Proper Line Coiling Procedure

[sailaway21]

PirateofCapeAnn,
I believe you are incorrect in your definition of left-laid line or wire rope. Left laid, or back-laid rope is used in only two areas I am aware of; cable-tool well drilling rigs and elevators.

Lang-laid wire rope is rope where the wires are twisted in the same direction as the strands of the wire rope. It makes for an extremely flexilbe wire rope that is neither as strong nor as durable as regular lay.

An example of how wire rope is described:
right regular lay, the wires and strands are laid in opposing directions with the strands laid up to the right.

right lang lay, the wires and strands are laid in the same direction with both being to the right

etc...

[cfreeman]

This thread has been pretty well beat to death, but I'll add one more tidbit, which is how to finish off the coil once made. The right answer is "it depends on what you are doing with it next".

1) Coiling down the bitter end of a cleated line that is in use, like a halyard: Coil it up from the cleat toward the bitter end, leaving about half a loop's worth of line between the coil and the cleat; then reach through the center of the coil, grab the line between the coil and the cleat, pull it through the center of the coil (i.e. slide the coil up the bight until it is against the cleat), make a half twist in the bight, and hook over the top ot the cleat. The coil will hang off the cleat in the loop formed by the bight and stay there while sailing. When it comes time to drop the sail, pull the bight off the top of the cleat, pull the coil away and drop it on the deck; the bight falls out and the rope will feed without tangles (especially if it was laid in figure eights as suggested by earlier posters.)

2) Coiling a complete rope to put it away by hanging from some hook like a cleat or belay pin: Take a BIGHT of rope from the end of the coil and form a clove-hitch about the top of the coil using the entire bight. This leave a loop of rope (the bight) extending out the clove hitch to hang the coil off a pin.

3) If hanking the coil, do as you did in (2) but wrap the bight around the whole hank and pass the bight up through the top of the coil. A hank works best with the figure-eight lay and allows storage in less horizontal space.

All these methods are photographed in the Morrow guide to Knots, pp 18-23, which is my favorite on-board reference for knots.

[Boasun]

This is some thing like beating a dead horse now... Gesh!

[Cruisingdreamspress]

I use the figure-eight method as outlined by Saber 66 on all halyards, sheets and stern anchor rode. During my seven year solo voyage I added one trick that I read about to this coiling halyard method. After coiling and winding three or more raps around the coil, ( as Saber 66 explained ) I then take the part that would normally form a loop through the coil to be hung on the cleat and run it first between the taught halyard and the cleat...then I run the loop through the coil and twisting it several times hang it on the cleat. In rough weather this adds extra security so that the coiled halyard wont fall off the cleat and cause possible problems with it tangling in the prop.

[normofthenorth]

cfreeman, I like your techniques, but where did you get the usage of "bitter end" to mean the free end of a cleated line like a halyard? I've always taken it to mean the captive, cleated end -- the end fastened semi-permanently to the "bitt" or cleat -- of a docking line or (especially) an anchor line. I'm not sure what the proper name is for the free end of a cleated halyard (working end??), but if it's really the "bitter end", then I've been confused a long time.

BTW, Wikipedia has it as follows (which I think is consistent with my understanding):

Bitter end
More a ropeworker's term than a knot term, the reference is to the end of a rope that is tied off, hence the expression "to the bitter end". A bitt is a metal block with a crosspin used for tying lines to, found on docks. In fact the bitter end is the end of the Anchor "Cable" that connects to the Anchor Bitts in the cable locker under the forecastle or poop using the bitter pin. (British nautical usage). Other uses are borrowed from this derivation.

[knothead]

Bitter End: The inactive inboard end of a cable abaft the Carrick Bitts.

(Ashley's)


There, Does that clear it up for ya?