FINA – facility rules:

FR 3.8
Lane Ropes: The main function of a lane rope is not only to separate swimming lanes, but to reduce the pool waves. A lane rope should have the properties to reduce the waves going through to the other side of rope or bouncing back into the swimming lane.

In an 8 lane pool, lane ropes shall extend the full length of the course and components not contributing to its wave reduction function, such as tension spring and take‐up reel, shall measure less than 200mm each end of rope. Lane rope should be secured at each end wall to anchor brackets recessed into the end walls. If anchor placement is on pool deck, an extender, firm and non‐elastic, should be in place. The installed lane rope should stay in the pool water.

The anchor, including extender, shall not extend more than 10mm into the pool. The anchor shall not influence the length of the lane rope by more than +‐ 10mm each end of rope. The anchor shall be positioned so that the wave reducing components at each end wall of the pool shall be 50% below the surface of the water. Anchors should be installed to withstand 20kN.

Each lane line will consist of wave reducing components placed end‐to‐end having a diameter of 0, 15 meter. The design of discs and floats should be so that the floats, by themselves, do not influence the length of the lane rope. A float should be an integral part in between two discs. The lane rope length of the course shall have a negative buoyancy in such a way that at least one half to maximum two thirds of the height of the wave reducing components should be beneath the water surface. The take‐up reel of the lane rope should require a tool to lock tensioning into position and to prevent non‐ authorized tampering. The lane rope shall be equipped with a tension spring, absorbing sudden high point loads and a wire withstanding a tensile force of 12kN.

In an 8 lane swimming pool the color of the lane line should be as follows:
• Two (2) GREEN ropes for lanes 1 and 8
• Four (4) BLUE ropes for lanes 2, 3, 6 and 7
• Three (3) YELLOW ropes for lanes 4 and 5

For a 10 lane swimming pool, two additional blue ropes are used.

The components extending for a distance of 5.0 meters from each end of the pool shall be of RED color.

There shall not be more than one lane rope between each lane. The lane ropes shall be firmly stretched and the tensions should be 1‐1,2kN.

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