Gammon plate and bullring

[tudorsailor]

Just been reading this month's Yachting World. RKJ is ranting on about people not knowing how to be towed or how to tow.

He talks about the gammon plate needing a bullring to stop chafe. Am I alone in not knowing what a gammon plate is let alone a bullring?

After reading the article I do wonder how I would set up to be towed. Is the anchor windlass stronger that two deck cleats plus bridle. If I take the tow line around the windlass to a cleat would that help spread the load?

Tudorsailor

 

[Poignard]

Just been reading this month's Yachting World. RKJ is ranting on about people not knowing how to be towed or how to tow.

He talks about the gammon plate needing a bullring to stop chafe. Am I alone in not knowing what a gammon plate is let alone a bullring?

After reading the article I do wonder how I would set up to be towed. Is the anchor windlass stronger that two deck cleats plus bridle. If I take the tow line around the windlass to a cleat would that help spread the load?

Tudorsailor

I know what a gammon iron is but not a gammon plate.

ps It always seems a shame that a practical seaman like RKJ writes a column in a magazine largely devoted to hideous megazilla yachts of the kind built for show rather than use. Can't they shift him to PBO or CB, where he would surely have much more in common with the readership?

 

[fireball]

After reading the article I do wonder how I would set up to be towed. Is the anchor windlass stronger that two deck cleats plus bridle. If I take the tow line around the windlass to a cleat would that help spread the load?

No idea on either the Gammon plate (sounds quite tasty ... do you get a fried egg on top?) ... but the bull ring is from a different animal ... perhaps RKJ is getting his farmyard mixed up!

Anyway - towing ... I wouldn't rely on single points to tow ... or be towed. ....

We towed a Bav44 into Gurnsey last summer - it was calm (their engine failed and no wind) - as it wasn't far a simple bridle between our two stern cleats was used ... any further or worse conditions and I'd've turned around our cleats and onto the sheet winches.
For being towed - they just attached the(ir) line to a single cleat ... if it was me I'd've made a short bridle and run it between both foredeck cleats - worse weather would've seen loops around the foredeck then middeck cleats before running back to the sheet winches .. although it is important to be able to drop the tow quickly ..

 

[tudorsailor]

I know what a gammon iron is but not a gammon plate.

ps It always seems a shame that a practical seaman like RKJ writes a column in a magazine largely devoted to hideous megazilla yachts of the kind built for show rather than use. Can't they shift him to PBO or CB, where he would surely have much more in common with the readership?

Oh so snotty!

I have rechecked the article and RKJ does refer to a Gammon plate, so although you obviously consider yourself so much more superior to me, you have not helped an owner of a yacht apparently built for show rather than use. Great help you have been!

 

[sarabande]

try this page for an explanation

http://www.classicmarine.co.uk/Articles/rigintro.htm


It has even got a picture....