-
Happy Winter Solstice! 🌇🌃
G
Guest
Guest
https://flic.kr/p/TzWgLo https://www.flickr.com/photos/133956285@N05/
I broke down and spent a rainy afternoon perusing the Samson rope website and youtube and end-spliced and eye-spliced my 3/8" double-braid polyester rope. Quite a production. The end splice was definitely easier.
Neat work. Elegant work.
Needs a time-lapse video; A Teensy-Thread Production. Just thinking about trying that braiding and splicing my fat-fumble-fingers ache, and my old man eyes would need 2X readers and a magnifying glass to even attempt it. Folks who tie whoopee slings in Zing-it must be eagle eyed and nimble fingered.
I need to install new grab loops and cut/size new painter lines on a shop boat. The rope, despite appearances, is actually pretty old and getting crustydusty, which is never a good sign. But the heat shrink tubing is still going strong, so I’ll probably go that route again to fix the bitter ends on the replacement lines.
P4150006 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrI need to replace those painter loop grab handles as well. The Tygon tubing handle is still sound, but being translucent it is fugly coated inside, like a clear float bag tube coated with breathy bacterial grunge it’s visually gross.
There’s a reason some newer float bags come with black tubing – I ain’t putting my lips on that petri-dish tube and valve, but if I can’t actually see the grunge. . . . .
I have opaque handles made from reinforced hose on another hull and those at least would clean up to look better.
P2160522 by Mike McCrea, on FlickrThe reason for that painter loop grab handle is apparent with the CCS cover installed. Getting the cover unsnapped to access the carry thwarts in the stems is a PITA at best. If the cover is dry/taut it’s almost impossible, and I’d like something more hand kindly than naked rope to grab in a hurry.
I won’t bother with the cunning bowline tied inside the tube arrangement on the replacement sleeve. Nice idea in concept, but it precluded easily switching the painters out to different lines/lengths and, left attached, that line became crustydusty with the canoe stored outside. Which, even in the shade, eventually plays UV/pollen/pollution heck with any rope.
I would much prefer to select painter lines most appropriate for the trip, and I’m done with keeping good (expensive) line tied on canoes stored outside. I have plenty of old crappy line to tie boats to the rack without using stuff that costs $1 a foot.
I’ll put a simple tubing handle over the closed stem loops, with loops sized just long enough to slip atop the deck plate, and tie/untie my preferred painters to that.
That painter loop handle is a near necessity with a tight fitting cover, and kinda handy even without.
- Joined
- Nov 19, 2013
- Messages
- 1,414
- Reaction score
- 430
Late to this party but if the line is plastic based I'll just melt the ends but if I'm using hemp rope or some other natural material in my living history activities, I'll either whip the ends or splice them. The splice I use will depend on what I'm looking for; i.e. either a straight end to the line or a loop.
That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.
snapper
That's all for now. Take care and until next time...be well.
snapper
I wasn't going to mention this but since the topic came up... My first tripping partner on two trips down the Susq in the 70's is now a women. We haven't spoke in over 30 years so I don't know if she is still tripping.
This thread is from before I joined the site but here goes....
For most synthetic ropes (but not most cheap polypropylene) two techniques work well for me. One not mentioned yet is that for most rope or cordage you can lightly flame the outside of the sheath to develop a bit of a crust which will prevent it unraveling, cut it cleanly with a sharp knife and apply just enough heat to fuse the remainder of the sheath and core. You should have a nice square fused end with no ragged edges. If the ends do get ragged there have been several suggestions here the will work well to smooth them out
Another method and about the only one for Dyneema, Spectra etc and most cheap polypropylene line is to use adhesive lined heat shrink tubing long enough to stabilize both cut ends and shrink it down until the glue squeezes out the ends before making a clean square cut with a sharp knife in the middle of the tubing.
And now we return to our regularly scheduled programming......
Best regards to all,
Lance
For most synthetic ropes (but not most cheap polypropylene) two techniques work well for me. One not mentioned yet is that for most rope or cordage you can lightly flame the outside of the sheath to develop a bit of a crust which will prevent it unraveling, cut it cleanly with a sharp knife and apply just enough heat to fuse the remainder of the sheath and core. You should have a nice square fused end with no ragged edges. If the ends do get ragged there have been several suggestions here the will work well to smooth them out
Another method and about the only one for Dyneema, Spectra etc and most cheap polypropylene line is to use adhesive lined heat shrink tubing long enough to stabilize both cut ends and shrink it down until the glue squeezes out the ends before making a clean square cut with a sharp knife in the middle of the tubing.
And now we return to our regularly scheduled programming......
Best regards to all,
Lance
My thoughts and experience, exactly.
The topic is painter lines. I've never used anything but floating polypropylene rope for that purpose, and nothing to seal the ends but a flame or my stove top. Since the stove is next to the sink, I just wet my fingers and squeeze the burning ends with them.
I favor the Occam's razor, least effort, least action, shortest route solution to most things in physics, work, life and canoe stuff.
For most of you this is already known, but NEVER tie a knot in the end of a painter. Even that nice loop if it's on the end would worry me. In moving water any protrusion on the end can catch and hold you sometimes with bad results. I was once held in a rapids by a tiny knot in in a chute cord painter. Million to one odds-but it happened. Turtle
Absolutely. It's been gospel forever in the whitewater community that painter lines must be snag free. Unlike snags, knots or loops on clotheslines, cartopping or other land uses of ropes, snags on dragging painter lines can cost you your canoe, gear, or even life.
G
Guest
Guest
On all of my deck plates, the large vinyl ones and the ones on plates recessed under the inwales with winky deck caps, the bungee cord is a single length, run in a Z-pattern over/under/over, so I can use the underneath bungee on tight branch-grabby trips.
When grabby branches are not an overriding concern I like my painter lines more readily accessible. The under-inwale augmentation plates hold the painters below the sheerline, where they are less likely to get snagged but still easy to grab.
But on trips in solo canoes I often run the bow painter back to an open cam cleat within reach, so I can have it already in hand when I get out of the canoe. Especially in spray decked canoes, where there isn’t a lot of exposed gunwale to grasp while I work my way up to a painter on the bow (or stern).
P2160529 by Mike McCrea, on Flickr
