Where to Get Short Tethers?

[Curmudgeon]

Get double tethers with one hook at 3 ft and the other at 6 ft. Landfall sells them, among others.

I wouldn't singlehand without them.

[sarafina]

I was looking at the pictures of tethers and the prices are crazy. Most of them look like tubular webbing with elastic run in the middle to take up length so they don't droop and drag and trip you up.

Basically dog leashes with snap hooks on each end.

I get supplies for pet stuff here, at Strapworks.com and the quality is excellent and the prices are very fair.

Tubular webbing runs .40 a foot and elastic is around .25 a foot so for around .65 a foot you can get the materials to make your tether in what ever lengths and colour you want. Splurge and make a few that can be used in different places for exact length.

Snap hooks or carabiners can be had for 1 to 3 dollars a pop so figure the ends are the bigest investment.

A 3' tether would cost around 5.00 plus a bit of shipping for material.

They even sell a stitcher awl for 10.00, but you can easily sew on this material with a home sewing machine. I would use Poly thread, a heavy weight for buttonholes or jeans.

Cut the webbing to the length desired, add 6" for the foldover at the end (3" for each end) Cut with a sharp pair of shears.

Cut your elastic (if you choose to use it) to the length you want the tether to hang while it has NO tension on it. Run a large safety pin thru the end of the elastic. Slide the pin into the open end or the webbing. Push the fabric down the pin, holding the pin at the base and pushing the fabric on at the head, the way you would feed a curtain rod thru the pocket of a curtain. When the webbing is bunched up hold the head of the pin and smooth the excess webbing down over the elastic. Continue until the pin comes out the other end.

Remove the pin from the elastic and use it to pin it to the webbing, about 3" inside the tubing from the end, so it doesn't slip back thru. Make sure you have kept ahold of the other end so it hasn't worked it's way up into the webbing. Pin it about 3" from the end as well.

You should now have a length of gathered up webbing with elastic running thru it. Using a candle sear the cut ends just enough to melt the fibers to prevent fraying. Feed the ends thru the hook. Bring around 2.5" of webbing thru the hook and fold over. You should only have elastic in ONE layer of the webbing. You don't want the elastic to pass the the hook. Having it in sides both would be bulky and not add to the strength of the piece in any appreciable way.

At this point you may machine stitch or hand stitch the two layers of webbing together at each end. I would use a box pattern with an "X" in the middle, as is commonly found of strapping. This distributes the load where the pull is and gives you back up if stitching gives way in one direction. Take a look at a dog leash or back pack for examples.

Once you have the materials in hand it will only take you a few minutes to complete the project. Threading the elastic will take the most time but I bet one of these could be completed by a rank novice in under 20 minutes.

[David M]

Great idea Sara. Petco might sell something that is sturdier and cheaper.

[Endojoe]

Sure, I'd bet your life on Petco and a $1 carabiner...

[sarafina]

Originally Posted by Endojoe

Sure, I'd bet your life on Petco and a $1 carabiner...

fools and their money....

; -)

[Endojoe]

I was trying to be a smarta$$ in the nicest possible way.

[sarafina]

yep, just teasin ya back...
no worries ; -)

[nautical62]

You can certainly save a great deal of money by making your own jacklines and tethers, just be sure you are not purchasing inferior products. Much of the webbing, especially flat webbing sold for non marine or climbing purposes is not nearly as strong.

Beware of any situation where rope wears on rope or rope wears on webbing.

I did an experiment in my climbing class where I challenged a couple students to try to cut through 1 inch tubular webbing with a piece of 5 mm cord and their bare hands. They were successful. Anyone like to guess how long it took?

[captmick39]

having re-rigged multiple vessels for folks either planning on IOR Racing, participation in a specific Offshore Race/Ocean Crossing, partial or complete circumnavigations, here's a couple suggestions;

1-note all the locations/items of deckware that You would/will be securing that jackline/tether "TO", whip out Your tape measure, and note the distance from IT to the top of the lifelines, then subtract 6 inches. IF You vessel is perfectly symetrical (things/deckware are all located at the same points on both sides of the vessel), You are done. Take the longest measurement to Your local canvas shop (they need the business these days, and ARE Cheap) and let them whip You up a couple...if they have a backlog of work, it may take a few days, if they don't, it'l take them about 15 minutes. They ONLY work with UV Protected thread. IF You live inland and don't have a Canvas Shop locally, and You Do Have an Airport...more than likely they have a skydiving school...the parachute rigger there is equally competent with that commercial sewing machine and while serious overkill (not sure there is such a thing having been in the drink before) may be a factor with the materials they draw upon to whip these up for You, the price won't be much more than the canvas shop and they'll also last You a lifetime.

2-Making the task easier and less frequent of disconnecting and re-connecting from 1 securing point to another has been a concern of the folks going to sea (they understand Murphy was an optimist). Either pad eyes, in the places where You don't have some "thing" to secure to that would withstand the potential working load, or what has been done multiple times is either a line of pad eyes down the centerline, or offset down both sides of the deck/cabintop for beamier vessels, connected by 7x7 twist wire rope, swaged at the pad eyes, allows for minimal disconnecting, and maximum safety/security.

3-Have found more than once that a length of 3'/1M-6'/2M was just about perfect...having the canvas worker disassemble the 12'/6' "storebought" version and double it up, while re-stitching the ends, and the "middle" can be exceptionally cost effective...It's been done for us multiple times for less than $10.US; took them about 5 minutes and was far more than 2x stronger.
HTH

[Chief Engineer]

Did some in Georgia with Buddy Lane----eons ago----we made our own webgear also.....rappel Racks and Gibbs ascenders...a Jumar here and there and good old prusik knots......started out with carbide lamps

Originally Posted by cabo_sailor

A bit of hardware, some webbing, and one of the hand stitching awls should let you make your own. Several decades ago I participated in vertical caving, i.e., going into caves that one had to rappel down into and climb out using ascenders. We all made our own harnesses using this little tool. None of the stitches ever failed.

Here is a link to show you what I mean but they are sold all over.
Speedy Stitcher Sewing Awl at REI.com

Rich

Edit: by the way I still have one in my sail repair kit.