Right Rope for the Right Job

There are four basic Man-made synthetic fibre ropes - Polyamide, Polyester, Polypropylene & Polyethylene.

We have also included other, more specialised ropes that you may come across in the marine industry. To assist you in reading this table, Trade names are included in brackets

Right Rope for the Right Job
Rope	Uses	Strength	Stretch	Abrasive Resistance	UV Resistance	Floats Sinks	Remarks
Polyamide (Nylon)	Anchoring, Berthing, Mooring, Towing	Strong	High	Moderate	Good	Sinks	See Note 1 below.
Polyester (Dacron)	Berthing, Halyards, Sheets	Strong	Low	Excellent	Excellent	Sinks	See Note 2 below.
Polypropylene (Geoprop)	Floating Marine Rescue Line	Moderate	Moderate	Moderate	Poor	Floats	See Note 3 below
Polyethylene	Floating Marine Rescue Line	Moderate	Low	Poor	Moderate	Floats	See Note 4 below.
High Modulus Polyethylene - HMPE (Dyneema) (Spectra) (Plasma)	Halyards, Sheets, Guys & Control Lines	Very Strong	Etremely Low	Excellent	Excellent	Floats	-
High Modulus Polyester - Liquid Crystal Polymer [LCP] (Vectran)	Halyards, Sheets, Guys & Control Lines	Very Strong	Zero	Poor	Poor	Sinks	-
High Modulus Polyamide - Aramid (Kevlar)	Halyards, Sheets, Guys & Control Lines	Very Strong	Etremely Low	Poor	Poor	Sinks	-
Polyethylene Benzobis Oxazole - PBO (zylon)	Halyards, Sheets, Guys & Control Lines	Very Strong	Zero	Poor	Poor	Sinks	-
Rope	Uses	Strength	Stretch	Abrasive Resistance	UV Resistance	Floats Sinks	Remarks

Note 1. When wet, Polyamide can loose up to 15% of its strength and shrinks.

Note 2. Polyester is the most suitable material for Braided covers on Yacht ropes.

Note 3. Polypropylene should NOT be used as Mooring or Berthing lines due to its poor UV Resistance. Its recommended use is to bring a manoverboard back alongside a vessel and effect recovery.

Note 4. Polyethylene is used for getting a manoverboard back alongside a vessel, ONLY.

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