Wash your boat's lines

[Craig Weis]

At the end of the season I remove my boat's lines...sheets, halyards, dock lines and toss them into the wash machine and with warm water and gentle cycle I let them run the whole cycle. Of course this is a mess of knots when you pull the wet lines out but after sorting out I then soak these wet lines in a bathtub of water and liquid fabric softener for three days. Boy it stinks up the house so says the wife. But I have pretty comfortable lines the next season. I just coil them up and put them in the basement to dry all winter. skip.

[multimedia_smith]

HI Skipper...
I use a 5 gal bucket for the soak... but I never thought of the fabric softener... nice touch!  Last year, I replaced my main sheet line with 5/8 BZZZ line.  That stuff is already very very soft to the hands and flexible through the blocks... just great.
I guess we'd do that operation at the end of June here.
Dale

[pelican]

Fabric softener.... We soak castnets for a couple hours when they get stiff. It makes the mono soften right up.  Never thought about the boat lines.. Great tip ! Ill give it a try