As part of our company-required maintenance procedure for our tow wire we are supplied with and apply PreLube 19 preservative lubricant (from PureLube) to it during retrieval thusly…..
…..using a plastic pump sprayer. It’s a low-viscosity biodegradable oil that eventually dries to a sort of waxy coating that stays put fairly well and is specifically designed for this use. The person doing the spraying, a deckhand or the engineer, is also carefully looking over the wire for damage or defects that would compromise the wire’s strength and need to be brought to the attention of the master or mate. Consider this to be another one of those “best practices” that should be an industry-wide standard, and you can expect to see this included in the safety management systems that will be a part of the eventual towing vessel inspection regulations. On a practical level, it’ll make the wire last longer and be less likely to fail at some inopportune moment. It’s all good…..
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