Coiling Braided Rope Correctly

Coiling your sheets and halyards is one of the simplest tasks which is done at the end of every days sailing. While it is a simple task, more often than not crew members go for style over substance, creating an oval loop which looks great but creates issues the next time you go to use the rope.

Many of us do it this way as we were taught at a young age by our parents or coaches. The issue with this is many of our coaches learnt when rope construction was very different. Traditional three or five strand rope is manufactured with twists, coiling it with ovals is the preferred approach to prevent issues when you go to use the line as twist are built and allowing oval coils with which will unwind smoothly. 

Coiling modern double braided rope in an oval loop creates twists is the rope that can lead to issues the next time you use the line. As the rope does not have inbuilt twist the are introduced when making the neat ovals. If you then use the rope with removing the twist you will run into issue when the rope runs through blocks or cleats. Depending on the length of rope or how tight the coils are you may have created enough twists to stop the rope from running freely. 

The twists in the rope can be easily avoided if you create your coils with figure 8's, this allows the rope to uncoil easily and more importantly twists free. 

If you are new to sailing learn the right way first time. If you are like me and had the historic oval technique handed down from experts who learnt with traditional rope you you should unlearn a habit of a life time to ensure you sheets and halyards always run free.