Had to show off my first ever chain splice...

[Murv]

Now, I know you experienced sailors can do this in your sleep, but this is my first ever go and I'm extremely proud of it!

 

[elton]

Very nice. How long did it take? How easy/difficult? How many mistakes you have to rework?

 

[Hadenough]

Funny that, I did one this morning. I'm not posting a pic of my effort though 10 / 10 for yours :encouragement:

 

[Murv]

Thanks very much!

I don't know how long it took, but it was pretty quick. Maybe 15 minutes Googling and 15 minutes actually doing it, something along those lines. I didn't actually have to rework it once I'm amazed to say.
I started by following Gregs animated knots to make the first 3 turns.
After that, I found some youtube videos that made it a lot simpler.
Two tips I found extremely useful were to label the end of the three strands, the guy in one video used different coloured tape, I used Black marker.
The other one was that once you'd made the initial three tucks, after that it's a simple matter of taking each strand over and under, and just keep repeating on all three in the same order.
That was the biggest help, I found it an extremely difficult sequence to follow visually, but just following the over then under principle made it very easy.

 

[Hadenough]

If you've got the bug have you seen this one?

http://www.captainsheppard.com/Elongated_Splice/Rope_to_Chain_Splice.html#35

 

[skipper681]

Excellent job, when I was 17 I worked on a prawn trawler and made the mistake of showing the skipper I could splice and knit nets, I was promptly promoted to sole splicer and net repairer for no extra money lol, so ssh don't tell anyone you can do it... They sit eating in the galley while you're out in the cold lol Seriously though, well done.

 

[Bertramdriver]

Impressive. I would hesitate to publish my efforts. Well done

 

[nigelmercier]

I started by following Gregs animated knots to make the first 3 turns.
After that, I found some youtube videos that made it a lot simpler...

Very smart. I'm not a great fan of Grog's Animated Knots, the way the bitter end "grows" is not realistic.

Got links for the YouTube videos you found helpful?

 

[simonfraser]

Very tidy splice

My rope has been threaded through the anchor chain using something like 10+ links

What's the better way to connect the two

 

[superheat6k]

Very tidy splice

My rope has been threaded through the anchor chain using something like 10+ links

What's the better way to connect the two

I think that in theory the through chain splice is stronger because it avoids the rope strands doubling back which presents a weak point at the turn on the first link. If you are putting sufficient strain on the rope to risk it breaking time to go back to the mooring !

To OP nice splice by the way. If that is your first not sure you should be pretty chuffed.

 

[johnalison]

It looks as if it is strong enough to old the sofa in place anyway.

 

[Murv]

Thanks very much all, I feel quite chuffed!
I take the point about not confessing to being too good at it though, that sort of promotion doesn't sound good!
Not sure I'd want to tackle that through chain splicing though, it doesn't look as elegant as the conventional one to me.

This is the second video that was useful, I didn't bother with the fid though, my rope untwisted easily enough to get the ends through: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r29A0tBM7Oo

I think this is the first one I watched, but didn't sit through it all again to see if it made the point clearly enough about "over and under." https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UracDq6QAz4 That was the thing that clicked for me though, taking each strand over and under in turn which is why distinguishing each strand made it so much easier.

 

[alan_d]

Not sure I'd want to tackle that through chain splicing though, it doesn't look as elegant as the conventional one to me.

May not look as pretty, but is stronger as mentioned in post #10. I don't think the backsplice version you used is any more "conventional" than the through-chain version.

In my case the rope-to-chain splice would only come into view once I had paid out 60 metres of chain, so perhaps that's why I'm not worried about how it looks.

 

[William_H]

Unless OP needs that kind of splice I would have fitted a thimble to reduce the point pressure on the rope at the cahin link. Make it all much stronger or longer lifed.
A couple of years back we had the World Sailing Championships in Fremantle. A group of people volunteered to help get equipment ready for the racing. (6 courses over 10 days with 1000 boats competing). We needed to make a lot of splices in various ropes. I reckoned between the 6 of us including SWMBO we made about 200 splices (loops)
All good sociable fun. Can I make a splice ina 3 strand rope Nah not really. olewill. PS what makes it easy is a pair of circlip pliars. (forcing open types) You shove the pointy 2 ends in through the rope strands then squeeze the handle to open the points apart. Makes a gap to pass the strand through.

 

[prv]

Unless OP needs that kind of splice I would have fitted a thimble to reduce the point pressure on the rope at the cahin link. Make it all much stronger or longer lifed.

The usual reason for this kind of splice is that it will be going through a rope / chain gypsy on a windlass. They can't accept a thimble and shackle.

Pete

 

[Murv]

There was actually a thimble on the rope originally, I had to cut it off to make the splice as it won't pass through the hawsepipe.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I've just done a backsplice on my anchor warp but have since noticed that the version done on jimmy green's catalogue finishes with the tucked in strands emerging after successive tucks. This produces a taper so looks neater. I may have to do mine again

 

[dancrane]

Nice job Murv. Anybody know if, or how well, octoplait anchor line splices onto chain?

 

[jdc]

Very neat job!

Does anyone know if there is there any empirical data on the weakening effect of the strands being bent back around the small radius of the chain? It's the sort of thing that the PBO splice and knot test might have checked, but didn't.

I suspect that it's not a real problem since there are six strands sharing the load. In fact the book "The Rigger's Apprentice" recommends and describes a back splice which takes only two of the rope strands through the last chain loop, which makes for a very neat splice. The author argues that the load being shared between 4 strands it should be as strong as the 3-strand rope.

Edit: I found this http://www.bethandevans.com/load.htm excellent article on Beth and Evans's web site. It states that a 1:1 bend radius to strand diameter weakens the strand by 50%. But as I noted above the splice has 6 strands, so back to 100% of the 3-strand rope's breaking strain.

 

[ghostlymoron]

I don't think it's correct to say that a back splice spreads the load over six strands. There are still only three inside the chain and that is where most of the abrasion takes place.