Dinghy fendering ( and wheels)

VicS

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I have been meaning to take some pictures to show how the rope fendering on my dinghy is secured.. So here y'are. Also a pic of the wheels for good measure.

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I do admire people who take the trouble to align the screw heads :).

Did you find that you had to take up the slack on the small cord after a while as it settled in to the hawser stuff ?
 
I do admire people who take the trouble to align the screw heads :).

Did you find that you had to take up the slack on the small cord after a while as it settled in to the hawser stuff ?

Its been on there quite a few years now. I don't remember having to tighten it.


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My line of work takes me into schools. I got a few old fashioned climbing ropes from a gym refurb. I was going to throw them away, but that has given me and idea, thanks for that.
 
My line of work takes me into schools. I got a few old fashioned climbing ropes from a gym refurb. I was going to throw them away, but that has given me and idea, thanks for that.

Are gym climbing ropes a suitable material. Are they synthetic and weather resistant or are they natural fibre or even cotton.

I don't know what that bit of rope is. I found a drum of it in dirty corner of what is now the Tate Modern
 
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Are gym climbing ropes a suitable material. Are they synthetic and wearthr resistant or are they natural fibre or even cotton.

Even if they are natural fibre, they're not under any load so it will take ages before they're rotted enough to be useless. And each rope probably has two or three dinghies' worth of length in it for replacements.

Pete
 
Even if they are natural fibre, they're not under any load so it will take ages before they're rotted enough to be useless. And each rope probably has two or three dinghies' worth of length in it for replacements.

Pete

Your school gym must have had exceptionally long climbing ropes. There is about 18ft on that little dinghy.

BTW it seems that the best climbing ropes are manila but the more common ones are probably "poly hemp" ( polypropylene made to look like hemp)
 
Your school gym must have had exceptionally long climbing ropes. There is about 18ft on that little dinghy.

Heh. We didn't have ropes at school, so I suppose I was thinking of the climbing rope I had out of my treehouse at home. That was originally used for getting soldiers down from helicopters very quickly, so it was quite long :)

Pete
 
Just out of interest, I used to have rope fendering on my 10' dory - old ships polypropylene hawser - it worked really well as a fender, but I had to remove it when I realised that it held so much water when it got wet that it made the dory unstable! Having a double layer across the bow didn't help...
 
Nice fendering job, Vic - I guess it was the sewn leather end-cap which has made people think of gym ropes ...
I rescued a couple of gym ropes which had found their way onto a boot sale (following H&S checks, no doubt) - and was looking for a use for 'em - 11' 8" long. Good idea.

The sewn leather end caps are bits of plastic tubing!
 
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