Labelling Clutches

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Quandary

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Our boat has a bank of six clutches each side of the companion way, it also has an awful lot of blue flecked white control lines plus four solid red ones. Over time these lines seem to have migrated to other clutches and the old labels have faded, my wife expects such things to be explicit and accurate, she is not prepared to work it out and memorise it. I thought the answer was to buy a Dymo labeller and a couple of colours of narrow tape, but the sales guff seems to imply that the tape offered these days may not be weather resistant?
Is there a better alternative now?
 
Quandary said:
Our boat has a bank of six clutches each side of the companion way, it also has an awful lot of blue flecked white control lines plus four solid red ones. Over time these lines seem to have migrated to other clutches and the old labels have faded, my wife expects such things to be explicit and accurate, she is not prepared to work it out and memorise it. I thought the answer was to buy a Dymo labeller and a couple of colours of narrow tape, but the sales guff seems to imply that the tape offered these days may not be weather resistant?
Is there a better alternative now?
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I have a Brother P-Touch that uses "TZ Tape", an example here, looks to be pretty much everything proof and looks much better than Dymo tape.

http://www.labelzone.co.uk/tz-231-12mm-black-on-white-laminated-tape/p118
 
I use waterproof Avery laser labels and then print them (sometimes with white writing on a black background, sometimes just normal black on white) and cut them down with a guillotine or carefully with scissors to fit the clutches. They usually last a few seasons before fading or peeling off. I find they stick well and are very water resistant.

The same works well for my 'Maximum continuous revs' placard over my rev counter and the 'Always stop before off' reminder for crew by the engine stop button.

There's no doubt that different coloured lines help but they probably help regular more than occasional crew, and labels are a good way to make things easier for them for minimum cost and work. And having all the lines white with coloured flecks is pretty even if not so standoutish.
 
Dymo labels go brown after a year or two in ( British ) sunlight; ok and an easy cheap option as long as one is willing to replace them every so often.

I have to mention to the OP, how come - as I understand it - so many lines all the same ? More than half the battle is colour coding the lines, ' pull the red one ! ' beats looking at little labels.
 
I have to mention to the OP, how come - as I understand it - so many lines all the same ? More than half the battle is colour coding the lines, ' pull the red one ! ' beats looking at little labels.
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It depends what's available. When I replaced my lines, Dyneema and downsizing, I bought most of them through the well-known on-line auction. Most are colour-coded but some are not as that was all I could get at the time.
 
Each to their own, but I do think each line should be a different colour; if all 4 each side on my boat were all the same rope I'd probably have to pause and think, and I've had the boat ( though admittedly not all the lines ) for 40 years, so I'd think it pretty unfair to inflict on crew, risking denied priveleges from huffy g/f or walking the plank with bloke chums ! :)
 
West Marine USA have sheets of pre-printed labels probably similar are available in UK and any others not on their sheets I made myself using a label printer and metallic( as opposed to paper) tape. I also used coloured heatshrink tube to matched pairs of lines used together like reef 1 clew, reef 1 luff and so on, if possible matching the 'fleck' colour of the rope in use. The heatshrink also takes a waterproof marking pen ink quite well. Dymo tape fades way too fast and falls off in wet/UV,.
 
I have the Brother P Touch and it seams to be ok after a few years. Got luminescent tape to try but waiting for the originally printed ones to come off. :)

Costco sell it for around a tenner or less. Useful toy.
 
I also use a Brother labeller. I have 6 clutches on the coachroof and another 6 (2 x 3) on the coamings. Different colour lines is ideal, agreed, but still doesn't help the infrequent or forgetful crew - labels are essential. The Brother labels seem weatherproof, the machine was about £25 and the tapes a fiver each. Perfect.
 
Another vote for Brother P-Touch with TZ Tape. It's not totally permanent, but 3 -5 years (which is what I've experienced) is not bad. The failure mode is the adhesive starting to let go, rather than the label itself fading; next time I'm going to use the thinner tape that fits into the recess in my clutches and so hopefully the edges won't get lifted and it will last longer.

Seajet said:
Each to their own, but I do think each line should be a different colour; if all 4 each side on my boat were all the same rope I'd probably have to pause and think
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Try 124 lines all in buff poly-hemp, with no labels either :p

Rope-learning sessions were a common way to break up the monotony of a watch on the square riggers I used to sail :)

Pete
 
Quandary said:
Our boat has a bank of six clutches each side of the companion way, it also has an awful lot of blue flecked white control lines plus four solid red ones. Over time these lines seem to have migrated to other clutches and the old labels have faded, my wife expects such things to be explicit and accurate, she is not prepared to work it out and memorise it. I thought the answer was to buy a Dymo labeller and a couple of colours of narrow tape, but the sales guff seems to imply that the tape offered these days may not be weather resistant?
Is there a better alternative now?
Click to expand...

Anybody mentioned the Spinlock labels set?

https://www.spinlock.co.uk/en-us/categories/clutches-1/product_groups/high-spec-labels

We got them, far too expensive, but they are still good after 5 years. Clean the surface of the clutch with acetone before applying the label - good result.
 
we have a p touch we bought on offer from Screwfix for work. It gets used for so many things, and on one of our boats some of the labels recently spent a week underwater. The only ones that came off were attached to wood. Good thing about the machine is the ability to print on different colours too by swapping out the tape.
 
This is how I labeled mine with back engraved screwed on so they can easy be changed or moved.

FwRsLy6.jpg
 
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