Page 236 - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

with something that vaguely resembles the final dia-
gram? Because they are fired up with a notion: Save
thimble Money by Replacing Expensive Fittings with Grom-
mets. It’s a commendable, reasonable, sensible idea
that runs up against two difficulties:

1. It takes skill and patience. This is a big
Nicopress fitting
reason why manufacturers can Make Money by
slight crimp Replacing Grommets with Expensive Fittings;
most people don’t have the time or inclination to
master yet another skill. (“Fer cryin’ out loud, I
learned to navigate, learned to trim the genoa,
even learned to varnish the damn brightwork!
Why should I go blind and crazy trying to make
those stupid little hoops?!”) But grommets
don’t need to be that hard to make. Given time,
the inclination, and a good light to work in, it is
possible to avoid blindness.
Figure 6-42. Lightly crimp the end of the fitting to
eliminate wrestling. 2. Most synthetic ropes don’t “hold their lay”

when the strands are separated. Each strand
in a three-strand rope describes a spiral down
crimps, start at the standing-part side of center the length of the rope. Grommeting relies on the
and work toward the thimble. Finish with the strand retaining that spiral “lay” throughout the
standing- part end.
• Note that Nicopresses are intended for 7 x process. Manila and hemp do well in this regard,
constructions, and cannot be counted on for 1 x
19 wire. Oh, you’ll see them applied to 1 x 19,
and they hardly ever fail . . .

GROMMETING

You find them occasionally, littering decks, washed
ashore, or hidden away in forepeaks, those pitiful,
twisted, lumpy, often bloodstained approximations
of rope rings that poor, misguided souls have aban-
doned in disgust.
And then there are those hapless individuals
who curse their way to the last tuck, call the result-
ing grotesquerie a grommet, put it to use, and so
must live daily with the evidence of their failure.
Why do people torture themselves so? Why do
they sit there, knot book open on their laps, tangle
of line in their hands, desperately trying to come up

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