Down and Dirty Dyneema Strops

[guyfromiowa]

Two-needle stitching is not hard to do. Here are a couple of YT's to gaze upon....

[estarzinger]

Originally Posted by Seaworthy Lass

Dockhead, I am feeling bad that I suggested a Grog sling earlier and you made half a dozen .

Really, they are ok. Just a bit less strong than optimal. His 72x bury helps a lot.

The bonus is that your stitching skills will improve tremendously.

We do need to bringing you around to the joy of sewing It is just a proper and correct seamanship skill. Can be just as aesthetic and 'intellectual' (eg there is a lot to learn and they can be easily done incorrectly - as I learned in my jackline testing) as splicing - and don't begrudge the time spent. The heavy lift guys sew everything, always . . . . and you should also. But on a sailing vessel, sewing is really a seaman's job (lol) so perhaps you should do the splicing and hand them over to your partner for sewing

........

[Seaworthy Lass]

He is too busy with anchors .

Yes, I grudgingly admit I need to hone my dyneema sewing skills. I'm not adverse to sewing otherwise . At least sewing with dyneema does not draw blood, as some other boat related work does.

Your tips with first pushing aside the strands completely in the outer sheath of a buried splice and then using a blunt needle were very helpful. The "nails on the blackboard" sound of dyneema fibres snapping disappeared completely.

Thanks.

SWL

[Dockhead]

Slightly off topic, but I lost one of my soft shackles overboard. So I made a couple more, using Evan's "Improved Soft Shackle" with the reduced knot. From here:

http://www.bethandevans.com/pdf/improvedsoftshackle.pdf

This is a really excellent formula I think. Once you've done it a couple of times I don't think it takes more than 10 minutes per shackle, even for a klutz like me. Not as pretty as some of SWL's decorative stopper knots, but seems to be strong as hell and to my eye doesn't look that bad (I have low standards, maybe ).

I tighten them up by pulling between two winches. With enough force to ruin a piece of 12mm double braid by pulling the bowline out (I guess a couple of tons).




This is excellent; thanks Evans!!

[Seaworthy Lass]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Slightly off topic, but I lost one of my soft shackles overboard. So I made a couple more, using Evan's "Improved Soft Shackle" with the reduced knot. From here:

http://www.bethandevans.com/pdf/improvedsoftshackle.pdf

This is a really excellent formula I think. Once you've done it a couple of times I don't think it takes more than 10 minutes per shackle, even for a klutz like me. Not as pretty as some of SWL's decorative stopper knots, but seems to be strong as hell and to my eye doesn't look that bad (I have low standards, maybe ).

I tighten them up by pulling between two winches. With enough force to ruin a piece of 12mm double braid by pulling the bowline out (I guess a couple of tons).


This is excellent; thanks Evans!!

It looks beautiful!

When pretensioning soft shackles I now use a Dyneema loop on one side (looped over a winch) and 16 mm double braid poly on the other side.

[SVNeko]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

Slightly off topic, but I lost one of my soft shackles overboard...

oi! they float.

[Dockhead]

Originally Posted by SVNeko

oi! they float.

I know. It hurt me to see it float away. But I was running downwind, wing on wing, with the main preventered out, and it was just too much trouble to turn around to retrieve it.

[ScottMeilicke]

Originally Posted by Dockhead

I know. It hurt me to see it float away. But I was running downwind, wing on wing, with the main preventered out, and it was just too much trouble to turn around to retrieve it.

Same, but with a loop I had just made. Fortunately they are easy to make!


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