Page 142 - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

but it gets ornery at the end. Get all you can by mas- Note also that the accompanying illustration
saging, milking, and snapping at the belay, as for is not an eye, so the load on the stitching could be
double-braid. This should get you within an inch or twice that for the eye configuration. Add stitches
so of the cover mark. accordingly, and be sure of a generous overlap.

Slamming Home To get that last inch, hitch a The Stitch Splice
small sledgehammer to the shackle, and snap with One difficulty with braided rope is that it is very,
that. I am not kidding. Be careful of your back and very difficult to splice after it has been used for a
shoulders. Be sure of the anchor. Keep the hammer while. This means that this modern line benefits
handle angled away from you, and stand far enough greatly from traditional attentiveness; fairleads,
back that the hammer can’t hit you in the knee. Two ample-size sheaves, smooth belay surfaces all help
or three moderate snaps should do it. to prevent chafe, and thus prevent the need to do
With a piece of sail twine, stitch back and forth another splice.
through the throat a few times, for light load security.
Figure 4-18I shows the finished splice.
Figure 4-19A–C. To begin the Stitch Splice, pull out
BRAIDED ROPE REPAIRS a foot of core from each rope end and make a rough
taper by cutting the marked strands (A). Retract the
On behalf of Practical Sailor magazine, researcher cores by working the slack out of the covers, and lay
Drew Frye conducted a series of tests on sewn ter- the ends alongside each other. Stitch together thor-
minations for rope (October 2014 issue). The results oughly with waxed sail twine (B). The finished Stitch
showed that a properly done sewn eye can achieve Splice (C).
efficiencies of 85 percent or more. It is important to
note that the article shows that not all stitch patterns
are equal; I recommend careful study of Drew’s
methods before you try an eye in earnest.

121