Originally Posted by catman
You will see the different colors on this page. They all look the same, Good line but you can only use it in one place.


One issue is that Salsa's different color schemes are not very dissimilar (and therefore not readily distinguishable from each other). The problem I had is that it is not readily distinguishable from itself either. I presume that New England Rope's designers set out to make a line that is visually striking so they braided together strands of white, yellow, red, and green. The result is that that you can easily see Salsa line against any background -- except itself.

You know how camouflage fatigues work? The blotches of color disrupt the eye's ability to discern the outline of a person, making him easier to overlook. Well, the pattern in New England Salsa does the same thing. When sections of the line get heaped on top of each other, it's hard to visually follow any given one to it's end. Perhaps it's only a problem because of my jib's running rigging, but when using a single line for the sheets, there can be 4 different sections laying on the same area of my trampoline. When tacking, I have to reach down, grab the correct one and pull in order to uncleat the jib. With solid-color (or normally flecked) line, I can identify the correct line with a glance. With Salsa line, the sections blend together and it takes much longer to determine which is the correct one.

Originally Posted by brucat
... can you post a pic or link of a line that solves this problem?

Well, any line that is primarily one solid color doesn't have this problem. I've gone further and color-coded my jib sheets (green on starboard tack, and red on port) so it's instantly apparent which one to pull when tacking.

I hope that helps,
Eric