How to lash a ring to a spar

[whimsy]

Brion, thank you for the feedback on my lashing.

I will be using this one for long enough to get comfortable with how my new sails set, and then I suspect I will be wanting to adjust my halyard sling point after that anyway. When I move it I will try to get closer to what you would call "elegant." I will definitely leave a neck and put a separate seizing on the neck.

I don't want the ring to twist sideways on the yard. I see how allowing it to pivot from one side of the spar to the other would help. I think a short neck will do this fine.

I know that a few generations of sailors figured out and solved this problem completely but with different materials. I would love to just get their directions on how to do it. This forum is one of the closest places I've found!

[whimsy]

I've just had to take the old lashings off; they were secure when I removed them, over a few years, but not with very much hard sailing. Anyhow, I had a chance to try to do better, and here is my latest attempt.

I used the same 1/4" polyester 3-strand for the main lashing. With the ring diameter so much smaller than the spar diameter, the neck didn't want to make a tight turn. After some experimenting, I decided to cross the lashing between the ring and the spar (first pic is one of those tests). I started with a clove hitch, did my turns, then finished with another clove hitch, and then tied the two tails together for extra insurance.

I then used 1/8" nylon around the neck. I couldn't find a good reference for anything traditional that quite applied to the situation; what I did was as close to a traditional round seizing as I could manage...I tied a loop, did a layer of turns as tight as I could manage. Then I tied a half hitch to hold it, and did looser riding turns over the top. I just tied it off the best I could then; I wasn't able to do anything like the crossing turns in the space available.

I put a bit of tension pulling the ring away from the spar when I tied the seizing on.

Pics below: left: a test attempt without the seizing, and both sides of the finished version.


So....does this one look better than my first attempt?

And can I further improve on it?

I thought about using spectra, but it is so slippery....I've got no idea how to splice it in place, nor do I trust it to hold a knot. (Although better with a seizing over the neck)