As Michael said, something like this can (and should) be done as a single tubular surface with displacement/normal mapping. The results are 100% believable and much more easy to deal with for your system. Only a madman would attempt to use thousands of feet of modeled rope in an animation. That being said, carry on with your modeling! :)

jonah

EDIT - Here is a starting point for you to make modeled rope. Select the two clover profiles, then sweep them along the two helices...