Page 71 - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

HM are typically at least 3 times stronger than con- around the cook’s leg! Do you think they invented
ventional synthetics of the same diameter, and are belaying just so’s they’d have something to do with
much less elastic, to boot. This includes fibers like cleats? Besides,” he growled, returning to his hitch-
Spectra/Dyneema, Technora, Vectran, Kevlar, PBO, ing, “this thing was put up by pros. Why don’t you
and others take a look at their work?”
As it happened, he had every reason to be calm;
the tent riggers had sunk plenty of rod anchors deep
A TURN AROUND THE COOK’S LEG into the ground and had attached them to the stoutly
built tent with heavy rope. And they knew enough
I was at a boat show once that was held in a huge about knots to use a Clove Hitch and Rolling Hitch
circus tent. The entire structure was bucking and for a secure belay (Figure 3-1).
vibrating in a September gale, and the only thing Seeing all this, and thinking about what Spike
that kept me from fleeing in a panic was the calm had said, I realized that the cleats, bitts, and winches
presence of Spike Africa, widely heralded “President I was accustomed to were no guarantee of security in
of the Pacific Ocean.” He was sitting in the bow themselves. With or without them, ultimate respon-
of a skiff, chewing tobacco and covering an increas- sibility has always lain with the sailor (or roust-
ingly empty whiskey bottle with thousands of about), whose job it is to analyze the circumstances
teensy knots. and strains involved, take stock of available materi-
“Spike,” I said nervously, “this tent can’t be als and fittings, and then secure things accordingly.
reefed, and there are no cleats to belay to. What are This doesn’t mean that you have to learn a special
we going to do if it starts to blow away?” technique for every situation; a few basic elements
“Do!?” he replied in a conversational bellow. are present in every good belay, and many of the
“Why, we’ll take a reef in the roof! We’ll take a turn techniques are interchangeable. All you need to

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