Page 391 - Brion Toss - The Complete Rigger’s Apprentice

never survives contact with the enemy.” Like all breeze, eventually shredding itself to pieces after
arts, rigging is an attempt to finesse coherence out beating your topsides to death? Simply cinching the
of ornery chaos, and the strangest things can save tie-down lines supertight is usually not enough; the
the day. Fill that drawer; you’ll find what you need rope stretches over time, and in any event can over-
when you open it. strain the tarp grommets.
But if you interject strips of inner tube between
the tie-downs and the plank they belay to, you’ll
TIE-DOWNS have a resilient configuration that can compensate
for rope stretch and wind, without creating excess
Unless you want things to flap, flutter, shred, hum, tension.
fall, get lost, or sunburned, you’ll need to learn all
about tie-downs. Wind and Tie-down Straps
Anytime a trailer tie-down strap is over space—as
Tarp Tie-down between the gunwales of an open boat—it will flut-
If you haul your boat for the winter, it is prudent ter and hum in the wind, greatly shortening strap
to drape a tarp over it to keep out the elements. life. To lessen this, give the strap a half twist where
But how do you keep the tarp from flapping in the it crosses open space.

Figure 12-1. A resilient tarp tie-down.

jackstands

batten

loops of inner tube

370