Why do sailors not butterfly their coils?

[Cheechako]

I have found butterflying to loop and knot on itself more often on long lines.... mostly 3 strand though. As you are letting it out, each loop tries to grab the adjacent one.

[TomLewis]

Thanks JDEGE and Jackdale. I needed that since I have been screwing up line for a long time. I saw something about garden hoses, would this also work if you had a hose bib or hanger?

[jackdale]

Folding electrical cords works well; not so much with shore power cords.

[Jdege]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

I have found butterflying to loop and knot on itself more often on long lines.... mostly 3 strand though. As you are letting it out, each loop tries to grab the adjacent one.

I've found that my butterfly coils will tangle themselves if I'm not careful about making all the loops the same length.

[Chas.7]

Hello,
How does a butterflied line pay out when you throw it? Especially throw it up to a larger ship? I was taught to hand loop a heaving line giving it a slight roll clockwise of the line in my fingers. We also flaked and coiled our tie up lines on deck.
Good luck

[Cheechako]

Originally Posted by Jdege

I've found that my butterfly coils will tangle themselves if I'm not careful about making all the loops the same length.

Very true. Unless you can hold 200 ft of backup or stern anchor rode carefully, loops always slip and are no longer the same length, ditto if you lay it on deck.

[Jdege]

Originally Posted by Cheechako

Very true. Unless you can hold 200 ft of backup or stern anchor rode carefully, loops always slip and are no longer the same length, ditto if you lay it on deck.

The climbers' tricks of wrapping around the neck have worked for me, but I've only used them in non-nautical applications.

[Nicholson58]

I have always just coiled in figure-8. Its easy, can do it in the dark, never tangles. Watching the demo, its the same with another name. One half-coil forward - one half coil reversed. The issue is that I would NEVER wrap a rope around my neck on a boat. I have coiled (flaked) lines this way for over 40 years. You can throw one of my lines months after its been stowed and it will run without kinks or twists.

[jackdale]

Originally Posted by Nicholson58

I have always just coiled in figure-8. Its easy, can do it in the dark, never tangles. Watching the demo, its the same with another name. One half-coil forward - one half coil reversed. The issue is that I would NEVER wrap a rope around my neck on a boat. I have coiled (flaked) lines this way for over 40 years. You can throw one of my lines months after its been stowed and it will run without kinks or twists.

An oil rig supervisor showed me the over the neck trick for folding a stern line after use -no tension on the line.

Sent from my SM-T705W using Cruisers Sailing Forum mobile app

[reed1v]

Originally Posted by TomLewis

Thanks JDEGE and Jackdale. I needed that since I have been screwing up line for a long time. I saw something about garden hoses, would this also work if you had a hose bib or hanger?

First, lay out the hose and work out its "lay" so it lays without any twists. Let it stay that way for an hour or so. Then you can wrap it any way you want. Synthetic hoses have memories. They are sold coiled up which is not very handy for wrapping them any other way, nor even for everyday use. Need to break that memory. Which is why new hoses are a bear to recoil while old old hoses are as limp as shoelaces.

[cjsfsm]

Great post!

[Cheechako]

Yachties worry about whether or not to butterfly their coils. Cruisers butterfly their shrimp and put it off 'til tomorrow....

[SteveInMD]

Someone enlightened me on this back in the early 1990s. I've been using figure 8s ever since. I just make the 8s holding the line in my hand, not around anything.

All of my sailing buddies that race use figure 8s all of the time. They are more concerned about function over looks. Some of my cruising friends hate when I figure 8 their lines because it doesn't look as good.

[barnakiel]

I am not sure what OP means as I nearly always do.

b.

[secrabtree]

Originally Posted by TomLewis

Thanks JDEGE and Jackdale. I needed that since I have been screwing up line for a long time. I saw something about garden hoses, would this also work if you had a hose bib or hanger?

I have kept my hose in a figure 8 for years. Before I put it in the lazerette I put ties around the hose in each loop so that it stays in the figure 8, then I fold one loop over the other and another tie to hold it that way. So when I use the hose I put it on the dock directly under my anchor roller, undo enough off the bottom to connect irt to the hose bib, put a self-turn-off nozzle on the other end and feed it over the roller. The I get on the boat and just pull as much hose as I need, for whatever I want to do. The hose comes up over the roller with no twists. When I'm done I just flake the hose down in the figure 8 and put it away. Before I used that method I always had to stretch the hose on the dock and remove the twists and kinks before taking it out of a coil, and again do the same thing when putting it back in a coil. The new-to-me method (for the last 15 or 20 years) has sure saved me considerable work. And when I was just coiling the hose it developed kinks and leaks ansd I ended up replacing a couple hoses.