Rope laundering

Champagne Murphy

Champagne Murphy

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There is a moratorium in our house on using the domestic washing machine for the laundering ropes. Fussy I know but there y’go. Sail and cover at Woolverstone don’t do them and there is no self service laundrette in the Sudbury area.
What/where do others do with them?
 
Wife is out for the day and my ropes have just been returned to my car nicely washed with nobody the wiser. Happy days.:encouragement:
 
I have toyed with the idea of doing it while the dear lady is out but they can smell fear you know.
Already done the bath thing but I think there’s more to get out in a machine. Really need one of those old top loaders my mum had in the 60s. There’s a very good washer woman in Sudbury, Netta’s, so I think I’ll give her a call tomorrow.
 
Champagne Murphy said:
I have toyed with the idea of doing it while the dear lady is out but they can smell fear you know.
Already done the bath thing but I think there’s more to get out in a machine. Really need one of those old top loaders my mum had in the 60s. There’s a very good washer woman in Sudbury, Netta’s, so I think I’ll give her a call tomorrow.
Click to expand...
Deduct any disbursements from the housekeeping :encouragement:
 
Champagne Murphy said:
There is a moratorium in our house on using the domestic washing machine for the laundering ropes. Fussy I know but there y’go. Sail and cover at Woolverstone don’t do them and there is no self service laundrette in the Sudbury area.
What/where do others do with them?
Click to expand...

Wash them in the washing machine when my wife's out. Easy solution.
 
My Genoa sheets and any cordage that can be removed easily go in a old pillow case ( not all in one go ) along with a cup of Oxy 10 , then put in the machine on a 60’wash , all ways done it and shall continue to do so , can’t do halyards as they’re half wire ?
 
I found a launderette in Gillingham not too far from Chatham MDL, MYC etc and slipped in early one Saturday morning. All my 35 metre halyards complete with shackles spliced on, reefing lines etc etc went into 2 machines, plan was to get this done quickly and get out of Dodge before the locals showed up.

When the shackles starting banging on the glass doors an attendant appeared....'What you got in there?'

'Just some ropes from my boat...(changing subject), can I get you a coffee, I'm just going to get myself one?'

The start up to spin speed was interesting...!
 
xyachtdave said:
I found a launderette in Gillingham not too far from Chatham MDL, MYC etc and slipped in early one Saturday morning. All my 35 metre halyards complete with shackles spliced on, reefing lines etc etc went into 2 machines, plan was to get this done quickly and get out of Dodge before the locals showed up.

When the shackles starting banging on the glass doors an attendant appeared....'What you got in there?'

'Just some ropes from my boat...(changing subject), can I get you a coffee, I'm just going to get myself one?'

The start up to spin speed was interesting...!
Click to expand...

You didn't put them in a pillow case then?
 
I can't understand why there should be a moriatorium on washing ropes, after all the contents of your skids are likely to be far less salubrious. Ropes can't possibly hurt a washng machine but the opposite is apparently less cetain.

One might think that a gentle wash would do them good but my rigger is not in agreement. He claims that modern ropes contain two types of core, short fibre and long fibre. He maintains that washing by machine turns long-fibre cores into short fibre and short fibre ropes into fluff.

I disbeleived this and washed some of mine last year, only to find that some of them had turned into useless balls of fluff inside a woven outer.
The better ropes had turned from stout, solid things into wishy-washy floppy things that I wouldn't trust to hold up a wishy washy thing.

He wasn't wrong!

Have a care!
 
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