Rope to Chain Splice

Most windlasses will not accept a thimble connection between rope and chain. Instead, they need to be spliced in a low profile way where the transition from rope to chain goes unnoticed and seamless. 

The rope to chain splice has a lot in common with a long splice, where the lays are removed and replaced to connect the lines. 

To begin, you need to understand a few basic points. First, the length of your splice needs to be at least 2 feet, which means that the start of your splice will occur two feet in from the bitter end.

To begin, you will unravel one strand of your three strand rope. The strand will want to unravel, but you must keep it all together. With practice, you will be able to do this on new rope without any added stiffening agents (which is how I am doing it here), but if you have trouble keeping the strands from unraveling, a liberal coating with hair spray might be the answer to your woes. 

With one strand removed, you now have two strands that are still twisted together. You want to slide the chain link down these two strands until it meets the separated strand. There should be at least 2 feet of tail extending beyond the link. 

Now begins the splice. I like to bend all three strands over to the side and separate the two that have passed through the chain. The strand that is closest to the outside strand will be the strand of interest for this next step.  We will call this one the second strand.

You are going to unwind the third strand, and wind in the closest strand, which we are calling the second strand.

Let me clarify, you will lift out the third strand that did not go through the chain and you will replace it with the strand that is closest to it that did go through the chain. As you lift out the third strand, you will pack the second strand into the groove it has left behind. You will continue this process as you go burying the entire length of the splice, which is at least 2 feet. 

Down the rope you will go, removing the third strand and closely following it with the second strand. 

When you get down to about 5 inches from the end, you will tie a square knot with the third strand and the second strand. The square knot will sit neatly into the groove of the rope, hiding it from view. The tails of the square knot will then be tucked into the lays of the rope at least 3 times. It is wise to taper the tails as you go through each tuck, that way the transition leading up to and away from the knot is gradual and will not foul the windlass.

Back at the chain, you not have the second strand folding over the link and tucking itself back into the rope. The first strand remains however and needs to be addressed next. 

You will take the first strand and tie a half hitch with itself.  

This half hitch will be tightened down.  

With the knot tightened up, the tail can then be tucked into the lays of the rope. 

The second strand was connected to the rope via a long splice while the first strand is connected to the rope via a short splice. You will want to continue tucking into the rope, at least 5 tucks at a minimum, though 7 tucks would be ideal. 

I personally like to tuck the first strand in 7 times and then begin tapering the rope on the subsequent tucks. Tapering is easy, all you need to do is separate the yarns of the strand that you have worked so hard to keep together and count how many yarns are present. Simply divide the yarns into equal quantities and begin snipping them as you go. I like to do three equal groups, as this gives an even taper that is 33% smaller on each tuck. 

The end result is an even tapered splice that will flow through a windlass with ease. It helps to roll and work the rope to get the lays back into their place. You need not to fret much about this though as the load placed upon it by anchoring will work the strands back into their lay in no time! 

You might be concerned though, about only using two strands to hold your chain instead of all three. In a sense, you have reduced the strength of the rope from three strands to only two! 

The truth is, this splice is stronger than the three strands, as the two strands that are working are folded over and tucked back into the rope. This creates a 2:1 on each strand, meaning that there are actually 4 strands holding the force of the chain! That's right, you started with three strand rope and ended up holding the chain with four strands. 

It is very important though that the link be tied tightly in the rope that way it doesn't wiggle around while in service. Movement will lead to chafe, and chafe will saw through any number of strands in a heartbeat.  

By tightening the strands snugly around the rope and splicing them back into the rope, you will create the strongest rope to chain connection possible without the use of a thimble and with the ability to flow through a windlass undetected. 

Reefline Setup, a Common Mistake

It is very common to see the clew reef line simply tied to the cringle on the leech. This may look fine but it is actually incorrect. 

The correct method is to tie the clew line to the boom, lead it up through the cringle, back down to the cheek block, and then forward along the boom.  

You might be thinking, what is the harm, both methods pull the clew cringle back and down. The biggest fault here is the clew line is rather small for the task at hand because it is designed to be passed through the cringle. When you pass it through the cringle, it instantly creates a 2:1 system, where the force on the clew line is evenly distributed between both lines. This means that if you have 1000 pounds of force on the clew line, each section of the line is only subjected to 500 pounds. 

If you simply tie the clew line to the cringle, all the force is put on that line. In our example, that means that the little line now needs to resist the full 1000 pounds when the designers were only calculating its lost at 500 pounds. 

This is a very simple and common mistake, which is why you should inspect your own reef line setup to make sure you don't have a bowline tied to the clew cringle and instead pass it through the cringle and tied to the boom. 

Converting to Lines Led Aft: Part 7, Running the Lines

After all the associated hardware is installed, the last step is to actually run the lines back to the cockpit! This is the moment of truth, where all your planning comes into play and you get to see how it all pans out.  

The lines should be led fair and straight from the mast to the clutch and onto the winch. Each turn and bend adds resistance, so minimizing the number of turns will reduce the effort needed to manage the sail. 

The Antal rings in Dyneema loops allow the block to position itself and move as the sail moves around above it. If the boom swings over to the side, the lines that hold the rings will move as well without question nor effort. The force from these turning blocks is all directed towards the bottom of the bracket, that way all the force is rotational instead of lateral. The four stainless steel bolts are setup to handle this sort of load with ease. 

Lastly, the system needs to work. The lines leaving the clutches need to reach the winch with as little angle as possible. The halyard is going to be under the most load, so it has priority in its placement. The tack and clew lines are set while the sail is slacked, so they can stand to be a little less perfect. I set the first reef to be in the least ideal position since that reef is only taken in when the weather is starting to turn. The second reef is set more ideal since it is taken in when the weather has gone from bad to worse. The halyard has the fairest lead of them all, reaching the winch from a beautiful angle. 

Ignoring the structural and engineering side of it, the last task for this setup is to look sharp. If the lines are running all over the place, it will begin to look haphazard. By keeping everything straight and organized, it just looks good and is easy to understand.  

At a glance, you can see that the green lines work together, and the blue lines belong together as well. The halyard runs off on the side, so it obviously works alone.  This sort of simplicity will allow anyone new to step up to the clutch bank and tuck in a reef when the time is right.

Converting to Lines Led Aft: Part 6, The Holes

Having all of your running rigging led back to the cockpit might sound like a dream come true. Imagine sailing along and the wind pipes up a bit. You reach over and lower the main halyard, crank in on the tack and clew lines and re-tighten the main halyard. All the while, you are standing right next to the helm. That's right, you are able to sheet, reef, raise and lower sail, and steer, all while standing by the helm!

As we learned from fairy tales about genies, all dreams come at a price. In the case of this dream, the price is a slew of holes drilled through your deck! 

The clutches require two holes each and the winch requires another five holes! For a setup like this, we are forced to drill fifteen holes!

Each hole perforated the outer fiberglass skin, core, and inner fiberglass skin. Each hole is also a source of potential leaks that can lead to a rotten core and a soft spot in the deck. For this reason, way too much bedding compound should be used when bedding the bolts and their parts to the deck. Having bedding compound bled out the sides of the clutches and winch base might not look the cleanest, but it does guarantee you that there are no voids under the component. Voids will allow the passage of water and will hold moisture. With time, these voids will be the death of your deck and lead to costly repairs in the future.

Each one of these holes has the potential to cause serious havoc on your yachts structural integrity. The choice to have holes drilled in your deck should be made knowing the potential consequences of the convenience. The counter argument of "Do a good job and make sure that nothing bad will happen" is what we all think while planning and working. The sad thing is, if an invisible flaw occurred, its existence will go unnoticed until catastrophe occurs and rot has set in. Worse than voids while bedding hardware is time. 

Voids lead to obvious problems, time can cause new ones. A perfectly bedded item today may not be so perfect in the future. With time, the bedding compound can loose its elasticity and become brittle. When the component is exposed to a shock load, the bedding compound may snap instead of stretch. This invisible break in the seal will allow the ingress of water and all the failures associated with an improperly bedded item. This is why all hardware is removed and re-bedded during a refit, to address these issues instead of ignoring them. 

All in all, the holes are the shortest part of the job, and also the most stressful part. Each hole will perforate the deck and needs to be sealed up perfectly as if nothing ever happened. Each hole also needs to be lined up with the other holes, allowing the component to be mounted and fastened properly. If any hole is offset, the component will not fit and that hole would have been drilled in vain! 

Converting to Lines Led Aft: Part 5, The Clutch Bank

Lines left on the mast rely on a setup of winches and cleats on the spars where the different lines can be tied. When you convert to lines led aft, you are no longer able to use the setup on your spars for managing the lines and instead must setup a new system where the lines are led to. In this case, the lines are led to the cockpit, so we need to setup a clutch bank and a winch in the comfort of the cockpit that will be able to manage the lines.

Clutches work similarly to cleats, but require no knot tying skill to operate. Instead of needing to tie a cleat hitch in record time while worrying about many other lines, all you need to do is flip a lever and the rope is held in place! Rope clutches work with friction to lock the rope inside its grip when closed, yet allow the rope to pass freely when open. 

Rope clutches also help organize all the lines led to the cockpit. A line will be permanently reeves through the clutch, so you know you can always find it exiting the clutch. This helps minimize the confusion of cockpit spaghetti as the rope will be found in its clutch which will have a label on it to help further identify itself as the line you are looking for. 

Clutches also have another advantage, they allow many lines to share a winch! With a standard setup, the line is led to a which and then tied off to a cleat to secure it in place. This means that the winch will be permanently occupied for as long as that line is in service. This leads to the need for many winches to manage and control all of the lines of the running rigging. Clutches are mounted before the winch and offer the ability to simply lock off the line and remove it from the winch. This in turn allows for another line to be wrapped around the winch, reducing the number of winches needed and the cost associated with multiple winches. 

The last thing you need to focus on before you start drilling holes is where everything will be placed. The clutches need to be in line with the last turning block, which in this case is the bracket on the mast. They also need to be in line with the winch. The angle of deviation between the clutch and winch should be no greater than 15 degrees and no closer than 8 inches. On top of all of these requirements, you also need to find a place that can withstand the structural loads placed upon the new hardware.  

When converting a yacht to a new setup, you need to bear in mind that the yacht was not engineered for this new setup and you need to double check everything to make sure that the structure will be compatible. If it is not, you need to either modify your plans or reinforce the structure to the required specifications. 

I would rather have located the clutch bank farther forward, but that section was hollow with an inner and outer skin. A bit aft, and a strong carlin was running from the companionway to the hatch. This area sounded solid upon percussive examination and was chosen as the desired location for the clutch bank and winch. They may be a bit close together, but they are certainly in sound wood and the loads will be well managed.