I’ve been using cheap polytarps on my boat for years. I usually get about three seasons out of them depending on how often I use them. My boom tarp is an 8’x10’ tarp and it gets used constantly. The grommets are not always centered on these tarps where you really need them and I usually need to install a couple of ½” grommets in the center of each end of the tarp where I tie on to the mast and the end of the boom. For tie downs, I use 3/16” braid line cut at various lengths where needed. I generally tie the tarp off to the end of the boom first and then tie it off to the mast. Then I come back to the Port side of the cockpit and tie off the rest of the lines to my lifelines with quick release hitches. These quick release hitches are nothing more than clove hitches which are left with a bight very similar to a reefing knot. In other words, the bitter end of the line isn’t pulled all the way through like the clove hitch.
These tarps are flammable and it’s important that they be tied in such a way that you can remove them fast if you have to, especially if you don’t have a knife handy. Outside of that, you want something that is quick and easy to install and break down in a hurry. I’ve developed a certain routine that I use for getting the boom tarp up or broken down that I use each time and it has become so automatic that I don’t even think about it.
The tarps keep my cabin nice and cool on a hot summer’s day and they’re pretty good at keeping rain out of the cockpit and allow me to keep my companionway sliding hatch open unless there’s a driving rain. The boom tarp keeps out a lot of that morning in the cockpit. The only down side to these tarps is that they can be a little noisy on an extremely windy day.
Last year I was sailing under the Mount Hope Bridge down in Bristol RI heading North toward the mouth of the Taunton River in Fall River Ma., when it started to rain. The wind was behind us as it usually is with SW prevailing winds in that area. Usually I would put on my rain gear and sit in the cockpit and steer. I also would tie a 5x7’ tarp over the entrance to my companionway hatch to keep the rain out of the cabin which makes it easy to go in and out of the cabin when I need to. This time I wanted to try something different so I poled out my Gennie with my whisker pole and I took the Main down and covered it. Then I installed my boom tarp, plus two of my 5’x7’ tarps. Penny and I sailed all the way to our yacht club as dry as a bone. We had to motor under a drawbridge inside of the mouth of the river but had no problems with all these tarps hung.
My stern rail is high enough to where I can hang a 5’x7’ tarp to it and tie the front part of the tarp to my lifelines off with rolling hitches with my boat hook to prop the tarp up. It’s a poor sailor’s Bimini Top, but it works for us on an extremely hot day sailing out on the bays. I’d love to have a Bimini top but I do a lot of trolling for Stripers and Blues and the top would just be in the way with a “fish on.”
The “Lineman’s Rolling Hitch is an easy hitch to tie. Just make five or six wraps of the line around anything, come back and bring the line under the standing part of the line and go back up to the last wrap and tie a couple of half hitches in front of the wraps. Always wrap away from the direction of pull. You can grab this hitch by the wraps and move it anywhere you like but when you get a strain on the standing part, the hitch stays put. I tied a bowline to the standing part just for the sake of clarity in the picture. I doubt if you're going to find this hitch in any knot books or knot sites but any power lineman is very familiar wit this hitch and ties it on a daily basis. I know this because I did, years back.
I use a round turn and half hitches quite a bit. A round turn can keep half hitches from binding under tension which makes removing the hitches very easy. I use a round turn and one slipped half hitch on the tarp lines that attach to the bales on my stern rail where the lifeline pelican hooks attach to this rail.
Another hitch I use is the “Highwayman’s Hitch.” I remember reading about this hitch in one of my old boating magazines like “Rudder”, years back. They called it the “Scandinavian Hitch” and claimed that it was used extensively by Scandinavian boaters on the rivers. They would anchor their boats and also run a line to a tree on shore using this hitch along with a long smaller diameter line run back to the boat so that they could trip the hitch from their boats when they were ready to shove off. I use this hitch to tie off my swimming ladder.
I use a number of knots like the bowline and reef knot, but one of my favorites for joining to lines together is the Benson Bend. Check them out.
These tarps are flammable and it’s important that they be tied in such a way that you can remove them fast if you have to, especially if you don’t have a knife handy. Outside of that, you want something that is quick and easy to install and break down in a hurry. I’ve developed a certain routine that I use for getting the boom tarp up or broken down that I use each time and it has become so automatic that I don’t even think about it.
The tarps keep my cabin nice and cool on a hot summer’s day and they’re pretty good at keeping rain out of the cockpit and allow me to keep my companionway sliding hatch open unless there’s a driving rain. The boom tarp keeps out a lot of that morning in the cockpit. The only down side to these tarps is that they can be a little noisy on an extremely windy day.
Last year I was sailing under the Mount Hope Bridge down in Bristol RI heading North toward the mouth of the Taunton River in Fall River Ma., when it started to rain. The wind was behind us as it usually is with SW prevailing winds in that area. Usually I would put on my rain gear and sit in the cockpit and steer. I also would tie a 5x7’ tarp over the entrance to my companionway hatch to keep the rain out of the cabin which makes it easy to go in and out of the cabin when I need to. This time I wanted to try something different so I poled out my Gennie with my whisker pole and I took the Main down and covered it. Then I installed my boom tarp, plus two of my 5’x7’ tarps. Penny and I sailed all the way to our yacht club as dry as a bone. We had to motor under a drawbridge inside of the mouth of the river but had no problems with all these tarps hung.
My stern rail is high enough to where I can hang a 5’x7’ tarp to it and tie the front part of the tarp to my lifelines off with rolling hitches with my boat hook to prop the tarp up. It’s a poor sailor’s Bimini Top, but it works for us on an extremely hot day sailing out on the bays. I’d love to have a Bimini top but I do a lot of trolling for Stripers and Blues and the top would just be in the way with a “fish on.”
The “Lineman’s Rolling Hitch is an easy hitch to tie. Just make five or six wraps of the line around anything, come back and bring the line under the standing part of the line and go back up to the last wrap and tie a couple of half hitches in front of the wraps. Always wrap away from the direction of pull. You can grab this hitch by the wraps and move it anywhere you like but when you get a strain on the standing part, the hitch stays put. I tied a bowline to the standing part just for the sake of clarity in the picture. I doubt if you're going to find this hitch in any knot books or knot sites but any power lineman is very familiar wit this hitch and ties it on a daily basis. I know this because I did, years back.
I use a round turn and half hitches quite a bit. A round turn can keep half hitches from binding under tension which makes removing the hitches very easy. I use a round turn and one slipped half hitch on the tarp lines that attach to the bales on my stern rail where the lifeline pelican hooks attach to this rail.
Another hitch I use is the “Highwayman’s Hitch.” I remember reading about this hitch in one of my old boating magazines like “Rudder”, years back. They called it the “Scandinavian Hitch” and claimed that it was used extensively by Scandinavian boaters on the rivers. They would anchor their boats and also run a line to a tree on shore using this hitch along with a long smaller diameter line run back to the boat so that they could trip the hitch from their boats when they were ready to shove off. I use this hitch to tie off my swimming ladder.
I use a number of knots like the bowline and reef knot, but one of my favorites for joining to lines together is the Benson Bend. Check them out.
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