Going loopy – making a continuous splice
Practical Boat Owner|October 2021
Roger Hughes declutters the cockpit by splicing his furling lines end-to-end into a continuous loop
Roger Hughes
Going loopy – making a continuous splice

Rope is used to rotate nearly all furling drums and some – such as Code 0 sail furlers and the old Hood in-mast system – employ a continuous line.

On my brigantine schooner Britannia, the French-made Facnor furling drivers on the mainsail and fore-course squaresail are operated by long ropes that pass once around the rotating drum and out the other side, then back to the cockpit.

They use a 3/8in (10mm), double-braided line to grip the driver, much like the jaws on a self-tailing winch, which in turn rotates the mandrel (foil) to wind the sails in and out.

My mainsail needs 16 rotations of the driver and the squaresail needs 19. Using a single line therefore results in a very long tail on one end or the other, whether the sails are furled or unfurled; the squaresail tail is 45ft long and the mainsail 35ft. These lines all lead back to the cockpit and, with the addition of two headsails and between-mast staysail furling lines, it can become very cluttered.

It would be a great improvement if these long lines could be made into a continuous loop, with only a few feet in the cockpit to go round the winches. Then I could just wind away, without having to coil yards of rope to keep the area tidy.

Considerations

There are different methods to make a continuous (or end-to-end) loop with double braided line, described in rope-maker manuals and web videos, but they result in a splice that is thicker than the rest of the rope, and may not pass around the jaws of drum drivers or through clutches, blocks and self-tailing winches, with serious possibilities of a rope jam. Therefore any continuous splice needs to be no thicker than the rest of the rope. Needless to say, the splice also has to be very strong.

This story is from the October 2021 edition of Practical Boat Owner.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

This story is from the October 2021 edition of Practical Boat Owner.

Start your 7-day Magzter GOLD free trial to access thousands of curated premium stories, and 8,500+ magazines and newspapers.

MORE STORIES FROM PRACTICAL BOAT OWNERView All
Shearwater sloop sailing in the 1960s
Practical Boat Owner

Shearwater sloop sailing in the 1960s

Genevieve Leaper shares her late father John Leaper's recollections-compiled from handwritten notes-of cruising the Channel

time-read
7 mins  |
November 2023
Timing an Atlantic crossing
Practical Boat Owner

Timing an Atlantic crossing

Professional meteorologist and sailor Chris Tibbs shares his knowledge of how to choose the best time to sail 'across the pond'

time-read
5 mins  |
November 2023
Transatlantic first
Practical Boat Owner

Transatlantic first

It's 70 years since Ann Davison became the first woman to sail solo across the Atlantic. Katy Stickland looks back at her achievement

time-read
5 mins  |
November 2023
Going dizzy on an island sailing odyssey
Practical Boat Owner

Going dizzy on an island sailing odyssey

Ken Fowler becomes the first sailor to circumnavigate every island in England and Wales-and all done in a 4m dinghy!

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 2023
Boats for coastal cruising
Practical Boat Owner

Boats for coastal cruising

Duncan Kent chooses a selection of the best sail and motor boats under 40ft most suitable for adventurous cruising along the coast

time-read
10+ mins  |
November 2023
Industry view on HVO
Practical Boat Owner

Industry view on HVO

The RYA, IWA and CA are working to help recreational boating transition to a Net Zero future, as the CA's

time-read
2 mins  |
November 2023
HVO RENEWABLE DIESEL Myth or miracle?
Practical Boat Owner

HVO RENEWABLE DIESEL Myth or miracle?

A new generation of biofuel that's cleaner, greener, better for your engine and less prone to microbial growth sounds too good to be true... but the facts beg to differ

time-read
8 mins  |
November 2023
Little ships and the wrong sort of waves
Practical Boat Owner

Little ships and the wrong sort of waves

Why the correct manoeuvres for the sea conditions will reduce hogging and sagging stress on both ship and crew

time-read
5 mins  |
November 2023
Watching boats, saving jerseys
Practical Boat Owner

Watching boats, saving jerseys

It's amazing what you can see from a hospital window if it's the right hospital

time-read
3 mins  |
November 2023
Sweating the mooring asset
Practical Boat Owner

Sweating the mooring asset

Sam Llewellyn looks at ways of getting top value out of his boat's swinging mooring

time-read
3 mins  |
November 2023