Looking for suggestions on Coils,

[isali]

I am at the point of making the coils to hang fro the Belaying pins on Jefferson Davis (1853)

 

On an earlier post in March of this year , Jay, Modler12 had some excellent advice on making the flat coils for the deck. 

My problem is with the belaying pin coils, I have tried making them flats (as shown in Jays post) and on the edge of a block of wood at a 90 degree angle.

 

 

BOth ways they come out too stiff and fake looking.  I am using white elmers glue, diluted 50%. 

ANy thoughts are welcome. 

Ira

[Desert_Sailor]

Try this, 

 

Use about a 25% solution of water and Elmers.  Soak the line in the solution so its very limp..

 

Using a forcep ( tweezer)  start coiling the line to the size you want.. The stickiness of the solution will hold it together. 

If it starts to fall away, just dip the coil in the solution again..

 

Keep coiling until you're about  1.5 -2 coil diameters from the pin rail.

Using a different forcep, reach through the coil and grab the remaining line, pull it through and then loop it over the coil.

Now, loop the "pull over"  line  over the pin rail and the coil should hang nicely..  Before it dries,  GENTLY  pull on the bottom of the coil so as to give the coil an oval shape.  This give the appearance of the weight of the line hanging normally,

 

When the water evaporates, the Elmers that 

remains will dry clear and the coil will be rigid enough without looking too stiff..

 

See Image below..

 

 

Edited November 1, 2013 by Desert_Sailor

[bhermann]

Desert_Sailor

 

That's the way I was taught to coil the halliards on the schooner I sailed on.  Thanks for a straightforward approach to getting it done on a model.

 

Bob

[Modeler12]

Ira, you might be interested in watching the following video I took on a sailing ship. One of the crew members showed me how to secure a line to a belaying pin. I then tried to duplicate that for our ship modeling.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tKfrKOaT0xw

 

I might post this as a new thread if it is of interest to others.

Edited November 8, 2013 by Modeler12

[bhermann]

Jay -

 

That matches how I was taught to do it on my Windjammer cruise a few years ago except when doing the "X"s over the pin, they had us do three instead of four, and the third one was flipped over to lock the line in place instead of pulling it under a previous wrap.   Thanks for posting the video and your adaptation for modeling.

[Modeler12]

Jay -

 

That matches how I was taught to do it on my Windjammer cruise a few years ago except when doing the "X"s over the pin, they had us do three instead of four, and the third one was flipped over to lock the line in place instead of pulling it under a previous wrap.   Thanks for posting the video and your adaptation for modeling.

Yes, that last loop tucked under the previous loop was new to me also. That is why I asked Jackie if she was giving the last loop a 'half hitch'. She replied that the boatswain wanted it their way.

Of course, it is important that all crew members do it the same way. In the dark or stormy conditions you don't want surprises.

[mgdawson]

Yes, that last loop tucked under the previous loop was new to me also. That is why I asked Jackie if she was giving the last loop a 'half hitch'. She replied that the boatswain wanted it their way.

Of course, it is important that all crew members do it the same way. In the dark or stormy conditions you don't want surprises.

The tuck under the first loop is new to me but extremely good idea, that's where the strain on the line will come in and lock it but still easy to flip out.

 

Half hitching has been mentioned as many have no doubt seen it used, while you can usually get away with it today with modern synthetic ropes, natural fibre ropes shrink when wet so if you put a half hitch in a dry line which subsequently gets wet it tightens up and you can't get it off.  And according to sod's law, you put it on dry in fine weather and you're trying to get it off when the wind is up and you've got green water coming over the deck. I got caught once, fortunately nothing critical, I was 3rd Mate on a container ship and one of the crew had secured a mooring winch canvas cover with half hitches,I needed to get the cover off coming into port in wet weather and ended up cutting the securing line (I always carried a knife).

 

Also 3 vs 4 'turns', while there's a lot of individual preference on the number of turns, generally with synthetics you add an extra turn as they tend to be, comparatively, a little slippery, likewise splicing, add an extra tuck on synthetics.

 

Mark