How to: Rope Bags or Pockets for your Sailboat

Sometimes when we are out sailing the ropes in our cockpit begin to be a bit messy and all over the place. You don’t always want to coil them between tacks, and apart from dog beds they are just in the way.

First, based on a few patterns I found on several cruising forums I chose a size for each bag. Difficult to see but 17″ x 14″ and 12″ x 10″. I cut these out of some Surlast (very similar to Sunbrella).

Next step was to cut some outdoor netting fabric into 7″ strips at lengths to match my squares. I cut two 17″ x 7″ sections and one 12″ x 7″ section. I then folded and ironed strips of the Surlast to go on the top of what would be the pockets.

Then I just stitched them on. (Much easier after ironing.)

Now the netting was ready to be stitched to the back pieces. I decided to go with two pockets on the larger square and one on the smaller. The two pockets need to overlap about 2 inches in order to fit on the square and look nice.

When I began to pin it all together I made sure to cut the corners in order to avoid a bulky material build up.

Once I had everything pinned it was an easy stitch together.

I used double stitching on the edges and top just to make it a bit more durable.

Because of the hems on the side the pocket ends up being a bit bigger than the backing. If you want the pocket to lay more flat, for example if it will be holding valuables, I would cut it a bit shorter.

I put a divider in the larger pocket and made it into a boat shower/cockpit caddy. I can’t wait to hang it up in my head!