Jump to content

Anyone else suffer from slipping bollards?


Cal Ando

Featured Posts

1 hour ago, David Mack said:

I have always larks footed the eyesplice around the bollard. Pull it tight horizontally first, and it never slips off under a vertical pull. I do the same with the bow rope around the T stud stem.

No need to pull the entire length of rope through the eye - you can just turn the eye inside out to create the loop (easier to demonstrate than to describe) which you then drop over the bollard and pull tight.

It's easy to slacken off the larks foot when you want to remove the rope from the bollard, which is more than can be said for an eye which is a tight fit over the top of the bollard, especially if your fingers are cold and wet.

And the larks foot can be done with any size of eye splice - which is helpful as I can never get an eyesplice to come out the exact length intended. I never know how people manage to get tight eye splices around thimbles.

 

1. Yes

2. Yes

3. Yes

and..

4. Yes

Link to comment
Share on other sites

44 minutes ago, Bee said:

Wossa larks foot? I'm going to call my random tangle of knots in ropes, hoses and extension leads Blackbirds bottoms.

Also known as a Cow Hitch

 

cowhitch.jpg.9c4dafd045df3301b2568fc5b81e2419.jpg

 

Because there's usually and eye spliced on mooring ropes, there will only be one line that passes around the dolly and fed through the loop. 

 

Edited by bagginz
Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, David Mack said:

I have always larks footed the eyesplice around the bollard. Pull it tight horizontally first, and it never slips off under a vertical pull. I do the same with the bow rope around the T stud stem.

No need to pull the entire length of rope through the eye - you can just turn the eye inside out to create the loop (easier to demonstrate than to describe) which you then drop over the bollard and pull tight.

It's easy to slacken off the larks foot when you want to remove the rope from the bollard, which is more than can be said for an eye which is a tight fit over the top of the bollard, especially if your fingers are cold and wet.

 

 

 

Thanks for describing that so well David - it explains why I was reading the posts before yours and wondering why there was so much angst about an issue I'd simply never had.  I remember now - it's cos I've always done what you do! 

 

Sometimes something becomes so second nature that you forget that some kind soul once showed you how to do it!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, Murflynn said:

did you throw that drinks can into the river?      :rolleyes:

 

 

No but I saw the lads who did and they were on a grp cruiser. I didn't see them throw them in but they were fairly pissed and after they left I noticed that the same hobgoblin cans they were drinking had ended up in the river. Seems like a lot of young people don't seem able to dispose of their litter responsibly.

7 hours ago, Alan de Enfield said:

Or, if this is too complicated, grind a 'flat' on the top of the bollard and then weld a short length of 12mm bar to the top to for a "T"

 

That sounds like a better idea to me.

Link to comment
Share on other sites

3 hours ago, bagginz said:

Also known as a Cow Hitch

 

cowhitch.jpg.9c4dafd045df3301b2568fc5b81e2419.jpg

 

Because there's usually and eye spliced on mooring ropes, there will only be one line that passes around the dolly and fed through the loop. 

 

If you use this technique with the spliced loop when, say, some tosser leaves a paddle open on the lock at the Commandery, whilst you're tied to the bollards in the pound above, your boat will quite happily dangle without your line slipping off the dolly, even at 3 in the morning. DAMHIKT... :help:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

5 hours ago, magnetman said:

Heatshrink is slippery. 

 

 

mine isn't.    

 

PS: you don't have to grease a tight shrink sleeve to get it in place - you just heat an oversize one.     :rolleyes:

1 hour ago, blackrose said:

 

No but I saw the lads who did and they were on a grp cruiser. I didn't see them throw them in but they were fairly pissed and after they left I noticed that the same hobgoblin cans they were drinking had ended up in the river. Seems like a lot of young people don't seem able to dispose of their litter responsibly.

 

 

bloody yogurt potters !

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

If you use this technique with the spliced loop when, say, some tosser leaves a paddle open on the lock at the Commandery, whilst you're tied to the bollards in the pound above, your boat will quite happily dangle without your line slipping off the dolly, even at 3 in the morning. DAMHIKT... :help:

Well, you can't have it both ways.

 

Either:

 

1. You want the rope NOT to slip off the dolly in deep locks (as the O.P. wanted)  

 

or

 

2. You want the rope to slip off the dolly

 

 

Pick the one appropriate to the situation.

 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, bagginz said:

Well, you can't have it both ways.

 

Either:

 

1. You want the rope NOT to slip off the dolly in deep locks (as the O.P. wanted)  

 

or

 

2. You want the rope to slip off the dolly

 

 

Pick the one appropriate to the situation.

 

 

 

I don't want it to slip off. I'm merely saying that, if you put on on right, it won't - and mine didn't. If I want to undo my mooring quickly I can do that because I always tie it so that I can. That night I had, so all was well, but that's a separate subject.

  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

This happened to me on the Thames in Bolters lock. On the way in, I competently lassoed a bollard. Too competent as the rope locked on the lock bollard and the force started to pull my rope upwards off the boat bollard. I put my foot on it to try and prevent it and it slipped off the bollard and around my ankle as our boat was still moving. I didn't actually fall from the stern, but my frantic reversing and standing with one leg gradually rising skywards , provided great amusement for the Gongoozlers !!

Link to comment
Share on other sites

2 hours ago, Sea Dog said:

I don't want it to slip off. I'm merely saying that, if you put on on right, it won't - and mine didn't. If I want to undo my mooring quickly I can do that because I always tie it so that I can. That night I had, so all was well, but that's a separate subject.

I think we're talking past each other!     

 

My reply was not about you in particular.   

 

The context of this thread is:  "how do I get a rope NOT to slip off a narrowboat dolly when it's pulled vertically upwards in a deep lock"  as asked by the original poster.

 

To clarify my last reply:

 

Depending on which result is required, either:  

 

1. Rope to stay on the dolly     

2. Rope to slip off - for safety reasons               

 

 One must choose how to attach the rope accordingly. Both attachments methods cannot exist simultaneously.  i.e. one cannot have it both ways.

 

edit:   Reading back through the thread just now I think we're agreeing with each other  ?     i.e  the larksfoot malarkey is a simple and easy way to firmly attach a line to a stern dolly

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Edited by bagginz
  • Greenie 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

8 hours ago, bagginz said:

Depending on which result is required, either:  

 

1. Rope to stay on the dolly     

2. Rope to slip off - for safety reasons               

 

 One must choose how to attach the rope accordingly. Both attachments methods cannot exist simultaneously.  i.e. one cannot have it both ways.

Since a jammed rope can rapidly lead to a boat sinking, it is a little strange that boaters aren't in the habit of carrying, or having easily to hand a knife to quickly cut a stuck rope.

I do, or did, before lockdown made it near impossible, a lot of caving . When climbing and descending vertical pitches I'll have a very small penknife with a 1" long blade on a lanyard round my neck for a couple of extremely rare circumstances, where it can come in very useful. Similarly, divers will have a knife on them to cut netting, cord, or whatever they might get tangled up in.

A loaded rope can be cut with frightening ease by only gentle pressure from a not particularly sharp knife. I'll have one for caving, but not for boating. Weird.

There are special rope cutting knives around, where the blade is protected from getting where it shouldn't, like other people!

 

Jen

Link to comment
Share on other sites

4 minutes ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Since a jammed rope can rapidly lead to a boat sinking, it is a little strange that boaters aren't in the habit of carrying, or having easily to hand a knife to quickly cut a stuck rope.

I do, or did, before lockdown made it near impossible, a lot of caving . When climbing and descending vertical pitches I'll have a very small penknife with a 1" long blade on a lanyard round my neck for a couple of extremely rare circumstances, where it can come in very useful. Similarly, divers will have a knife on them to cut netting, cord, or whatever they might get tangled up in.

A loaded rope can be cut with frightening ease by only gentle pressure from a not particularly sharp knife. I'll have one for caving, but not for boating. Weird.

There are special rope cutting knives around, where the blade is protected from getting where it shouldn't, like other people!

 

Jen

I was having this same thought the other day, when I used to rock climb I always carried a knife but I don't when boating so I thought I would dig out my small climbing knife and start carrying it again.

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Bobbybass said:

This happened to me on the Thames in Bolters lock. On the way in, I competently lassoed a bollard. Too competent as the rope locked on the lock bollard and the force started to pull my rope upwards off the boat bollard. I put my foot on it to try and prevent it and it slipped off the bollard and around my ankle as our boat was still moving. I didn't actually fall from the stern, but my frantic reversing and standing with one leg gradually rising skywards , provided great amusement for the Gongoozlers !!

..............  yeah but .....................  why were you moving too fast? 

 

mooring ropes (in a Thames lock, at least) should not be used to control the boat's speed.    gently does it every time. 

 

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

11 hours ago, Bobbybass said:

This happened to me on the Thames in Bolters lock. On the way in, I competently lassoed a bollard. Too competent as the rope locked on the lock bollard and the force started to pull my rope upwards off the boat bollard. I put my foot on it to try and prevent it and it slipped off the bollard and around my ankle as our boat was still moving. I didn't actually fall from the stern, but my frantic reversing and standing with one leg gradually rising skywards , provided great amusement for the Gongoozlers !!

If you had a knife on you, like I suggested above, then you could have quickly cut your leg off below the knee and saved the situation. ?

  • Haha 1
Link to comment
Share on other sites

1 hour ago, Jen-in-Wellies said:

Since a jammed rope can rapidly lead to a boat sinking, it is a little strange that boaters aren't in the habit of carrying, or having easily to hand a knife to quickly cut a stuck rope.

I do, or did, before lockdown made it near impossible, a lot of caving . When climbing and descending vertical pitches I'll have a very small penknife with a 1" long blade on a lanyard round my neck for a couple of extremely rare circumstances, where it can come in very useful. Similarly, divers will have a knife on them to cut netting, cord, or whatever they might get tangled up in.

A loaded rope can be cut with frightening ease by only gentle pressure from a not particularly sharp knife. I'll have one for caving, but not for boating. Weird.

There are special rope cutting knives around, where the blade is protected from getting where it shouldn't, like other people!

 

Jen

We have a pair if knives ready to cut the ropes should the need arise. One at the bow and one in the cockpit.

 

Not had to use them in anger yet but we had a very close call in Keadby Lock when our line snagged in a chain around the bollard. We managed to radio the lockie and get him to stop the lock before we needed to cut the rope. It went with one hell of a splash when it landed back in the water though :unsure:

Link to comment
Share on other sites

12 hours ago, Bobbybass said:

This happened to me on the Thames in Bolters lock. On the way in, I competently lassoed a bollard. Too competent as the rope locked on the lock bollard and the force started to pull my rope upwards off the boat bollard. I put my foot on it to try and prevent it and it slipped off the bollard and around my ankle as our boat was still moving. I didn't actually fall from the stern, but my frantic reversing and standing with one leg gradually rising skywards , provided great amusement for the Gongoozlers !!

If it's going to happen anywhere, it'll be at Boulters!

 

Link to comment
Share on other sites

Create an account or sign in to comment

You need to be a member in order to leave a comment

Create an account

Sign up for a new account in our community. It's easy!

Register a new account

Sign in

Already have an account? Sign in here.

Sign In Now
  • Recently Browsing   0 members

    • No registered users viewing this page.
×
×
  • Create New...

Important Information

We have placed cookies on your device to help make this website better. You can adjust your cookie settings, otherwise we'll assume you're okay to continue.