Mystery equipment

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cpedw

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When I bought my boat (a Westerly Falcon) in 2003, there were several items of uncertain function on board. That list is now down to one ...
There is an 8m length of 16mm rope with a hard eye spliced in one end. Through the hard eye, there is a continuous loop comprising 1.5m of 16mm rope spliced onto 0.5m of 8mm chain completing a 2m length loop. Can anyone suggest what this might be for? If it makes any difference, I bought the boat from Beaulieu (sp?) (not at the jumble) but I think it spent a fair time in the Channel Islands during its previous 18 years.
Any plausible reasons for retaining this stuff will be gratefully received.
Regards,
Derek.
 
Sounds to me like a line for dropping over a buoy so as to hold you in position whilst attaching a mooring line!
 
That was my first thought - the weight of the chain would help it to slide down the rode to the anchor. But how would you get it around the anchor chain? Unless you always pass the anchor through the loop before you anchor, just in case you may need it.

On the subject of which (retrieving fouled anchors) I reckon that one of those huge S/S snap hooks might be just the job for sliding down the rode and along the shank of the anchor. I wonder if they do one big enough?
 
Could be very useful if you leave your boat moored to dockside cleats, though you will need to modify it. Get rid of the piece of rope that forms the loop, and get a shackle to attach both ends of the short chain to the hard eye. When you leave the boat on a pontoon mooring either alongside (or stern to as I do in Turkey), you pass the chain round one leg of the pontoon cleat and shackle both ends of it to the hard eye. the other end you pull tight on to one of your boat's cleats. The chain saves the mooring rope being chafed by the pontoon cleat. Ideally you need at least two of them.
 
Mmmmm so lets look at it from a construction point of view ...

A Hard eye is put in a rope to stop chafe of the eye. The chafe caused by cleat, wire or chain or other hard object passed through the eye.
The loop of 2m has a hard material part and a soft material part.

So would the rope or chain part be sitting in the hard eye ? If its the rope - then the chain would be an effective way to have a heavy part of the mooring warp bight for long term anti-chafe ?
If through the hard eye then we have soft rope left to attach to whatever - not seemingly correct.

MMMMmmmmmm so my guess is a system of anti-chafe lassoo for mooring ... but to be honest - even that doesn't seem to convince me !!
 
Hmm, sometimes it's a mistake to assume a piece of gear has been carefully constructed then left aboard because it works, rather than because it didn't but the manufacturer couldn't bear to admit defeat. It sounds like some sort of lassoing device, but he'd need to try it out to see if it works. I wonder how well used it looks?
 
The rope part of the loop is in the hard eye. The rope/chain splice won't fit through the eye so that's the way it stays.

[ QUOTE ]
I wonder how well used it looks?

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Hard to be clear; the thimble of the eye is very corroded; sort of turning to layers. But the chain and both pieces of rope look grubby but not at all dirty or worn. So maybe it was immersed in sea water once long ago but it didn't work too well at whatever it was meant to do. Then maybe it went to the bottom of the cockpit locker till I found it and felt sure it must be useful...
Thanks for your suggestions; I will try it on a mooring buoy and report back.

Derek.
 
They sell fist-sized stainless steel snap hooks in the little chandleries around the back of the main road through Piraeus harbour, for about 8 euros. I'm buying an extra suitcase next time I go there....
 
Sounds like a good price but probably not big enough for my requirement. The diameter at the wide end would need to be large enough to slide over any shackle or connector and along the anchor shank. That'll be a pretty big snap hook for, say, a 35lb CQR.
 
Darn, that's BIIIG!

While I'm here, what's the proper name for the weight you might slide down an anchor chain to keep the chain on the bottom? I just can't think of it right now.
 
Thanks - no I don't use one, I haven't (blush) got the boat in the water yet this year, but it sounds like a good idea for making the chain lie flat instead of straight up at an angle.
 
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