Any reason not to dye nylon rope?

[prv]

I'm swapping most of Ariam's anchor chain for rope this winter, to correct a serious bow-down trim.

With the chain, I have the last few metres of each end painted red so that I know it's about to run out (or the anchor's about to appear over the bow). I thought of doing the same with the rope - obviously the inboard end will be secured in the locker, but if I'm paying out using the windlass motor I don't want to haul on the securing point by reaching the end unexpectedly. I might also mark the lengths with colour - I will also be attaching cloth or cord markers, but just in case they come out a permanent marking of the rope itself would save re-measuring.

I can buy small packs of fabric dye intended for nylon clothing; I just wanted to check that this won't weaken nylon rope, colour the whole lot pink in the locker, or otherwise cause unforeseen problems.

Responses advising me to keep the chain are not welcome

Cheers,

Pete

 

[PuffTheMagicDragon]

Have you considered making long(ish) whippings in 2mm coloured braided twine? For extra security you could even go over and under some of the strands. I have similar markings on the lines that go from my boat's stern to the pontoon (stern-to berthing) and their position in relation to the fairleads and the cleats help me while adjusting how far off the pontoon I want the boat's transom, depending on the expected conditions.

 

[vyv_cox]

My kedge warp is marked with tie-wraps, as is the bower chain. No problem passing through the windlass on the chain, they last about half a season, anchoring pretty much every day. We find they last longer if not fully tightened. We don't cut the tails off, doubly important on rope as the cut edges are very sharp.

 

[prv]

I can think of all sorts of ways of doing depth markings. I still want to dye the end red though.

Pete

 

[wilkinsonsails]

We tried dying nylon and polyester rope for a client a few years ago ,it fixed far better when you heated it in a pressure cooker,( small quantity)
Cindy

 

[salar]

Surely you will have the last five metres as chain, won't that tell you that you have nearly reached the anchor?

 

[prv]

Surely you will have the last five metres as chain, won't that tell you that you have nearly reached the anchor?

That's the first five metres

Pete

 

[prv]

We tried dying nylon and polyester rope for a client a few years ago ,it fixed far better when you heated it in a pressure cooker,( small quantity)

Thanks. So without the cooking did it lose colour? And was the pressure vital (which I won't be able to do) or were you just using the pressure cooker as a big pan?

Pete

 

[wilkinsonsails]

I think it was getting the dye to stay put on the rope fibre,there had to be a sustained high temp to get the colour to sink in a bit .
As I recall about 20mins ,we were dying a rope a pale beige colour .
The shiny rope didn't take it as well ,as the matt finish ones.
Cindy

 

[jdc]

...Responses advising me to keep the chain are not welcome ...

Well I'll not do that then, but I can ask what rope?

The choices are 8-plait vs cable laid 3-strand, and
Nylon vs Polyester.

If for hauling by hand, eg for a kedge, then 8-plait nylon seems near universal nowadays - and very good it is too.

But if a mixed rode is hauled by a windlass then the 'through and through a few links splice' (don't know its name) which is usually employed for 8-plait to chain simply doesn't pass through the hawse pipe on some windlasses, and in fact at least on the SL ones they specifically recommend 3-strand cable laid rope, and a back-splice, not 8-plait.

I had this arrangement, with Nylon rope, but it became really stiff after a year or so and impossible to splice anymore. It seems that cable laid nylon does this while 8-plait doesn't seem to: I don't know why. But whatever the reason it's a nuisance since I like to re-make the splices from time to time and discard one link of chain as the link attaching the rope to chain inevitably rusts very much sooner than the rest of the chain.

So at the BS I asked a very knowledgeable chap from English Braids for advice and he said that they now actually recommend polyester rope for this purpose. The logic is that it's a much better rope for handling and washing and splicing etc, and while the stretch one gets form Polyester is only 1/3 that of Nylon, it's still enough to perform a useful damping function.

 

[prv]

Well I'll not do that then, but I can ask what rope?

The choices are 8-plait vs cable laid 3-strand, and
Nylon vs Polyester.

If for hauling by hand, eg for a kedge, then 8-plait nylon seems near universal nowadays - and very good it is too.

But if a mixed rode is hauled by a windlass then the 'through and through a few links splice' (don't know its name) which is usually employed for 8-plait to chain simply doesn't pass through the hawse pipe on some windlasses, and in fact at least on the SL ones they specifically recommend 3-strand cable laid rope, and a back-splice, not 8-plait.

I had this arrangement, with Nylon rope, but it became really stiff after a year or so and impossible to splice anymore. It seems that cable laid nylon does this while 8-plait doesn't seem to: I don't know why. But whatever the reason it's a nuisance since I like to re-make the splices from time to time and discard one link of chain as the link attaching the rope to chain inevitably rusts very much sooner than the rest of the chain.

So at the BS I asked a very knowledgeable chap from English Braids for advice and he said that they now actually recommend polyester rope for this purpose. The logic is that it's a much better rope for handling and washing and splicing etc, and while the stretch one gets form Polyester is only 1/3 that of Nylon, it's still enough to perform a useful damping function.

Hmm, that's all very interesting, thanks.

I've just bought a very large coil of 8-plait nylon, which it sounds like might not have been a good choice :nonchalance:. Having inherited the windlass with the boat, I never read any instructions for it so I didn't know that 3-strand was preferred. It does have a rope groove on the gypsy; I assumed it would be happy with any rope of more or less the right size.

The throat of the windlass seems reasonably spacious, so I'll have a go and see if the 8-plait multi-link splice will fit. If not, I'll try for some kind of 8-plait back-splice through one link, and if that fails then we'll be gaining some nice new long mooring warps

Pete

 

[Storyline]

Hmm, that's all very interesting, thanks.

I've just bought a very large coil of 8-plait nylon, which it sounds like might not have been a good choice :nonchalance:. Having inherited the windlass with the boat, I never read any instructions for it so I didn't know that 3-strand was preferred. It does have a rope groove on the gypsy; I assumed it would be happy with any rope of more or less the right size.

The throat of the windlass seems reasonably spacious, so I'll have a go and see if the 8-plait multi-link splice will fit. If not, I'll try for some kind of 8-plait back-splice through one link, and if that fails then we'll be gaining some nice new long mooring warps

Pete

Depends on your windlass as ours (Lewmar V3) actually specifies that the rope in a mixed rode should be 'Medium Laid Nylon' and can be 3 or 8 strand.

Quote :
What type of rope can be used on a combined rope/chain anchor rode?
Lewmar recommends a premium quality, windlass grade, medium lay, 3-strand nylon rope or a premium multi-plait nylon anchor rode. There are many different rode applications based upon windlass, anchor size, rode length and the anchor locker's depth and volume. For a list of recommended rode choices for your Lewmar windlass please see "Choosing an Anchor Rode"

 

[jdc]

Depends on your windlass as ours (Lewmar V3) actually specifies that the rope in a mixed rode should be 'Medium Laid Nylon' and can be 3 or 8 strand.

Quote :
What type of rope can be used on a combined rope/chain anchor rode?
Lewmar recommends a premium quality, windlass grade, medium lay, 3-strand nylon rope or a premium multi-plait nylon anchor rode. There are many different rode applications based upon windlass, anchor size, rode length and the anchor locker's depth and volume. For a list of recommended rode choices for your Lewmar windlass please see "Choosing an Anchor Rode"

Yes, I think modern ones may be more tolerant than my old Simpson Lawrence one! Snippet from its manual here:
View attachment 47285

 

[srm]

No experience of trying to dye nylon rope, but understand your reason.
Given that you are only dying the bitter end as a warning mark (Like the red line on old echo sounder paper rolls) most of the time it will be in the bottom of the locker and is unlikely to be put under any load anyway so why not try it and see what happens.
You could dye part of a scrap piece/offcut and see if the colour runs after a few wettings and dryings.
An alternative may be water based artist's acrylic paint which can be diluted to make a wash and is intended for use on stretched canvas etc. Available from art shops in various sized tubes. Not used it for marine application but almost impossible to remove from fabric once it has dried.

 

[charles_reed]

Well I'll not do that then, but I can ask what rope?

The choices are 8-plait vs cable laid 3-strand, and
Nylon vs Polyester.

If for hauling by hand, eg for a kedge, then 8-plait nylon seems near universal nowadays - and very good it is too.

But if a mixed rode is hauled by a windlass then the 'through and through a few links splice' (don't know its name) which is usually employed for 8-plait to chain simply doesn't pass through the hawse pipe on some windlasses, and in fact at least on the SL ones they specifically recommend 3-strand cable laid rope, and a back-splice, not 8-plait.

I had this arrangement, with Nylon rope, but it became really stiff after a year or so and impossible to splice anymore. It seems that cable laid nylon does this while 8-plait doesn't seem to: I don't know why. But whatever the reason it's a nuisance since I like to re-make the splices from time to time and discard one link of chain as the link attaching the rope to chain inevitably rusts very much sooner than the rest of the chain.

So at the BS I asked a very knowledgeable chap from English Braids for advice and he said that they now actually recommend polyester rope for this purpose. The logic is that it's a much better rope for handling and washing and splicing etc, and while the stretch one gets form Polyester is only 1/3 that of Nylon, it's still enough to perform a useful damping function.

Found trying to mark nylon rope, by colour, a failure, after 3 immersions it had virtually disappeared - apparently dye needs heating to 120C to fix it.
I'd agree that trying to splice anything but new nylon to chain is a sure recipe for frustrated disappointment.
I prefer nylon to polyester because of its greater hysterisis, but acknowledge that its apparent load advantage over polyester disappears rapidly through heating when being used, wet, as a bungee. Some report a 40% reduction in strength. As to stiffening - laid nylon rope appears, in my experience, to age and stiffen far more rapidly than 8-plait, but that polyester remains far more handleable for far longer. Both are very easily chafed, polypropylene remarkably less so - perhaps that's why FV's use polypropylene for warps.
Don't have an hawse pipe, but have no problem with the gypsy on my SL Anchorman windlass handling 8mm chain and from 14mm - 22mm 8-plait.

 

[PetiteFleur]

Interesting post - I accidently dyed my 8 plait kedge anchor line when I washed it in the washing machine - unfortunately my wife had just dyed some material red in the previous wash....... I now have a nice pink kedge rope!

 

[James_Calvert]

Interesting post - I accidently dyed my 8 plait kedge anchor line when I washed it in the washing machine - unfortunately my wife had just dyed some material red in the previous wash....... I now have a nice pink kedge rope!

My kedge line is stained with rust here and there, nowhere useful though.

 

[Ravi]

I assume that you intend to dye the warp in a washing machine. If so, you will get a sustained high temperature wash and shouldn't need a pressure cooker. You can prolong this by pausing the machine when it is in the middle of its hot cycle.

Check the instructions on the dye sachet and it should tell you if the dye is suitable for nylon.
(I recently had the idea of dying my bimini to spruce it up a bit but the dye sachet said "not suitable for waterproof fabric".)

I can't imagine that the chemical dye the rope will affect the rope's strength.

 

[James_Calvert]

I assume that you intend to dye the warp in a washing machine.

Interesting thought, the OP only wants to dye a few metres at the end of the warp IIRC. Might work in a twin tub... but tricky in a front-loading automatic!

 

[Ravi]

Interesting thought, the OP only wants to dye a few metres at the end of the warp IIRC. Might work in a twin tub... but tricky in a front-loading automatic!

Doh!