Ropes on a Boat

They say that there are no ropes on a sailboat. Ropes exist in spools at a chandlery and magically transformed into line the moment it comes onto the sailboat.

The truth is, not all ropes turn into lines! There are actually four ropes that exist on a sailboat:

1. Bolt Rope
2. Foot Rope
3. Tiller Rope
4. Bell Rope

A bolt rope is a rope sewn into the luff and foot of the sail to aid in securing the sail to the spars. Bolt ropes help reinforce and strengthen the sail, giving it a very firm attachment to the spar that will help it set much better.

A foot rope is a rope that runs the length of a yard (those horizontal spars on square riggers) that sailors stand on while they raise, reef, or lower the sails. These ropes are very important because the crew will be standing on these ropes while they work high up in the rigging.

A tiller rope is a rope used to tie off the tiller. This is used when the sails are balanced and the tiller can be left in one position. Rather than stand at the tiller to keep it in the same position, all you need to do is tie the tiller off. A tiller rope is run arthwartship from one side of the cockpit to the other. As the tiller rope goes by the tiller, it will be wrapped around the tiller a few times and then over to a cleat on the other side of the cockpit. The wraps on the tiller should be set close to the end of the tiller, that way if you need to take the helm in a hurry, all you need to do is slide the loops off the tip of the tiller, giving you the helm in a hurry.

A bell rope is a lanyard that is attached to the bell's clapper. The bell rope is used to sound the bell by pulling on the rope repeatedly. 

When you look at the list, you can see why many sailors feel confident is saying that there are no ropes on a boat. With the decay of square riggers and tall ships, yards have been replaced by booms with no foot ropes. This has led to the mental decay of the existence of foot ropes in the rigging.

Sailors don't work on their own sails anymore, so they probably don't realize that their roller furling sails have a bolt rope that slides into the luff groove of the aluminum extrusion. If they did notice the bolt rope, they would probably forget about its existence in a few years since most sailors never lower their furling sails until something breaks. The forgotten bolt rope has made its way onto the most modern and luxurious yachts since roller furling is the wave of the luxurious future.

Tiller ropes are a thing of the forgotten past since pretty much all cruising yachts come equipped with wheel steering. Tillers used to be found on all vessels of any size. The larger the vessel, the longer the tiller to provide the leverage needed to control the rudder. Vasa, a Swedish warship build in the 1620's was 226 feet long and steered with a tiller! In the early 1900's, the New York 40, a 65 foot yacht was steered with a tiller. Yet, by modern standards, a tiller should only be used on yachts under 30 feet in length.

The reason cited for the switch to wheels on all yachts over 30 feet in length is that weather helm will tire the crew that needs to hold the tiller and that the force to control the rudder is too great. Using a wheel will remove a lot of the strain on the crew thanks to the mechanical advantage of the wheel mechanism. Tiredness from weather helm should not be a reason to move away from tillers, tiredness from weather helm should be used as a reason to properly balance the sails!

Regardless of size or sail balance, the move to wheels makes it easier to sell a yacht. When a land lubber first steps onto a yacht with a tiller, they may wonder how you steer this thing? Conversely, a wheel will make the yacht controls appear more apparent since they can relate to a wheel. Tillers also cause a lot of confusion since the tiller is moved in the opposite direction you want to turn the bow because a tiller/rudder system is a Class I lever. Wheels, on the other hand, are steered just like a car where you turn the wheel in the direction you want to move. 

The move away from tillers has also left the tiller rope behind in the past. Wheels are standard equipment on yachts and older yachts with tillers are converting over to the wheels, all the while the tiller rope is being lost to the past.

The last forgotten rope is the bell rope. Bells are a traditional sound producing device that used to be fitted on all cruising boats as a way to signal their presence. The horn and whistle replaced the bell on small yachts, but was still required on all yachts of 40 feet and larger.  This was the begging of the end for the bell rope in the realm of common knowledge. In the first half of the 20th century, most cruising yachts were well under 40 feet in length. These small yachts were made out of wood and production of a larger yacht would require much more material and associated cost to build and maintain. The transition to fiberglass allowed an explosion in length. As time moved on, the size of these yachts continued to grow. In 1961, Hatteras Yachts produced a 34 foot model and a 41 foot model. In 2017, the smallest Hatteras produced is 45 feet in length and extends up to 102 feet in length.

As the size of yachts has increased, you would think that the bell and its bell rope would become more commonplace. The thing is, as yacht size increased, the United States Coast Guard has actually become more relaxed about their bell requirement. Around 2010, the USCG revised their requirements and decided that vessels between 40 and 65 feet no longer need to carry a bell. As the size of yachts increased, the rules surrounding them became more relaxed which has cast the bell rope has fallen into disuse. Yes, larger vessels are being produced and they need to carry a bell with a bell rope, but these massive yachts make up a small percentage of the boating population. Most boats in the United States are under 18 feet long and powered by an outboard motor. This means that most boat owners do not need a bell and therefore do not know about a bell rope.

Ropes typically transform into lines when they come on board, but now you know the four ropes that stay as a rope on a boat: bolt rope, foot rope, tiller rope, bell rope.

Cooking Dinner

Living on a sailboat doesn't have to be a life of camping. All the creature comforts (that fit) of home are welcome in a sailboat, allowing you to live a happy and comfortable life without all the hassle of land based life.

While most people consider a grill to be something used while camping, a grill is never far away from your galley when you live on a sailboat. Magma grills are wonderful creations, they keep the heat in yet do not heat up their surroundings very much.

In the summer, the fiberglass around the grill will not get hot; in the winter everything remains very cold. This allows you to cook a steak on the grill in your cockpit without worrying about burning your yacht to the waterline. While cooking on a grill in the cockpit is not the ideal method of cooking, keeping a fire extinguisher close at hand and the flames small will minimize the risk of setting everything on fire. 

If your grill is radiating a significant amount of heat, you would then need to worry about starting a fire and should exercise much more caution when grilling aboard. 

Finishing Up the Bilge Pump

The bilge pump supports are ready for the pump. The resin has cured, the paint has dried, and the bolt holes have been refreshed. It is time to connect the hose and bolt the unit in place!

The bilge pump lives tucked away inside the locker when not in use and the handle lives inside the foulies locker when times are dry. When we need to use the pump, the lockers lid can be removed and the foulies locker can be opened up. This gives us plenty of space to stand over the pump and operate the handle.

The handle is kept close at hand in the hanging locker by tying a hitch to the handle and looping the tail over the sail tie hook in the locker.

I was about to make a bracket using a pipe at the bottom and a clip at the top to hold the lever arm in place when not in use. This project would have taken a considerable amount of time and effort when Maddie suggested I tie a fancy knot to the pole and hang it from the hooks that are already in there. 

A simple hitch is all it took with the tails tied into a loop using a sheet bend. There was a scrap piece of dyneema was hanging on a port light awaiting some form of use. In a few seconds, this little piece of dyneema was transformed into the bilge pump handle loop!

The last step in the process will be to bore a massive hole in the side of the hull and install the through hull fitting for the bilge pump discharge. Then this bilge pump will be completely installed and ready for use!

Bedding the Nails

Each hole you place in the hull is a potential leaking point. When you are nailing the topside planks together, you are basically asking for one of the hundreds of holes to leak! To avoid this from happening, copious amounts of bedding compound are used to seal up any voids and keep out any water that may try to work its way in.

While the board is placed over a  smearing of polysulfide bedding compound, the nail needs a bit of help as well. The nail hole is drilled smaller than the nail itself that way the wood will swell and squeeze onto the nail, keeping out any water.

When the board is placed on the hull, excess polysulfide will ooze out from between the seams. This is basically wasted material, unless you can use it for something else! Dipping the nail in the material will help put some bedding compound on the nail to seal up the hole even further.

The polysulfide will be transferred to the hole where it will form a seal around the head of the nail and the board.

The bedding compound will ooze out of the hole as the nail passes through, giving the entire nail a light coating as it is driven through.

When the nail is driven in all the way, the bedding compound will smear all around the head of the nail, sealing the nail off and (hopefully) keep any water from seeping through.

New Cushions

Maddie decided that the old settee cushions have to go and newer, more comfortable ones need to become a reality. Our old cushions are so hard that your butt will actually fall asleep if you sit on them for more than a half hour.

I am able to sleep anywhere and on anything, so it never bothered me all these years, but since we will be sitting on them a whole lot more while cruising, the replacement of these cushions has become a priority!

The foam from the backs was reused to keep costs down, but the bottom cushions were replaced with a much more comfortable foam that is a dream to sit on! When we got the new cushions, we did a movie marathon where we sat there for hours without any of our hind quarters going to sleep!

Maddie was also excited about getting to choose the new fabrics' color. The old cushions look like something you would find in a hunting lodge from the 1970's. Maddie wanted to go with a simple color that would go well with the interior wood of Wisdom. I wanted a color that would not show Morty hair.

We looked through the Sailrite catalog and found a few colors that we thought would look good in the boat and then ordered samples. One was green, then there were two blues. The green looked good on the page, but the sample had these gold flecks in the threads that Maddie did not like. That instantly removed the green piece from the list of potential options.

We were now down to the two blue choices. Maddie was torn between them and couldn't quite decide which one she wanted to go with, so Morty came to the rescue as the tie breaker. I rubbed Morty with the samples vigorously and all our questions were answered. One of the blues showed every single dog hair while the other blue looked clean. After a very careful inspection, I was able to find the dog hairs on the sample to prove in fact that they are on the sample and hidden from view.

Thanks to the samples, we were able to confidently make our selection on the fabric color. We had a local seamstress make the cushions to fit the benches. She did a wonderful job and the price was excellent!

Now we have comfortable cushions in the salon where we spend most of our time on Wisdom.