Giles and Paula's Great Retirement Adventure

[Matt]

I love knots, I just can’t ever seem to remember them.

[goosehd]

@Matt Maybe it’s because you’re not knotty enough

[Matt]

Jesus Dennis that’s the daddest joke of the day.  Slow clap.

[goosehd]

Thank you, thank you…I’ll see myself out…

[Giles]

More splicing….

Endless loop in 4mm Dyneema, and Dog Bone in 6mm Dyneema.....

[louisbosco]

still can't wrap my head on how you splice a rope and still have so much fabric left.

[Giles]

8mm Dyneema soft shackle - Breaking strain circa 12,000 kilos, which is about 13 US Tons…..

[motojobobo]

What are they used for? Is such a high breaking strength necessary?
Very cool stuff @Giles ! Please keep posting them.

[Giles]

I will use this one as part of my anchor bridle.  If you go here,

http://kestrelsails.com/2020/05/27/building-an-anchor-bridle/

then where this guy uses a metal shackle, I will use the soft-shackle.

I'm trying to minimise the use of things that will corrode, plus it is way lighter and stronger than a metal shackle.  Do I need this breaking strain?  No, but no harm in a bit of over-engineering.

I'll also make some soft-shackles to attach the fixed mooring warps to the cleats on our jetty.  I can make the soft shackles in advance, but I can't build the warps until I know the placement of the cleats on the jetty and the cleats on the boat.  The 4 or 5 warps will usually be left behind on the jetty when we go for short trips, but I want to be able to unattach them from the jetty cleats when we are away on longer trips, the soft-shackles are ideal for this, no tools needed and don't corrode.

I've just made the pennant that will attach the anchor bridle to the anchor chain imagine the chair is the anchor chain, I may make another, I had a different concept in mind when I started splicing this, so it is possibly not long enough and it has asymmetrical end eyes (which do not matter from a functionality point of view, but piss me off aesthetically)….......

This is how I originally envisaged it would work, if I get no slippage from this knot on the anchor chain with this arrangement, I don't need to build a new pennant…

[browniemcghee]

This thread continues to bring me lots of joy. G, do you have any book recommendations on the knot tying front?

Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk Pro

[Giles]

I have this,

https://www.ironheart.co.uk/forum/index.php?topic=17049.msg764028#msg764028

but tend to use YouTube, especially as many of the knots I am tying are not described in the book, but also because I think I'm better at following a video than interpreting drawings….

[Giles]

Seized whipping at the end of some polypropylene safety rope.  We will use this for amongst other things to float behind the boat with a bloody great big fender attached to the other end, when at anchor and we have people in the water…..

[Giles]

Today's exercise was to tie a spliced eye in my 7/8" (22mm) mooring warps and then add a leather chafe guard.  A long way from perfect, but I learned a lot.  The next one will probably take me a quarter of the time and be a lot better.  The reddy-brown stuff on the chafe guard is blood (the needle I was using is SUPER-sharp)….

[motojobobo]

That spliced eye with chafe guard looks like a pro job to me! Congratulations Giles, very clean look you achieved there.

[Madame Buttonfly]

Am seriously impressed by the splicing and other techniques Giles is learning, and it keeps him quiet for hours… 

[ROman]

@Madame:

Am seriously impressed by the splicing and other techniques Giles is learning, and it keeps him quiet for hours… 

Very funny…...

[Matt]

Rope, leather and blood…  maybe I should get into sailing.

[Giles]

Not exactly busy in The Solent today….

[Giles]

Now we have something.  I will do my best to avoid, I think it may get the better of us in a fight…...

Her name is fittingly seasonal.....

[Twistlock]

Almost home