Thursday, January 19, 2012

Arts of the Sailor

Marathon, Florida
24 42.40 081 N 05.68 W

I try.  I also improve at the arts of the sailor with practice.  However, I'm still humbled by how short I come up compared to the skills of my predecessors and my contemporaries.

It was time to prepare some new dock lines.  In the first picture below, you see one of the old dock lines with whipping prepared by Al Hatch, the previous owner of Tarwathie.  In the second picture, you see one of the new ones with whipping prepared by me.  I used Al's model and a book on splicing and whipping as my guides.  Try as I might, I guarantee that Al's will prove much more durable than mine.

Al's


Dick's

I should also point out that it could be worse. I've been told that "modern" sailors eschew such old fashioned things as whipping and use more "modern" methods such as dipping the end in liquid silicone rubber. To that, I say balderdash.

1 comment:

  1. I've known Al Hatch for many years via Al Gore's internets. Al is a sailor's sailor, Dick. Don't stand or dock next to him. Like going to Walmart to feel thin and intelligent, come dock next to me.

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