Details count. Small details aboard your boat are critical in unexpected ways. Fumbling with an unwhipped line or scrabbling for a usable dockline will cause you trouble—a little or a lot. A boat runs smoothly and safely if details are in place. Without scrabbling and fumbling you can concentrate on navigational foresight beyond the next buoy.
Before you set off on your next voyage, focus on the moving constellation of small items—shackles, blocks, bolts, pins, and the multiplicity of distinct lines—that make up the wholeness of your vessel. Appreciate the web of small things that must cooperate smoothly to draw power from the wind, or to persuade a series of explosions over pistons to propel your hull.
We’re investigating some of the graceful details that contribute to wholeness and become the hallmark of an accomplished skipper.
Make-and-Mend
Traditionally, Sunday afternoon was make-and-mend time in Nelson’s Royal Navy. It was an easy time that allowed “tars” to tend their own infrastructure—sewing worn trousers or stitching up new hot-weather slops (clothing) from light sailcloth. Sailors were experts with a needle of any size, from heavy-weather canvas to embroidering the vessel’s name on a hat ribbon. A skipper does well to keep a notebook to log small jobs to come; reserve a corner of your boat’s schedule to address those jobs. It’s too easy to put small things off. Make-and-mend today is easier than crisis management next Tuesday.
More On-Deck Details
Harness and Tether Maintenance
Your personal tether, a staple for offshore or heavy-weather sailing, is wonderfully reassuring when clipped into a harness or a harness PFD. It’s important to regularly inspect your CO2 cartridge, inspect all sewing and seizing, and to clean your PFD. Have a good look at the hardware and replace anything with apparent corrosion.
Pile Riding Board
Docking isn’t predictable. You may be obliged to settle your boat in less-than-ideal places. The pile-riding board, or fender board, is a “make and mend” that can save your composure and your hull’s finish. Stowing a board 6′–8′ long (rough-cut cypress or cedar will do, as will pressure-treated lumber) along the hull or be- neath a bunk cushion may be inconvenient, but the board’s function—straddling a piling when mooring—makes it worthwhile. Two or more bored holes with rounded-over edges will accommodate line supports. With your clean and neatly rigged fender nettles, this sailorly arrangement will speak well of skipper and boat.
Line Locker Protocol
Line is only useful if you can get at it and if it’s ready to use. On a night as dark as Jonah’s bunk in the whale, you go to fetch a critical length of line. You reach into the line locker. You encounter something like a barrel of fructifying eels or you feel the familiar, orderly shape of well-coiled, secured line.
In the previous issue, we detailed the difference between coiling laid and braided lines (laid line clockwise; braided line, less forgiving of rotational forces, stows better in alternating coils). Once your braided or laid coils are made— orderly and not too short, please (and never around the elbow!)—they should be secured. We favor the sea-gasket, but consistency is the key: the skipper chooses one standard method so that someone coming from Jonah’s bunk can deploy line quickly and easily.
WHIPPING
Whipping Laid Line
Sailmaker’s whipping in three-strand laid line requires tough whipping twine, a sail-maker’s needle, which is triangular in cross-section, and a sailor’s palm (though you can manage to push and pull with pliers). Double the whipping twine and make a figure-eight stopper knot at its end (A). Anchor the whipping through a strand near the bitter end, seat the stopper knot firmly, and wrap toward the bitter end and with the lay of the rope.* Tightening each wrap, continue until the length of the wrapping extends about one-and-a-half times the width of the line (B). Anchor the wraps with a needle passed through any strand near the bitter end so that the needle emerges on a cusp-line (C). Now follow the cusp-line of the lay away from the end and make another needle-pass anchor through the strand to the next cusp-line (D). Now follow the cusp up, anchor with the needle through the strand to the last remaining cusp-line, and follow the cusp away from the end. Finish the whipping with two half hitches around a strand (E).
*Conversations about whippings being laid with versus against the lay are many and interesting. In our own WoodenBoat Forum, a lively conversation with good information can be found. In short, people who wrap with the lay say it helps keep the strands together at the bitter end, which is the point of a whipping, and those who wrap against the lay say the practice is in keeping with what should be done when serving a line. Read the thread: bit.ly.com/WB 256Whipping
Whipping as Identification
Aboard a sailing vessel, young sailors were given a “sea daddy” to “show them the ropes.” Your cockpit may not be the bewilderment of a windjammer’s rigging, but you probably have enough lines to confuse the uninitiated. The old shellbacks had two colors: brown and dark brown. We can access lines in various colors to help identify them, and we can lay on colored whipping twines and put on one, two, or three whippings to mark jibsheets, halyards, or downhauls. It’s clever to use one whipping to identify first reefing nettles and two for the second set. You can’t overdo identity.
Whipping Braided Line
West Country whipping is one way to terminate a braided line. Anchor a single strand of whipping twine right through the center of the line (A), pass both twine ends around the far side, and tug tight in an overhand knot on the near side (B). Well-waxed twine keeps the overhand knot secure. Pass the strands to the far side, where you tie another firm overhand knot (C). Alternate near and far side overhands down, away from the bitter end, for about one-and-a-half line widths (D) and finish with a close reef knot (E). Bury the twine ends deep in the body of the line and snip at the surface (F).
SEWN EYE
Rock climbers developed a surprisingly effective way to make to eyes: they sew them.
This sounds sketchy, but it’s been tested in the lab and the field: well-sewn eyes endure past the line’s breaking point. It’s a viable alternative to double-braid splicing in hard-to-splice old line or in new splice-resistant exotic fiber line.
Generally, the best results for sailor-made stitched eyes use polyester whipping twine, doubled and waxed. Nylon twine stretches too much. High-tech, high-molecular-weight twines such as Dyneema and Kevlar can cut into the fibers of the rope.
The eye is formed at your desired size, and the stitches begin at the throat of the eye, the sailmaker’s needle passing through both the outer sheath and inner core, crossing both legs of the line to re-enter about two braid strands below the original stitch (A). This is continued right down to the bitter end and its parallel standing part. Each stitch is tugged firmly tight; consistent high-tension is critical. The bitter end may be tapered by cutting out the core about three core-diameters from the bitter end of the outer sheath (B). The stitching turns about and works back to the throat of the eye on the other side of the eye’s legs (C) where a stout seizing (West Country whipping or Ashley’s “foil handle whipping”) secures the eye’s throat against the “peeling” forces of the legs’ angles (D). Another seizing, securing the bitter end to the standing part, finishes the working eye (E).
Cautions: the prudent mariner recognizes the weakening effects of the sun’s ultraviolet light on synthetic line. Over time, the stitching twine, especially, should be shielded from the sun with heat-shrink tubing, which is itself vulnerable to chafe and should be renewed periodically. Or, the sun can be blocked by latex paint or a special compound soaked into the eye (F).
Splicing
Laid-Line Eyesplice
You are not a “compleat” sailor unless you can lay up a well-shaped eyesplice. Dread naught; it’s not much more complicated than braiding a simple lanyard: the only tricky part is “sticking,” which refers to the way the first “tier” of three-strand braiding is arranged.
Determine the size of the eyesplice desired, leaving a generous length of unlaid strands at the end. You may wish to lay on seizings where the two legs of the splice will join (A). Unlay the rope at the point where the eyesplice loop will be; a half turn will do, just enough so the loop will lie flat and open when it’s spliced. Fan out the bitter end’s unlaid strands in order. Twist or use a fid on the standing part above the throat seizing to open the lay.
(B): Insert the first unlaid strand (shown here in red) under the lowest strand of the standing part (X); insert the middle strand (orange) over X and under Y; pass the right unlaid strand (yellow) behind the opened lay and insert it over Z from left to right. It looks wrong, but you’ve really arranged the insertions in an even, clockwise pattern. Tighten the threads of each unlaid strand and pull the eyesplice up tight.
(C): Now unlay each strand half a turn, pass over the standing strand above them, and tuck under the following strand. Note that at each tuck, one strand is coming out of a cusp where another strand is going in. Tuck three more tiers, unlaying half a turn each time so the end-strands lie flatter against the standing strands.
(D): After three to five tucks, reduce the diameter of each tucking strand, trimming half its fibers with scissors, then continue tucking and thinning for three more tiers.
(E): The completed eyesplice can be fin- ished off with a whipping around the last tucks and perhaps a strong whipping or seizing at the throat. Rolling the whole eyesplice on deck under your foot will even out inequities of tension and placement, making the eyesplice smooth and shapely.
Double Braid Eyesplice
Splicing double braid is a little like quantum physics: you know it makes your computer work, but it strains common sense. It’s topographically subtle but generally simple: you pull the hollow core out of the hollow cover, then stuff each of them down the other; the rest of the process is measuring with a little pushing and pulling.
1: Determine the desired size of your eyesplice and add the length of the fid (the “needle” that threads the core and cover, in a size meant for your line) at the bitter end. Mark X and W at the throat of the splice, where the legs join. About 6’ (about 2 meters) from X, make a figure-eight knot in the bight, and secure the line to a cleat or post.
2: At X, tease open the outer cover braid. Mark the core at this point (X’) and winkle out the core braid that extends from that point to the bitter end of the line. You can take some extra core out of the line between X and the figure-eight knot. Secure the fibers at the end of the core with tape, and measure a fid-length from X’ toward the core’s bitter end and make a mark (Y’ ). Then measure an additional ¾ of the fid’s length toward the mark, and mark again (Z’ ).
3: Tuck the outer cover into the fid and insert it into the heart of the core at Y’, and slide it along to emerge at X’.
4: Pull the outer cover out of the fid and taper it by scissoring at an angle.
5: Fix the position of core and cover at Y’ with a fid or needle and “milk” the core toward X’, by squeezing and smoothing it, until the tapered cover retracts within the core.
6: Tuck the bitter end of the core into the fid and insert it into the heart of the outer cover a few strands above Y’. Pass the fid and core down through the cover so that it emerges on the other side of X, toward the figure-eight knot, a distance equal to about one-half or three-quarters of the length of the fid.
7: Pull the core out enough to remove the fid and then taper the core as you tapered the cover, by scissor-trimming at an angle.
8: Beginning at the figure-eight knot, “milk” or squeeze-and-smooth the loose cover toward the eye. This may require repeatedly jerking the eye away from the cleat or even some “mallet massage” to encourage movement between core and cover. Miraculously, the core, cover, eye, and errant bits should shape themselves into place. It’s mysterious: even when you’ve seen it done, you can shake your head and say, “How’d that happen?”
HEAVING LINE
A heaving line, weighted with a so-called “monkey’s fist” knot, is a simple but showy piece of ropework that might help you save face if you miss the dock by a throw’s margin. We’ve run up a monkey’s fist in light, single-braid polyethylene line, which is hollow and floats, using a dead-simple jig consisting of four chopsticks pushed into a square of four holes bored in a scrap of wood clamped to a worktable (A). How much line will make up your fist? At least 10’, but you must judge the diameter of your line and the number of turns that will make up your monkey’s fist. Your first guess may come up short. We spaced our jig holes at about 2½″ and clamped the standing part of the line. We commenced with five horizontal turns, counting all four sides. Threading the turns is easier with the bitter end tucked into a right-sized fid. Before our end makes six passes on the far side, it comes back toward us and begins its fore-and-aft passes (B). This is a good time to slip in the core of your fist, which shouldn’t be heavy enough to sink the rope. A ball of wood or cork works well (C); golf balls sink. We found that lightly binding the horizontal and vertical turns with light twine helped keep things straight. The athwartship turns (D) are passed inside the horizontal turns and outside the fore-and-aft turns, as shown, and they lock all three sets of turns together.
Now for the tedious part (E), in which we pull out the slack around the core, strand by strand, following the turns, bit by bit, over and over. It’s a delicate chore that can be helped by a hemostat or small needle-nose pliers. When your monkey’s fist is tight and neat (F), cut the short end to 6″ or 12″ and lay on two tight seizings to the standing part with a timber hitch between them (G).
The monkey’s fist line should be about 10’ long, with an eyesplice at its end, made by passing the fid right through the weave of the standing part of the line once or twice (H), then passing the fid down the inside of the weave for at least a foot. The “Chinese finger trap” squeeze of the braid is a major factor in the eyesplice stability. This eyesplice is used to attach the monkey’s fist line to a long heaving line, which should have eyesplices in both ends (I). For towing or docking, the monkey’s fist line acts as a messenger: its eye is made off to a stronger line to make it easier to pass the heavier line to the dock or another boat.