Page 23 - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

clerk will measure off 50 feet of rope from a coil or Figure 1-1. The turns of a coil will not lie fair without
spool, but by cutting it, she or he will transform it a slight twist put into each
into a 50-foot line; usually, rope is a general term
and a description of the raw material, while a line is courage the loops from intermingling. When coiling
what you make from rope. Thus a halyard is a line onto your hand, develop rhythm and a sweeping
that raises sails, and a sheet is a line that trims them. motion for minimum effort, smoothness, and a style
There are exceptions to this terminology, so you can conducive to contemplation. Heavy lines are coiled
ignore the oft-repeated pedantry that “there are no on deck, then either hung up or turned over so
ropes aboard a vessel.” Anyone who says that isn’t they’re ready to run. Leave the ends hanging below
familiar with a tiller rope, manrope, footrope, bell- the coil so they won’t become entangled in the turns.
rope, or the roping on sails. Now notice that as you coil you must impart a slight
twist to each loop to lay it neatly against the others
Rope as Battery: Coiling and Stowing (Figure 1-1); no twist means independent-minded
Rope in use is in clean, linear tension—an exercise in loops. This is the reason for that ancient, seldom-
geometry. Rope that’s not in use is a perverse crea- explained admonition to “always coil clockwise.”
ture, an incipient tangle, a rat’s nest waiting to hap- When the coil runs out, all those little twists
pen. If you let it have its way—and too many people have to go somewhere, and if you coil clockwise
do—you’re liable to find yourself in situations that (Figure 1-2A), right-laid three-strand rope can
are at best annoying and at worst dangerous. Think unlay a bit to absorb them. A counterclockwise coil
of each unused portion of rope as a battery, upon in right-laid rope can look just as neat, but when
which you might need to draw at an instant’s notice. it’s stretched out, the twists you put in will only
When you go to build your battery, it helps to tighten an already pretty firm lay, and you’re liable
understand the material it’s made of. Three-strand to end up with kinks and hockles (Figure 1-2B).
rope, for example, is usually right-laid—its strands Conversely, in the unlikely event that you come
spiral to the right—and is made with just enough up against left-laid rope, be sure to coil counter-
twist to hold the three strands together without clockwise.
rendering the rope too stiff to use. These structural In any rope, make the largest loops you conve-
details prove significant when making a coil. niently can, or the largest ones that won’t drag on
As the chapter opening illustration shows, the the deck if height is limited, so that there will be the
turns of a coil should be regular and even, to dis- fewest total turns and fewer twists to absorb.

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