This is geared more toward the sailor who is thinking about replacing lines that have eye-splices. You old kosher salts already know about this issue.
Well I learned a lesson this morning. It was a lesson I have known my whole life: use the right tool for the right job. How could I possibly forget?
The task at hand was to replace my mainsheet. OK, seem simple enough. I look and see the mainsheet has an eye splice in the line. OK, time to study how to do an eye splice. (I had a similar task with my dock lines several months ago and passed that with flying colors. But the dock lines were 3-strand, not double braid).
Also, some time ago I order fids for just such an occasion. Got my tools out, prepared the 3/8 double braid for surgery, and had my morning Joe, so all was good.
Except, the diameter of the PLASTIC fids was too wide for the rope. I made three attempts to pass the core of the rope through the cover. Totaly failure. The cover of the rope was compressing on the fid because the fid was too wide. And this was the smallest fid I had.
OK, I should have spent the extra $$ and purchased REAL fids. So today I order Selma Fids from the SBO store. Could have gotten them cheaper but I like to support SBO. As soon as I get the new fids I will finish this project. I did replace the mainsheet already but used a bowline instead of an eye-splice. But I still want to do that.
Lesson learned.
Well I learned a lesson this morning. It was a lesson I have known my whole life: use the right tool for the right job. How could I possibly forget?
The task at hand was to replace my mainsheet. OK, seem simple enough. I look and see the mainsheet has an eye splice in the line. OK, time to study how to do an eye splice. (I had a similar task with my dock lines several months ago and passed that with flying colors. But the dock lines were 3-strand, not double braid).
Also, some time ago I order fids for just such an occasion. Got my tools out, prepared the 3/8 double braid for surgery, and had my morning Joe, so all was good.
Except, the diameter of the PLASTIC fids was too wide for the rope. I made three attempts to pass the core of the rope through the cover. Totaly failure. The cover of the rope was compressing on the fid because the fid was too wide. And this was the smallest fid I had.
OK, I should have spent the extra $$ and purchased REAL fids. So today I order Selma Fids from the SBO store. Could have gotten them cheaper but I like to support SBO. As soon as I get the new fids I will finish this project. I did replace the mainsheet already but used a bowline instead of an eye-splice. But I still want to do that.
Lesson learned.