90 ($180), which I don't consider expensive really, especially as I went for what I considered best for the job. And its bound to cost less in the US. The dyneema cored rope is very stong, very low stretch and cost about $2/yard.