bought a propylene rope that floats, 3/4" 3 strand, 100 feet sold anchorline but think use to tow

Claims 12592 breaking strength, is it really?
What do you think of this rope?
I paid $39 which seems ok for the price.

Lately been on a rope buying craze, I bought a bunch of new double braid nylon dock lines from 1/2 to 5/8 to 3/4.

I like the floating idea and was thinking could use it for towing people around behind the boat, or maybe even if I had to tow a boat.

I already have at least 200 feet of 3/4 nylon anchor rope, so dont need any, but do like the rope floats idea

Amazon.com: 3/4" x100' Anchor Rope, Polypropylene Docking Dockline Boat/Sailboat/Mooring/Pull Lines with Thimble, 12592LB Breaking Strain : Sports & Outdoors
3/4" Anchor Rope, Polypropylene Docking Dockline Boat/Sailboat/Mooring/Pull Lines with Thimble, 12592LB Breaking Strain,100ft

 

Well, decided to cancel the order as I dont think it is very sunlight resistant. But otherwise, I think the floating rope idea is good for towing.
I have bought before some 3/8 rope that was not UV resistant, and it died sitting around unused still wrapped up in a bundle, not even in direct sunlight, it disintegrated so bad you could snap in half with your hands. Turned into dust.

Leaves me with no good towing rope. I do see some propylene ropes are treated to resist UV. Last time I took family on water tows, the small line kept snapping.

 

Amazon.com : SEACHOICE Tow Rope 3K Tensile Strength 60' 86661 : Waterskiing Ropes And Handles : Sports & Outdoors

Bot this instead, more appropriate for towing people around and it floats. Has many good reviews.

 

I am choosy about my vendors. They are not on that list

 

Also interested in polyethylene ropes, they float and are supposedly strong.
This here is 25 cents a foot, so 100 feet is $25, not too bad. Polyethylene seems hard to find in rope. it is UV durable. I think the fancy ropes like Dynema are a type of UHMW polyethylene rope.
I wonder what the breaking strength is on this one.
1/2quot Rope (allamericanswim.com)
Yes, it is a polyethylene rope
Dyneema | Marlow Ropes

Dyneema® is an UHMwPE (Ultra High Molecular weight Polyethylene) or HMPE (High Modulus Polyethylene) fibre developed by DSM in the Netherlands some 30 years ago. Known as the world’s strongest, lightest fiber – 15 times stronger than steel, yet floats on water – Dyneema® works to stop bullets, repair human joints and improve the longevity of apparel. For Marlow, Dyneema® is an ingredient material in many of our highest performance ropes and is used across our range from kite lines to heavy lift slings. So what makes Dyneema® so special?

 

Polyethylene has low UV resistance. Dyneema will cost you several dollars a foot. The rope you talk about is cheap and good enough for light work. As far as the claims by Dyneema to be stronger than steel, that is per weight not diameter.

 

I wonder how well that polyethylene rope could work towing people around in water toys. They dont give a breaking number, I suppose as it is normally used in swimming pools which do get a ton of UV light. UV light on water is reflected back at the surface, so its effects are greater on things around the water.

description says
3 strand twisted polyethylene rope is strong, flexible, and rot-resistant - perfect for use in swimming pools and all kinds of water safety applications.

Polypropylene is the rope that UV easily wrecks, so changed my mind and cancelled that order, why ask for trouble you don't need, a boat rope is sure to get lots of sun exposure.

 

It is for holding floats in swimming pools to separate lanes.

 

Most water ski rope is polypropylene, but designed specifically for towing skiers and water toys. It floats so you don't wind it up in your prop and won't sink when you drop the skier. But it's not much use for towing boats. For that you want a good double braided nylon with high strength and some stretch. For towing a boat say up to 18 or 19 feet 1/2 inch would work. anything larger than that you need to go up in size and strength, and you need lots of it. 100 feet would be appropriate. And you need good secure towing brackets to attach the line to. Most deck cleats on recreational boats will simply pull out of the deck if you try to use them to tow a large boat.

The lesson here is don't buy cheap line. Buy line engineered for the job it is intended for, like you did with the dock lines.

 

I like the floating tow line idea, maybe if you tied a couple of bumpers to the tow line, like for 100 feet, have one at 33 and 66 feet to help buoy up the tow rope. The 3/4 inch poll polyethylene line does float. I sent them an email to ask about breaking strength of the pool safety line.

I do have a really big nylon braided line I could use for towing, but its pretty large diameter 1.25 inch and is 55 feet long. I can fit it around my Samson post. It was free, picked up from a neighbor. Course never had a use for it since it is so large. I got the little tow rope for water toy towing only.
I have thought maybe could use it as a rope swing on a tree. Any thoughts on using it to tow with? Maybe could tie a smaller dock line to the ends to fit the boat cleats.

 

Found the knot you use for joining bigger and smaller rope together
(1) Knot Instruction - Double Sheet Bend - Tying ropes of different sizes together - Bing video
And looks easy enough I think I could do it! Have to try it out on that big rope.

 

Worked really good. picture is a 3/4" black 25 foot dock line tied to the 1.25" "tow line"
I think it's a winner. Most knot ignorant people will tie a knot that cant be undone, so a little education is needed for tying good knots.

 

55 feet? Not long enough for safe towing unless you're towing someone a very short distance, say 1/4 to 1/2 mile in flat calm water. It is recommended that tow lines be 8 to ten boat lengths (their boat not yours) so you can snyc their boat with yours, that is when you are going up a wave, so are they, or vice versa when you are going down the wave, so are they. Also a tow line should be long enough to have a catenary ( a curve) that allows some slack to take up and dampen any sudden jerks or strain on the line. I would be suspicious of using any rope that someone gave me, for heavy duty work. Lines don't last forever and they lose strength over time due to UV , stretching and contracting, and other factors. and that one looks like it's seen some use.

 

But I can add two 25 foot dock lines front and back of that line to get 100 feet. And the line is in good shape looking to me, besides it is huge, so its load strength is surely better than 3/4" line being a 1 1/4" line. I just eyeballed that with a ruler. True that you cant know what they used it for, but it might have been a rope swing, seems awfully big for the usual boats around here and too short for a huge boat and has no loop on the end. Looking at it, seems the core is the main part of this rope, and the outer braid not any thicker than that 3/4 new line has. So the bulk of the strength is in the inner core. Outer cover braid has no snags in it. Got to consider that I am very unlikely to ever tow anybody, not being a tow boat. I have never towed another boat in several decades of boating. I did get towed back to the ramp by the USCG who resuced me out of Little Creek station in Norfolk on the James River, VA back in the mid 80's. That was an old 1965 Glastron 18 footer. We had 3 adults and 2 young kids of 5 and 6 onboard, and they were very gracious towing us back to Denbigh Docks. The outdrive gear case hit something like concrete or a rock in the James and busted it wide open. One minute going 20 knots, next zero and it stalled the motor as the drive locked up. It took hours of waiting, and we got back to the dock around 9pm. All we had were signaling flares. So when we set them off, someone in a house saw our red flare and called the coast guard, then we talked to them on the radio. They were not sure where we were and were looking for us down by the James River bridge, but we were much farther north of that.