On Mon, 21 Jul 2008 04:41:26 +0000, Larry wrote:

Bruce in Bangkok wrote in
:

When possible, use a
front loading washing machine;

Yep...brought home the lot and washed in my front loader Frigidaire with
the usual cheap detergent. Lines looked new and salt stiffness gone.

If you're squeemish about salt water in your $4000 super washer 5000, take
them to a laundromat without an attendant that has front loader commercial
machines.

DO REMEMBER TO TAKE ANY ANCHORS AND HEAVY TACKLE OFF THE LINES!

I recently washed all the lines, except the cable to rope halyards, in
the home washing machine, actually I carried them home and my wife
washed them as I am not considered sophisticated enough to run the
washes and put in all the correct chemicals in the correct holes. But
I digress.

We washed each line separately and stuffed it into a mesh bag before
washing. The same dose of soap and fabric softener was used for each
line. Everything went well until we washed the spinnaker halyard,
about 90 ft. of 1/2 inch double braid. When that came out of the
washer threads from the inner braid were pulled out through the outer
braid in small loops about every 3 ft. for nearly the length of the
line. The size of the loops were all approximately the same size and
were equally spaced along the line.

Anybody got any idea what happened? I really don;t ant to be buying a
new piece of rope every time I wash it.

Bruce-in-Bangkok
(correct Address is bpaige125atgmaildotcom)