How and when did you clean your Anchor rope, Try this.

[Geoff Cooper]

Soak the Rope for a couple of days in a container of Bleach and floor cleaner.


Put it in the washing machine same mixture then spin.


Job done not bad for 10 years old.

 

[MikeyL]

VERY VERY nice and excellent tip, @Geoff Cooper !

 

[jawsf16]

Looks brand new!!

 

[Geoff Cooper]

Looks brand new!!

10 years old it gets the same treatment about every 12 months when the rainy season comes

 

[JetPowered]

I've always heard the bleach breaks down the nylon, decreasing it's breaking strength. Maybe not a big deal for dock lines, but I'd be wary if it were my primary anchor line.

 

[MOA_Chaser]

Agree, I'd be hesitant to use bleach on anything that requires strength. Bleach will break down pretty much anything.

 

[Glassman]

I've always heard the bleach breaks down the nylon, decreasing it's breaking strength. Maybe not a big deal for dock lines, but I'd be wary if it were my primary anchor line.

You heard right...sorry to be a wet blanket here, but while bleach may make lines look nice, it's not good for them. As a long time sailor I can tell you, we rely and lines to sail the boat and they are a top priority when time comes to put the boat away. The lines we used on our racing sloop were damn expensive, we had thousands of dollars worth. I would never clean them with anything remotely caustic.

Here is a link to an article on caring for rope published in Practical Sailor:
http://www.practical-sailor.com/issues/37_7/features/clean_rope_10509-1.html

An excerpt:

• Bleach is not recommended by any manufacturer in any quantity. Every manufacturer has faced claims of rope failure or splice failure caused by a bleach overdose. Extended soaking in bleach solutions must be avoided

I personally rinse them or soak them in clean, fresh water and dry in sunlight - then coil and put away out of the sun once dry. The sun typically kills anything growing - if you've let that happen, but as the article states; mold or mildew won't weaken synthetic lines. Take care of your lines and they will do the job you need them to.

 

[Geoff Cooper]

Agree, I'd be hesitant to use bleach on anything that requires strength. Bleach will break down pretty much anything.

10 years down the road and looks ok to me, I don't mean 100% bleach solution

 

[farrelltravis]

Wow, that looks amazingly clean!

 

[BigN8]

Another idea we used to do when racing off road MX with our pants and jersey. Throw the rope in a 5 gallon bucket with some detergent and water. Put the lid on the bucket and leave the bucket in your boat on the trailer while you trailer the boat. The bouncing and jostling of the trailer agitates the soapy mix while you drive. Rope should come out pretty clean and won't harm the rope.

 

[Geoff Cooper]

Another idea we used to do when racing off road MX with our pants and jersey. Throw the rope in a 5 gallon bucket with some detergent and water. Put the lid on the bucket and leave the bucket in your boat on the trailer while you trailer the boat. The bouncing and jostling of the trailer agitates the soapy mix while you drive. Rope should come out pretty clean and won't harm the rope.

There are many ways of cleaning it successfully i have used this method for years and i only do it about once a year, Good to hear from you again long time thought you had forgotten my posts.

 

[sysinu]

I just put one long end in the water and then pull it out. Then from what I squeeze the water off that end I feed the remainder of the rope into the water and squeeze the water out while pulling the rope into the boat. I guess I'm in for a surprise in 8 years when my 2 year old ropes are no longer white in color .

 

[Geoff Cooper]

You heard right...sorry to be a wet blanket here, but while bleach may make lines look nice, it's not good for them. As a long time sailor I can tell you, we rely and lines to sail the boat and they are a top priority when time comes to put the boat away. The lines we used on our racing sloop were damn expensive, we had thousands of dollars worth. I would never clean them with anything remotely caustic.

Here is a link to an article on caring for rope published in Practical Sailor:
http://www.practical-sailor.com/issues/37_7/features/clean_rope_10509-1.html

An excerpt:

• Bleach is not recommended by any manufacturer in any quantity. Every manufacturer has faced claims of rope failure or splice failure caused by a bleach overdose. Extended soaking in bleach solutions must be avoided

I personally rinse them or soak them in clean, fresh water and dry in sunlight - then coil and put away out of the sun once dry. The sun typically kills anything growing - if you've let that happen, but as the article states; mold or mildew won't weaken synthetic lines. Take care of your lines and they will do the job you need them to.

Each to there own, I started Boating in 1975 and have only ever used this method like i stated i do it about once every 12 months and you can see the result for yourself, I'm not talking about a large quantity of bleach here only a small amount diluted in water and the same when it goes into the washing machine, It's rinsed after and spun so no harm done at all and you can see the result that Rope is 10 years old and in no way is there any damage to it so an ounce of thought to a pound of thrust it works for me.

 

[Glassman]

Please don't take my reply the wrong way. I certainly meant no offense. If what you do works for you then keep on doing what you do.
The thing is, not all lines are made the same way and out of the same materials. And what could be harmless to one could cause damage to another.
Clearly, from your photos, you aren't washing a Spectra or other high tech line and it looks like a pretty stout braided line as well. Most of the typical anchor lines are three strand nylon in various sizes and strengths.
If someone were to soak a nylon line in bleach often, over time they could be in for a rude awaking one day. The working load will diminish simply because nylon degrades from exposure to strong oxidizing agents.

All I ever recommend is following a manufacturer's recommendations for their different products.

 

[Ronnie]

My solution is to use black lines.

 

[Geoff Cooper]

My solution is to use black lines.

Good idea Ronnie, You don't always have to believe everything you read.

Please don't take my reply the wrong way. I certainly meant no offense. If what you do works for you then keep on doing what you do.
The thing is, not all lines are made the same way and out of the same materials. And what could be harmless to one could cause damage to another.
Clearly, from your photos, you aren't washing a Spectra or other high tech line and it looks like a pretty stout braided line as well. Most of the typical anchor lines are three strand nylon in various sizes and strengths.
If someone were to soak a nylon line in bleach often, over time they could be in for a rude awaking one day. The working load will diminish simply because nylon degrades from exposure to strong oxidizing agents.

All I ever recommend is following a manufacturer's recommendations for their different products.

No offence taken, I use what works for me and this method i have tried and tested on many different anchor ropes over 40 years, My boat is used a lot not just once or twice a month like many people do, Like i said i do this every 12 months when the rainy season starts and i take the Boat out of the water, You don't have to believe everything you read better to try thing's yourself sometimes, Remember they have to sell magazines so need to put something in them, So long as you rinse the rope thoroughly after and just use a mild solution once a year i don't see a problem, Salt water here is very strong as you can see what it did to my Trailer in my other post and i use my Boat a lot because the conditions here are so good, I'm probably out 2 or 3 times a week so what mods you do or different thing's you try are tested to the extreme, For example i did that shut off valve mod about 2 years ago and used shut of valves with metal internals they failed after 1 year because the salt water got at them so i changed them for plastic ones with acid resistant internals and now have no problem and they were just a few dollars from local hardware shop yet reading about this the original ones i used were recommended, Like i said this saltwater here is criminal so everything has to be Bulletproof you can float for hours and even read a Newspaper while your floating,

 

[Geiger41]

Was gonna say just buy a black line until I saw @Ronnie beat me to it.

 

[Ronnie]

I do have black dock and fender lines but only because they were included by the boat's original owner. It is a nice alternative to having dirty looking lines and /or cleaning them.

 

[MOA_Chaser]

My lines are blue.

Bleach solutions will weaken ropes and other materials, period. It's an oxidizer. How much? Who knows for sure. Too many variables. Is it enough to make a line snap? Probably not. And most would probably never test the limits of the rope close enough to the published breaking strength to find out anyways.

No one is saying that if you use bleach on a rope, your line will break and your boat will drift away. Just that bleaching does weaken to an extent, and anecdotal evidence without actual strength testing (besides "they haven't broken on me yet") doesn't disprove that bleach weakens nylon rope.

It was just a warning that people should be aware of before dunking their expensive ropes.

 

[Englewoodcowboy]

I will add one more trick that we used to do to keep them suptle. Soak them in a bucket of water with a cap or two of fabric softner. I also did this with my cast net to keep it loose. It works great,