New Dock Lines

[Hippocampus]

On another thread railed against putting loops on either end of any dock line. Won’t repeat that melt down beyond saying cannot see the need for loops at all. Also much cheaper to make our own. Burn and epoxy the ends after whipping. Use fly tying epoxy which is very thin. Then a short whipping with very thin waxed line so it won’t hang up if you need to pull it on boat while you’re on the boat. Find dock lines wear in the last few feet. Carry three lengths. So the longest become next longest and so forth then tossed. Once secured and settled adjust so excess line hangs off the rails on the boat. No Flemish coils. It’s the small salt crystals and dirt particles that cut the fibers of rope at a microscopic level and weaken it. Keeping all line clean is important. We do give them a calgon wash when we can.

 

[Dani lu]

Dave, this may be helpful: I tighten the knot by putting the dyneema loop end thru a chain link, and then put it on the horn of the cleat near my windlass. I briefly step on the windlass up button until it puts force on the soft shackle pulling the knot into the chain link. I repeat this a few times flipping the loop over and spinning the knot ensuring the knot is pulled tight evenly. You know its tight when the knot sounds like a marble when hitting the deck or a table.

And thanks for that link!

 

[dhays]

Dave, this may be helpful: I tighten the knot by putting the dyneema loop end thru a chain link, and then put it on the horn of the cleat near my windlass. I briefly step on the windlass up button until it puts force on the soft shackle pulling the knot into the chain link. I repeat this a few times flipping the loop over and spinning the knot ensuring the knot is pulled tight evenly. You know its tight when the knot sounds like a marble when hitting the deck or a table.

And thanks for that link!

That is a good idea. I usually make the shackles at home since now that I don’t have a sailboat, I don’t have a winch to use to tighten the knot.

I have a 2.5 ton hydraulic floor jack at home that I use. I run the loop through a hole drilled through a 2x4 and shackle the loop end to the bottom frame of the jack. It is a bit awkward but the jack can tension the knot a lot better than I could.