Ankarolina - life expectancy?

[neil1967]

Our yacht came with an Ankarolina stern anchoring tape system. We have not used the system since we had her (5 years), but the tape has been exposed on the back of the yacht all that time (Northern Europe). Prior to our ownership the yacht had gone to the Med and back, so I suspect the Ankorlina had been used during that time. I guess it's a minimum of 10 years old now. The exposed end of the tape looks quite manky (green), but the rest seems OK, but I am worried about UV degradation. Putting aside that some people don't like the idea of using tape for anchoring or long stern lines, if I anticipate using a stern tape, is there an easy way I can tell if the tape needs replacing, or should I just bite the bullet and replace - ribbons.co.uk has previously been suggested.

 

[pandroid]

It’s pretty easy to tell if it’s life expired., as it will go brittle. My (Ankorolina copy) is 17 years old, and looks fine to me. Boat kept in Scandinavia.
If kept on the reel, Most of the time very little of the tape is exposed to the sun.

 

[Neeves]

More modern practice is to use dyneema tape for a tape anchor line and something with a bit of elasticity and for a shore line. Ultra Marine, as Ultra anchor, in Turkey started their business (I believe) in this area, Quickline, - so try the Ultra (anchor) distributor. But I would have thought someone like Jimmy Green or Marlow would both sell tape - and would advise on life expectancy.

I'd certainly cut the first, exposed, part of the reel off. You can re-sew a loop - use dyneema braided fishing line as thread to re-sew - and be generous with your stitching. There must be YouTubes on how many stitches - or send a PM to 'Thinwater' who has done a lot of work, stitching, in this area.

Jonathan

Jonathan

 

[ottow]

A trick is to turn the line end-over-end, the innermost parts are almost never used anyway and not worn at all (typically).
Cutting of the last few meters is a good advice too, but be careful with your stitching. The only Ankarolina tapes I've ever seen broken was due to bad stitching by an owner who had cut away the last few meters. The stitching seemed to have introduced a weakness in the tape, it broke just past the last stitches.
I'd tie it with a water knot instead.