How to Maintain Boat Ropes & Lines

"Hi. I'm Albert Hedgepeth with Expert Village. Today we are going to talk a little bit about boat maintenance. Another important thing to think about whenever you're dealing with boat management and maintenance is your ropes. Your ropes are not only going to help you tie up the boat, but you also use them on the anchor and you can use them as life lines. It's really important to make sure these are in good condition so that your boat is where you left it whenever you come back. An easy way to figure out if the ropes are good is to not only check them visually for dry rot but to run your hands across them and make sure there are no burrs or anything stuck in them or that they haven't been cut by sharp objects. You also want to go ahead and make sure that in places where they are spliced together that they aren't peeling apart; that the components are actually staying woven together otherwise you could loose your boat. With cleat marks you want to make sure that there are no hard or sharp spots that are actually going to cut your rope while you're moored up and you also want to check those periodically just so that they don't lock up and dry rot just from being in one position. On the boat itself you should check the cleats where you are attaching the ropes just to make sure that they to don't have any really sharp spots and that the cleat itself isn't cutting the actual rope material. Most of the time if you look over your ropes visually and you do an inspection every six months to a year you have pretty good luck and you can maintain your ropes pretty easily."