Quote:
Originally Posted by BAD ORCA
You guys are awesome. I posted this as a joke in my extreme frustration. I was waiting to see how long it might take for someone to call me an absolute lunatic and to step away from boats, and to never set foot on one again.
Frustrations dissolved i found a better video that was easy to follow and i FINALLY got a half way decent halyard eye splice. I really need to work on my tapering though. The area where the two lines meld together is a little 'chunky' and stiff. I think it will be ok for my jib halyard. The good splice seems pretty solid, and i whipped it to keep it from slipping. I just cant seem to master tapering though....i seem to not cut out enough or completely shred the end.
I do need to get a set of fids though. Im using the splicing wand now. It work but is a little clunky for my noob skills. I think fids would be easier for me to use.
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Nice. However, you don't need a set of special splicing fids, All you need is a coathanger or similar piece of wire.
Feel free to use the measurements and taper specs suggested by the manufacturer of your rope instead of my measurements. The real takeaway here is you can double up a piece of wire and run it through, pass the tapered end through the bight and also tape it if you are of a mind to, then pull it through. For a bigger eye, use a longer wire, or pull it through in stages.
I have also done this, especially in new rope, with no fid at all. I perform a quick taper and tightly tape a few inches with
electrical tape stretched very tightly. and the very tip folded over and taped as well, to blunt the "point". Then I use any pointy object to help open up the cover, if needed, but usually for small yacht size ropes, thumbnails alone will do the trick with new rope. Anyway the stiffened end serves as its own fid. Something to remember when you don't have any tools at all except your knife and your splicing tape, AKA vinyl
electrical tape.
If the
head of your sail is very near the halyard block at the masthead, you might want to consider an appropriate
knot instead of a splice. The reason is that sometimes the diameter of the splice is a bit too big for the sheave. If you have nice fat sheaves or skinny halyards or lots of room between the sail
head and the sheave, a splice is great.
Some tips for a successful double braid eye splice:
1. Pull the tapered ends firmly to get the crossover nice and tight.
2. Milk the two sides of the crossover away from each other to get it nice and compact.
3. Roll the crossover firmly between your palms. See a pattern here? Getting a good bury is mostly all about having a tight, compact, smooth crossover.
4. This is counterintuitive for most beginners but you do more for yourself by actually putting tension on the standing part and the eye, than by forcefully milking the cover down. The harder you stretch the rope, the smaller diameter the part getting buried will be and the fewer hockled yarns you get, which interfere in a good bury.
5. With used rope, it sometimes helps to wash the rope with Tide. I sometimes even coil and tie them neatly and firmly, and toss them in the washer. Half the time they still get snarled up but they come out nice and soft from the spin cycle.
Fabric softener doesn't hurt a thing. You can wash them in the
cockpit, too, by stopping up the scuppers, running some
water in there, and adding some Joy dishwashing liquid, which cleans well in either fresh or
salt water. Put on your boots and do the Snoopy happy puppy dance. Or just go barefoot. Makes them look nice, too, if that is a thing for you.
6. With really hard rope, you may have to cut the tapered
core tip completely off at the extraction point, instead of tapering it to end at a half fid length up, or wherever. This may or may not leave a very small hollow feeling place there, but you really don't weaken the splice very much at all.
7. You can also try when you extract the core, pull about one or two diameter's worth of extra core before making the first mark. This sets a tiny bit more slack in the cover. Sacrifices a couple percent of strength, maybe, but it can make the difference between a successful and unsuccessful splice.
8. Especially with new rope, sew through the splice. You can also sew through the crossover before burying, just don't leave a knot out there to catch on the cover when burying. Sewing is not done to keep the splice from pulling apart. That ain't gonna happen. Sewing is done to keep the eye from closing up, as the bury buries itself deeper under heavy strain. Okay, actually, theoretically the splice could work itself undone and pull out, but honestly I have never seen it happen, and I have spliced 12" circumference double braided ship's
mooring lines and then used them to tie up very large ships and put crazy tension on them with very powerful winches. The eye is not gonna pull out if the splice is made properly. But it can close up.