Five of Our Best Dock Lines

By West Marine Staff, Last edited: 11/6/2023

When it comes to docking your boat, choosing the right dock lines is essential to ensure your vessel's safety and security. Whether you're looking for strength, flexibility, affordability, or specific use cases, West Marine offers dock lines to meet your needs. Following are five of our best dock lines, each with its own set of advantages.

Best for Absorbing Shock Loads:

These packaged, pre-spliced, premium nylon dock lines from New England Ropes offer the most stretch, which makes them your best choice for absorbing shock loads. All are made utilizing four-stage balanced construction with heat stabilization for a durable, long-lasting rope. This attention to detail produces a dock line that is easy to handle and will not harden with age.

Key Features:

• Professionally hand spliced five-tuck, 12" eye, and whipped bitter end
• Stretch: 16% at 20% of breaking strength
• Breaking Strengths are: 3/8" 4,400lb.; 1/2" 7,500lb.; 5/8" 11,650lb.; 3/4" 17,150lb.
• Made in USA

Premium Nylon Three-Strand Dock Lines

Best for Strength:

Don’t’ let the supple feel of these lines fool you. While being very easy to handle, they are also the strongest dock lines we offer — and with less than half the stretch of three-strand lines, they are also your best choice for precisely positioning your boat in its slip.  The 12”, hand-spliced eye allows for easy securement to a cleat. Non-kinking and non-hockling, these lines are a great choice for keeping your boat safe.

Key Features:

• Ready made with professional 12" eye splice and bitter end heat sealed and whipped.
• Stretch 6.5% at 20% of breaking strength
• Torque-free and non-hockling; Lines remain flexible
• Highly resistant to UV; Great for long term use
• Manufactured with premium high tenacity nylon fibers
• Soft, easy to handle, cleat and coil
• Stronger (+15%) than comparable three-strand dock lines

Premium Double Braided Nylon Dock Line

Best Choice for Big Boats:

Ideal for bigger boats because its single-braid construction coils and fakes easier than large diameter double-braid or three-strand line — which makes it easier to store and handle in the larger diameters required for big boats. This line has slightly lower stretch than three-strand but is extremely flexible and resistant to kinking and hockling. Professionally hand-spliced eye with whipped bitter end.

Key Features:

• Remains easy to coil and flake, even in larger diameters
• Spliced eyes for 5/8"-3/4"dia. are 12"; For 1"-1 1/4"dia. eyes are 36"
• Stretch: 9-12% at 20% of breaking strength

Pre-Spliced Mega Braid Dock Lines

Best for Boaters on a Budget:

Value priced, with professionally spliced eye and heat-sealed end, these three-strand nylon lines are ideal for use as transient dock lines, for trailered boats, and for other applications that don't require maximum strength or heavy-duty abrasion resistance.

Key Features:

• Offer outstanding value for the price!
• Professionally hand-spliced, five-tuck, 12” eye
• Heat-sealed ends 
• Stretch: 16% at 20% of breaking strength
• 3/8", 1/2", 5/8" diameters. 10', 15', 20', 25', 30' lengths. 

Economy Three-Strand Nylon Dock Line

Best Choice for Light-Duty Use:

Affordable pre-spliced dock lines with a premium feel, whether wet or dry, this 12-strand, single braid dock line remains lightweight and easy to handle. Ideal for boats up to 20' these floating polypropylene lines feature a pre-spliced eye that makes attachment to cleats easy. 15' length is just enough for bow and stern lines and serves well as spring lines on docks with an adequate number of cleats. The wide range of available colors allows you to easily identify on-board use or to add a colorful accent to your boat.

Key Features:

• 12-strand quality and “feel”
• Pre-spliced eye makes securement to cleats easy
• 1,500 lbs. breaking strength
• Choice of nine colors to add an accent to your boat or color code your lines
• Polypropylene material floats
• 3/8" diameter in 15' length
• Best for light-duty use on boats up to 20’

12-Strand Polypropylene Inland Dock Lines

Further Reading:

• How to Choose Dock Lines