Uncoiling a New Rope
Braided rope is often supplied wound on a reel (or spool or drum). This rope was put on the reel rotating, and should be taken removed in the same manner. Do not, under any circumstance, set up the reel up on end and ‘fly’ the rope off the top. This puts turns in the rope, and can cause a problem later. The same principle holds true while sailing, avoid ‘flying’ sheets or halyards off the top of a winch when possible as this puts turns in the line. To uncoil, put a rod through the reel and pull the rope off, allowing the entire reel to rotate freely.
Using on Sheaves
Rope will often be run through a series of one or more sheaves. Braided ropes should use a sheave with an 8:1 ratio. The exception is braided ropes that are constructed with a core material that has poor bend fatigue resistance, namely Vectran. It is recommended that Mistral V, and AR-V use sheaves that are 20x the rope diameter.
