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CLEAT CAPTOR PRODUCTS

Easy to use Berthing & Mooring Aids for Power and Sail Boats

THE SUPPLIED CLEAT CAPTOR MOORING LINE

The supplied Cleat Captor mooring line is NOT meant to replace normal mooring lines. It is only intended to be used to bring the vessel alongside so that normal mooring lines can be easily and safely attached to properly secure the vessel.

The key requirements for the supplied mooring line are:

1.       The line should remain in place on the Cleat Captor jaws until the Cleat Captor is deployed;

2.       The line should release from the Cleat Captor jaws easily and reliably;

3.       The line should close around the cleat base easily and reliably;

4.       The line must be able to limit shock loads on boat and marina cleats;

5.       The line must not fail with reasonable working loads experienced with commonly used vessels.

The supplied line is 12mm so called “silver” 3 strand laid rope rated at a breaking strain of 1.25 tonnes with 30% elongation and meets all these criteria. The Cleat Captor jaws are designed for 12mm rope. It is important to recognise that rope diameter, length, breaking strain, elongation and shock load reduction are all interrelated.

Point 1 is easily achieved with most synthetic ropes.

Point 2 is very important. The silver rope is relatively quite hard and slippery when compared to many other ropes. Soft ropes usually increase friction on the jaws and thus may not release as easily as Silver rope.

Similarly, point 3 is important in securing the line around the cleat base easily due to the relatively hard and slippery silver rope surface. The stainless thimble spliced onto the supplied mooring line also reduces friction and aids easy closure of the line around the cleat base.

Point 4. Laid rope is widely used to minimise shock loads and is chosen for anchor lines, snubbers and mooring lines. Shock loads are also reduced by entering berths at low speed. Double braid is generally chosen to reduce stretch and consequently increases shock loads.

Point 5. The supplied mooring line meets the needs of most commonly used pleasure boats. We offer an extra cost option for an upgraded line for large and heavy boats. This consists of 15 metres of 12mm 3 strand laid nylon which has a breaking strain of 3 tonnes at 40% elongation. It is softer than silver rope and consequently does not release or close as quite easily as silver rope and is thus something of a compromise, nevertheless tests have shown that it still works sufficiently well.

On our website and some brochures we show a Cleat Captor rigged with red braided rope. This is only to improve photographic clarity (the supplied white rope does not show up as well as red). We DO NOT recommend the use of braided rope.

In light of the preceding points we strongly recommend use of the supplied mooring line and that is exactly why we supply it as part of the Cleat Captor package.