Improving the splice in a continuous line

Roger Hughes shares his new technique for making a smooth, continuous splice in double-braided line

- 

Ropemakers describe various methods in their manuals and online videos about how to make a continuous rope splice, but nearly all result in a splice thicker than the rest of the rope. On my 50ft brigantine schooner Britannia the boat's furling line layout is such that a splice would not pass through the jaws of the winding drums or the rope clutches.

To be able to use a continuous loop, the splice needed to be no thicker than the diameter of the rope, and needless to say, it also had to be very strong. After a lot of experimentation and testing, I arrived at a method to splice two ends of a double- braided line together, resulting in a uniform thickness the same as the rope, which has been officially tested to have great strength.

Nearly all splices result in a weakening of the rope, so this should be considered when deciding where to position a continuous line splice. All sail furlers that use a rope passing through a winding mechanism (whether a continuous loop or not) have one side of the line-usually the furling line - that needs more hauling than the other side, so it's logical to position a continuous loop splice on the least loaded side.

Tools

The following items were used to make the splice:

A sharp sewing needle and whipping twine: Dyneema whipping twine is best for this operation since it is considerably stronger than regular twine and adds great strength to this type of splice.

A box cutter, (Stanley knife), with a sharp new blade: Dyneema cannot be cut with scissors.

A scalpel-type knife (X-ACTO), with a new, sharp-pointed blade for stripping out individual rope strands.

A roll of 3/4in (20mm) masking tape to stop the rope ends from fraying, and a type that does not leave a glue residue on the rope like electrician's tape.

A heat gun to heat-shrink the tubing.