HM Attachments

[Jack]

It has been pretty quiet around the ol' SparTalk table lately.

At The recent Port Townsend Wooded Boat Festival, I had the pleasure of finally meeting Brion. After sitting through an hour of good education at a presentation he gave, I tagged along as Brion and the crew were busy getting a beautiful 40 something wooden boat ready to take off for the Pacific.
That were finishing up with a new staysail stay that was made from HM Dynex Dux. It was a pleasure to watch the crew go aloft and go about the business of rigging.
The whole weekend is a treat. Plenty of "eye candy" to keep the most die hard wood boat guy happy.
I wanted to throw out one something that some of you may not have seen. I cannot post photos here so I will give a link. For lack of a better name I call these "Soft Hanks" Colligo is calling the "softies"....
What I have found is they are able to replace the SS shackle in almost every place I can think of. It has been so nice to use it to attach sails at the head, and the tack. To attach blocks, sheets, you name it, I have tried it. So far so good. My most brutal test was 3 months on the hook acting as failed block on my anchor bridle. No wear that I could detect. A flattening of the rope, that you can massage back to life. But no gouged paint or loud banging!
Some of what I am doing is really trying to destruct the stuff ot see what it can take. It has been fun....!

http://tinyurl.com/m7orsv

[csandys]

I'm interested in the kind of knots to use. Bowlines seem to work lose. I use buntline hitches which work well, but are hard to untie. Rolling hitches seem to slip also.

I find the modified brummel makes an easy splice.

[Jack]

csandy,

do you mean what kind of knot to tie in HM rope? Brion and others advise to not use a knot in this stuff. It is so slick, the normal knots will just slip out. There is a really good write up by Brion in the "fairleads" section of this website.

[davidsamuelson]

Hi Jack,
Back in January you were talking about these soft hanks and you said you tied stopper knots. What knot did you tie? Does/did it slip? Do you sew the knot? Just curious.
When I get my act together I'll send photos of my halyards with incorporated soft snap shackles, if that is what you could call them.
David

[Jack]

Hey David,
would be interesting to see what you have there. All of the softies I am using were built by Colligo. I seem to recall hearing the knots were set using a machine. I know the end is melted also by looking at them.
I did not get the name of the knot, but they published a know here that may be it:

http://www.colligomarine.com/docs/mi...topperKnot.pdf

[davidsamuelson]

Thanks for that link Jack..
I have been using the oystermans stopper - it looks neater, more rounded like a crown, but even if it hasn't let go yet I am not filled with confidence in its integrity. I put a stitch in it for whatever thats worth.
I think I will change and go thrash it around when the rain stops.
David