Making a Permanent Eye in braided rope

[maa. melee]

Going back to the monkey fist thread, I'd like to keep one end of a spare braided rope I keep onboard as an eye...however the rope is braided nylon. I know there are clamps and crimps but to me, this just doesn't seem strong enough. Would a boweye with a double bight work for general purposed cleating and use of an emergency heavie?

[Hal Forsen]

boweye?
Splicing braided line is not that big a deal if you have a bit of patience and some time. http://www.samsonrope.com/home/recmarine/splicing/index.cfm

HF

[dredbob]

What kind of braid (single, double, solid core, etc.) and what is the diameter?

A simple, workable solution might be the "sew and serve" eye. Get some strong sail twine and a needle and palm. Lay out the desired size loop and leave around 8 inches to a foot of overlap (less for smaller eyes in small diameter stuff). Put a seizing on at the throat, then sew the overlapped parts together, starting at the throat, going in from one side through both pieces, move down a quarter inch or so, back through, pulling tight, and so on till you get to the end. You could taper the last couple inches of the tail if you want to get fancy, or not. When the sewing is done, then serve over the whole length very tightly. Bury the tails of the twine deeply. Done with strong twine, this method should be plenty strong and is very easy to do.

Bob

[ 04-03-2006, 11:34 PM: Message edited by: dredbob ]

[maa. melee]

The rope is 16 strand single core 3/8 inch dia. nylon rope. The core won't budge from inside the jacket, so splicing the eye in would be very difficult, if not impossible. As mentioned above, if I allow for a foot or so of overlap, needling the 2 parts together with nylon twine and then seizing the whole thing over with the same, how strong would it be?

[Hwyl]

I'd tie a bowline and neatly sieze the end of the rope to the standing part. Use whipping twine (or dental floss) tie it arond a few times and then "middle" it.

[dredbob]

Without testing, I can't say for sure what the ultimate strength would be. But, if the twine used is reasonably strong (say at least 150 lb breaking strength) and the stitching is even and tight, likewise the serving, I would guess that it would be close to the full strength of the rope. The initial seizing at the throat is important to translate any pulling apart strain into linear strain. This technique is being used with some of the modern unspliceable rope constructions, so I'd think it will be plenty strong. In 3/8 inch line, I think you could get by with less than a foot of overlap.

Bob

P.S. As an experiment, just seize and serve a small test eye without any stitching, and try to pull it apart. I bet you'll have trouble.