Whipping Nylon Ropes

[Jim]

Hi all,

I've just taken delivery of some new nylon ropes for Topaz from Compass Marine and I also got them to put an eyelet in one of them to attatch to our mudweight chain.

They did say that they were worried the splice holding the eyelet could come undone unless it was securely whipped with suitable cord. Has anyone practical experience of whipping ropes correctly?

Jim

[Guest]

The phrase "coming undone" is misleading, since it would imply that the loop in the rope could loosen and release the mudweight.

When three strand rope is eye spliced, it cannot possible "come undone" whether it is finished off with whipping or not.

I would say that what they meant was the nylon or metal "eye" insert (when fitted), could work loose and fall out of the eye in the rope, but the mudweight would still be firmly attached.

[C.Ricko]

looks like this has been updated since I last looked...

http://www.animatedknots.com/commonwhip ... dknots.com

[Guest DAYTONA-BILL]

Hi Jim, The "eyelets" you mention are actually called "Thimbles", and can be found made from stainless steel, galvanised steel and plastic. Whenever i`ve made up my own "sheets" on "Mistral", i`ve always turned the rope around stainless thimbles and "stitched" them together with sailmakers thread using a sailmakers needle, and finished off by whipping them for about an inch (25.4mm) or so, and about half an inch (12.7mm) or so along the two "straights" of the thimble. A bit over the top i know, but they`ve never come undone in over 20 years. If the rope has been properly spliced, it should`nt come undone, but i`ve seen loose rope round thimbles before, so whipping them is the best idea. You should be able to get a sailmakers needle and thread from any good chandlers. Also, i`d recommend using a sailmakers "leather palm", as it will save you a lot of pain and misery when trying to initially and finally stitch the thread.

[Jim]

Thanks for the link Clive which will help me a lot in doing it right

They sell the whipping twine in Norfolk Marine Neil so that's where I'll be heading once I get time. One thing I've never taken any notice of is how the existing rope is finished off. To be honest, there isn't anything wrong with it other than it's the wrong colour and very old!