Whipping The Ends of Line

Modern rope is truly wonderful – especially as compared to line that we used on sailboats fifty years ago. But, like the old line, it is possible for the ends of the rope to come unraveled and look like some sort of brush. When this happens, it makes the line difficult to thread through blocks and/or fairleads. To prevent the ends from unraveling, whipping the end with a light line is the answer. I like to use waxed line. It seems to last longer and I get a tighter whip.

The first thing that I like to do is push one end of the waxed line through the rope about one fourth to thee eighths of an inch from the rope’s end, and make a loop away from the end.

I now wrap the waxed line around and around the rope until the whipping is two to three times longer than the rope’s diameter. When this is done, I use a sailmaker’s needle to push the waxed thread through the loop and the rope.

Pulling the end of the waxed line closest to the rope’s end will pull the other end of the waxed line underneath the whipping and makes the whole thing nearly impossible to unravel.

Trim off the waxed line ends right up close to the whipping and you are done.

One of the really neat things that you can do is to create a Logbook for your boat to record a history of your sailing experiences. If you take photos while sailing, it is easy to insert the photos into the logbook at the end of the season (or right after you take the photos). Below is a copy of the Logbook that I keep aboard Snickerdoodle. 2015 will be Kathy and my 31st year aboard... and we can look back at logbooks from year 1 and remember the neat adventures that we have had over the years.
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LOG OF THE SNICKERDOODLE

For the year 2015

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Name of Yacht: SNICKERDOODLE

Owner: Bill & Kathy Holcomb

Type of Yacht: Catalina 25

Hailing Port: Bayview, Idaho

Designer: Frank Butler

Builder: Catalina Yachts, California

Year Built: 1984/85 Year Purchased: 1985

Registration Number: 4839

Length: 25 feet Beam: 8 feet Draft: 4 feet

Vertical Clearance: 35 feet

Sails: Main, Storm Jib, 97% Blade jib, 105%, 135%, 150%, 150% Drifter, Cruising (asymmetrical) spinnaker

Engine: Torqeedo 2.0 Tiller 24 VDC electric motor – including 2 12-VDC deep-

cycle marine batteries and a dedicated “smart” charger

Tankage: Water 22 gal

Auxiliary Equipment: VHF radio, Hand held VHF, Depth Sounder, Tiller Pilot, Compass, Garman GPS 420 Chart Plotter, Magma BBQ, Origo 2-Burner Stove

Hull Color: White with Red and Blue Waterline stripe and Red cove stripe

Radio Call Sign: WSE 8015

Insurance: Brian Strong, State Farm Agent, Bonners Ferry, Idaho

Other: Fatty Knees dinghy, OMC motor bracket, Micro Wave, 110 shore AC, porta-potty

Start of Log: January 1, 2015 Log of Daily Experiences, 31st year.

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TODAY’S CRUISE

Day & Date ________________________________

Planned Destination ______________________________________

Time From Time ___________________

Time Till _____________________

Skipper & Crew _________________________________________________

Guests _______________________________________________________

Weather Conditions_________________________________Temp_____________

Wind______________Humidity____________Barometer_________________

What We Ate ________________________________________________________

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Who We Met __________________________________________________________

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Comments ____________________________________________________________

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Comments Cont _______________________________________________________

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Barnacle Bill Holcomb's Sailing

Monday, January 19, 2015

Whipping The Ends of Line

Wednesday, December 24, 2014

A Logbook For Your Boat

LOG OF THE SNICKERDOODLE