Eyes for dock lines....

[Tony B]

Originally Posted by The Garbone

.......... an Artificial Eye is stronger than a spliced eye. .... it seems that the knot of choice is the Spliced eye.....I like the look of the whipping.

I might want to see somewhere else where it is written that an artificial eye is stronger than a standard eye splice. It does look cooler though. Anyway, I am sure that it is strong enough.
Having said that, I always splice my dock lines on one end. When I go to a strange dock, I put the eye on the dock cleat and tie the boat with the standard figure 8's around the boat cleat. In my home dock, I do the opposite. I put the eye on the boat and the free end on the dock cleat. This works well for me with both riser rods and floating docks. When I come back into my slip, there is no adjustment required, just drop the eye on the boat cleat. When we leave the dock, the eyes get thrown from the boat and remain on the dock till we get back.

[Greenhand]

According to http://www.thedump.scoutscan.com/RopeSplicing.pdf, they are the same strength.

Personally, I like KISS as an aesthetic and a philosophy, so I prefer a well done common splice.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by Jim Cate

My goodness, it's always EASIER to pay someone else to do things for you, but IMO the ability to do simple splices should be in all cruisers bag of tricks.

Please note what I originally wrote: "As far as the eyesplice is concerned, everyone should splice his own docklines at least once. That will help you appreciate how cool it is to be able to run down to the chandlery and pick up pre-spliced docklines once you've chaffed through the precious ones you originally spliced."

Doodles makes that excellent point that pre-spliced dock lines don't cost more than the raw line itself. Regardless of what's in your cruiser bag of tricks, why do unnecessary work?

[Auspicious]

Originally Posted by The Garbone

The lines that came with the boat are oversized for my cleats and there is no spare set on the boat for transient docking.

Install bigger cleats.

Eye splices in 3-strand are easy. I've taught people sitting on bar stools in tiki bars. Definitely a money saver. My friends have come out ahead buying the line AND paying for my drinks. *grin*

[HopCar]

I'm not too proud to buy prespliced docklines but they usually don't have a big enough eye to go over pilings. I usually put a three foot eye in my dock lines.

[Doodles]

Originally Posted by The Garbone

I just bought 150' of 1/2 3 strand on Amazon for $54 with free shipping (prime) . Need about 100' for my transient lines and about 50 or so for my 3 permanent lines due to the setup of my slip. Best I could find 1/2 preterms was about $30. 30x7=$210 so actually I am give everyone a holiday discount of $155.

Every time I've bought line that cheap I've ended up regretting it. By the way you can find 1/2 dock lines with eyes on Amazon for $16 but I wouldn't use them on my boat.

[Bash]

Originally Posted by The Garbone

I just bought 150' of 1/2 3 strand on Amazon for $54 with free shipping (prime) . Need about 100' for my transient lines and about 50 or so for my 3 permanent lines due to the setup of my slip. Best I could find 1/2 preterms was about $30. 30x7=$210 so actually I am give everyone a holiday discount of $155.

Apples and oranges here. It would be a different world if I could use 1/2" three strand. Your 3-ton boat and my 15-ton boat have different needs. No way I'm going to be able to purchase 3/4" Megabraid on Amazon.com.

At West Marine, a prespliced 3/4" megabraid 35' dock lines costs $88. Unspliced 3/4" megabraid costs $4.29 per foot, which means a 35' length, unspliced, would cost $150.15. I save $62.15 per line by purchasing it pre-spliced.

[The Garbone]

Originally Posted by Greenhand

According to http://www.thedump.scoutscan.com/RopeSplicing.pdf, they are the same strength.

Personally, I like KISS as an aesthetic and a philosophy, so I prefer a well done common splice.

Great PDF file there, I just sent it to my kindle as it appears to be better than the free book I already have.

[The Garbone]

Got my line in and here are my observations.

At 36 cents a foot the price was very good. The actual rope is of nice quality and it comes with a nice spool.

Spliced eyes are much easier than false eyes on synthetic rope. I have made artificial eyes on hemp and think they are better for hemp (natural) fibers.

I need a hot knife because a lighter just does not give a nice cut.

Properly woven even cheap line can look really good.