Article: Care and Use of Lines
From Sun Cruiser Magazine

Lines should be treated with care. The performance of lines under stress may affect the safety of the boat and the lives of the crew.

Lines should be:

• kept clean and washed with fresh water to remove sand, salt, etc.
• allowed to dry naturally; never heat-dried
• used only with sheaves that are at least eight times the diameter of the line
• fed cleanly into a sheave and never allowed to touch the sides of a block
• protected from abrasion and chafing when used as anchor rode, dock lines, or running rigging
• joined by splicing, not by knotting; depending on type, a knot can reduce the tensile strength of a line by up to 50%
• reversed end to end to distribute the wear and hence extend the life of the line
• used at no more than 20% of the breaking strength as the working load and no more than 10% of it if human life is involved; at over 70% of load, the line is permanently damaged.

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