s/v Jedi

Samson eye splice for class I double braid rope

Last time I posted about rope-work it was about the Flemish eye splice, which is not for load bearing. Not so today, this is the strongest splice one can make in a double braid polyester or nylon line. Samson invented this type of line and their splice instruction is the gold standard. Many think it is impossible to do and divert to simpler (weaker) splices and I did have some trouble with this in the past as well. With the years I got more proficient in it but today, with Youtube instructions and a new generation of tools available it has become so easy that anybody who can handle needle and thread can also do this splice. The following is the list of tools I recommend:

• Set of Selma fids
• Set of Dsplicer needles
• Set of sailmakers needles (I use William Smith & Son needles)
• Two straight awls
• Sharpie marker
• Tape
• Scissors (I use special Kevlar/Dyneema scissors but not needed for class I rope)

The rope I am using is Samson XLS Yacht Braid, 7/16" (11mm) diameter. I use the 10mm fid and the medium Dsplicer for that. I use Marlow waxed #4 whipping twine for the lock-stitching with the smallest needle that I can thread with it.

The written splicing instructions are on my laptop right at the working table and you can find them here: DblBrd_C1_Eye_Splice_WEB.pdf Let's start with the pictures :-)

Here you see the becket from the block that we have to splice around. The size of the eye is marked with a dot (called the Reference mark) on the bitter end in the foreground plus a line on the standing part behind that (called the X mark which stands for "core eXtraction"). From the dot to the bitter end we keep one fid length. A fid length is normally 21x the rope diameter but Selma has made this 10mm fid 230mm long so they used 23x rope diameter. This is good because we use 11mm line which calculates to 231mm fid length so that's perfect!

Looking at the fid above you see a pointy end to the left and the back to the right. The open section at the back is where you insert the line for splicing it through something. The length of that open section is called a "short fid length" for measurements. Other fids have an engraved line around the fid for this. This comes into play in the next picture where we measure a short fid length from the dot for our Taper mark and then mark every 5th pair of strands towards the end for tapering the cover:

Next is the core extraction. I like to use the smallest Selma fid to pry the core out. Massaging the rope and bending it sharply at the X-mark makes this easy:

Next a knot is tied 5 fid lengths from the end to keep core and cover locked there. I use a butterfly knot. Now these 5 feet of rope cover and core are equalized following the instructions. For my small eye splices this normally results in the core sticking 1" beyond the cover. When this equalizing isn't done, the eye of the splice will not have a balanced cover-core ratio. After the equalizing, the spot where the core exits the cover is marked as 1, then more core is pulled out and marks 2 and 3 are made. Look how I use an awl to keep the core from slipping back in:

we perform the first half of the splice: the cover is spliced into the core, going in at mark 2 and out at mark 3. Here you can see the Selma fid in action; it has a small hook in the back that eliminates the need to use tape to attach the rope to the fid:

the cover needs to be pulled out and we start seeing the eye:

now we get into trouble because of our small eye: the cover needs to be pulled out to beyond the Taper mark, which is tough as the core needs to fit onto a small space. The solution is to use a second awl to force it in place like so:

which allows us to do the tapering of the cover that we previously marked. I have a tip for this: as you pull strands out, it is important to only pull them from the bitter end, as it pinches the cover up into the visible splice area otherwise. I took all risk out by using the smallest Selma fid to lift the strands up and then use it's channel to make the cut, after which you can pull on just the correct end instead of prying a loop out:

This makes short work of the tapering but brings us straight to the trouble with the small eye again: the cut ends need to be taped up because we can't keep them all out of the core for the next part.

After taping the tapering we remove the second awl and now have to pull the cover back out the other side until the X mark appears. We can barely use the awl in the tapered cover tail to prevent it from slipping in completely. We'll do a couple more steps here: a short fid length beyond the extraction mark we make the Z mark and this is where we insert the nifty Dsplicer tool and let it come out at the Taper mark. Note that you need to make sure not to go through any core strands in the first part. You can check that moving pulling more core out and seeing if it still freely moves. Also, you need to go in and come out at the right sides of the cover, so that the splice will not be twisted. Here you can see the setup just before we start pulling the core through. This is -easy- to do with the Dsplicer, even where you pull it through the part that already has a core inside:

After you pull the core through, the crossover point is formed right there at the Taper mark. You have to get that tight. This is done by pulling at the core tail, then the cover tail and then both again. The you start smoothing out from the crossover point outwards, pulling the tails now and then to keep it tight. As soon as you have a nice tight cross-over point, you lock it in place with an awl like so:

Now we can do the core tapering. About a fid length of core is cut off and discarded and half the strands get tapered. Now both tails are worked back into the splice by smoothing it out. When all looks tight and tidy, the awl pinning the cross-over point can be removed:

and now the fun starts: the splice must be worked back into the cover until the reference and extraction marks meet, forming that eye we first measured out. The trick is to attach the butterfly knot to something and then pull it tight from the eye. Keeping this tight while milking the cover back is key. When the spliced area become hard and progress is lost, massage it so it gets supple again and continue. When the cover in the eye bunches up, put a hammer handle through the eye, hold it at both sides and yank it tight to the butterfly knot a couple of times, which redistributes core and cover so that it is balanced again. It is easy to do with this line, but when you can't get it the whole way, attack a shackle to the eye, tie a piece of rope to that and put it on a winch. You can also hammer the splice to rearrange the fibers but I never had to resort to those methods yet. Here is the result:

Now all we need to do is the lock stitch and connect it to the block. The lock stitching is explained in the same instruction set and easy enough. I use a thread in a contrasting color (dark blue here) because that makes me do it neatly:

And that's another project to take off the list and about $25 saved in splicing fee. Note that when they charge less you get a weaker splice. This splice is almost twice the strength of the rope and tests show that the rope breaks just in front of the splice. This is where the tapered tail creates a stress riser for the rope. The eye is so much stronger because the load divides over both legs of the eye. Let the splicing commence! :-)

A radar/chartplotter for the modern cruising sailboat

Many people, and sailors in particular, like to boast about the buying decisions they made, like their car, boat or the electronics they use for navigation. While I am no stranger to that, in this case I really dislike a decision I made back in 2011 but I have been sticking with it anyway. This past week I was very close to ordering a new system... even got a quote from our supplier when I found some special deals... but being too late for the deal made me do one last ultimate attempt to get this thing to run the way I want and I succeeded. It ain't pretty, but it works. I may still replace it so I'll try to sell it to somebody :-) Let me start with a picture of our new dashboard:

The radar/plotter (I'll write "r/p" from here on) has a dominant position on the dashboard. It is mounted in this position so that the controls, which are all on the right side of it, can be used with an arm that is supported by the side coaming, which is important when underway in lively conditions. You can also see the trackball device there of which I'm trying to learn all the features but still need to press buttons now and then on the plotter. The trackball is usable while underway, as is a trackpad, while a conventional mouse is unusable.

So here are the things that must work flawlessly on the r/p:

1. All data on the NMEA2000 bus viewable in innovative, efficient ways with lots of possible customizations.
2. Good, accurate maps, with choice of map providers so you can select the best for each particular region.
3. The following overlays on the map: satellite pictures, AIS targets (not so much radar).
4. A good radar function with at least 24nm range, good radar picture in bad conditions like heavy rain, fog, lightning storms etc. as well as an ARPA/MARPA function. I used to demand much more from ARPA but AIS has lowered that significantly because almost every vessel has an AIS transponder today.
5. The following overlays on radar: AIS.
6. Routes and waypoints easy to setup and clearly presented on both map and radar views, plus robust delivery to the autopilot to steer that route.
7. Screen viewable in bright conditions as well as from steep viewing angles.
8. Zoom in/out function must work smoothly.

So how does my Furuno Navnet 3D compare to that? In 2011, when I bought this unit, it was about the best one could get. I seem to want much more today but when I look at the list above, I must admit that my unit does points 2-8 very well and point 1 is just okay because there are other displays nearby to support it. The thing is that my problem with this unit is under the hood: it runs on Windows and it needs NMEA0183 connections. In fact, I distrust it's NMEA2000 port so much that I disconnected it completely and added a dedicated Actisense NGW-1 converter to connect it to my NMEA2000 network. This works fine, also for point 6 as my Triton system happily accepts navigation input from the Actisense converter. There is one problem though: for many functions, the r/p needs fast and accurate heading data, just like the autopilot needs that. Aboard Jedi this is handled by two (!!) heading sensors: a H2183 Airmar and a SSC300 Maretron sensor. These are both expensive but high quality and each provides "gyro-stabilized" heading updates 10 times every second, as well as rotation speed, heel and pitch angles. Great and the Tritons love it, but my r/p is not on the NMEA2000 network and needs the Actisense to convert it... and the Actisense only sends one update every 2 seconds, which completely messes up the r/p, with "lost heading data" alarms every two seconds. This was the moment I asked my supplier for a quote for the new B&G Zeus3 r/p with 4G radar scanner (the kit goes for $5k... ouch!). I found a special for $4,600 and change but that ended that same day I asked for the quote... as usual. 

So I decided to give it one last chance and that was to feed it high speed heading, rotation, attitude and wind data (wind is also high frequency and tends to overload the slow 38,400 NMEA0183 links) on a separate r/p port that I have available. This is exactly what I had decided not to do this time as I wanted everything NMEA2000, but $5,000 told me to shut up and try it :-) I used a 38,400 "fast" output from my Vesper XB8000 AIS transponder and some universal cabling mounted to terminal blocks at both ends that I kept intact for just in case. Once configured, which takes a while with the r/p running on Windows, it immediately worked. Good enough to wait for better deals on that B&G system. For normal people it works great and life is good but I see 2x NMEA0183 input and 1x NMEA0183 output connected to it as lively as big font text on it's screen. May be I'll get over it.

So in the picture above you see a split screen, which works great on a 12" display, with a C-Map with satellite and AIS overlay on the left and radar with AIS overlay on the right. The radar even picks up the breakwater near the waypoint that is displayed on both the map and radar displays. I always use north up for the map and heading up for the radar (as should you :-) so the waypoint is up on the chart but down on the radar. If you look on the previous picture, you can see that waypoint data on the Triton display, ready to pass it to the autopilot. This is point 6 of my list above and the first time we have this working reliably, as well as wind-mode steering for the autopilot which we didn't have until now.

Furuno has better/faster systems now and I'm sure they have full NMEA2000 support. But I think the B&G Zeus3 has grown to a better option and seem to have nasty bugs worked out so I think it is better for a sailboat.

But there is more: we have our NMEA data available on wifi for a couple years now and a lot of software has been developed that can use it. Maxsea TimeZero and OpenCPN were quick to adapt it and both work well. But I have since done away with Windows so stopped upgrading my expensive TimeZero license. Last year I bought the Transas iSailor app for my iPad, activated all the NMEA modules for it and it seems a very good alternative. If my r/p would zoom that quick and it's maps would cost that little (and the Transas maps are very good) then I would be very happy with it. So I may just start using the iPad for all but radar. I now discovered that iSailor can send route and waypoint data to my autopilot as well: I can hardly believe it but will try :-) I have seen pictures of it being supported on an Apple Watch and I just had to get myself in control again as I was ready to order one! I even looked at some radar-only systems coming from Furuno (one just a wireless scanner up the rig with a wifi link down to your iPad!) but their features are just not there yet. But it shows the direction we go in the near future. The r/p manufacturers are in a panic as they loose their business to some apps that cost very little so they come with apps that mirror their r/p screens. The nice thing about that is that it gives you radar on your iPad... which I had years ago already using screen mirroring from my MaxSea TimeZero computer. I can tell you that this won't do as well as real navigation apps like iSailor and soon full featured radar apps.