ROPE & CHAIN

THE INS AND OUTS OF EQUIPPING YOUR BOAT WITH THE RIGHT ROPE AND CHAIN.

- RICK SHACKLETON

WHETHER IT'S THE LINE TYING YOU TO A DOCK, THE CHAIN LEADER CONNECTED to your anchor, or the rope that pulls you while water-skiing, rope and chain are a vital part of boating. No matter how you enjoy time on the water, doing so would be impossible, or at least a lot more challenging, without rope and chain.

But just how many different types of rope and chain are there? What's the difference between them? And why might you choose one over the other? You want to boat as safely and conveniently as possible, right?

Well, get your geek on. We can't describe everything possible about rope and chain in this article. But you'll learn more about rope and chain than you can shake a shackle at. Let's get started.

ROPE

What's the difference between rope and line? The US Navy says that the only rope aboard a ship is the bell rope. That seems preposterous. But what the squids are saying is that a line is a rope with designated purpose. An anchor line or dock line-more specifically, bow lines, stern lines and spring lines-start life as a length or coil of rope. Once its cut to length and put to use, it becomes a line. The bell rope gets a pass, probably due to tradition. In the same spirit, we'll define the rope used to tow a tube, wakeboarder or waterskier as a towrope.

Starting with rope, it sometimes serves alone as an anchor line. More often, it is used as just one component-along with shackles, swivels and chain to make up an anchor rode. So-called all-chain rode is also used. We will cover those in the chain section. Either alone or as part of a rode, the anchor line performs several functions.