Splicing a Loop in Double Braid Line

Back in June of 05 we received a very nice going away present from our friend Jeff D. A whole set of fids and instructions for making a slick loop splice in double braid line. Since that time I’ve tried a half a dozen times to do this and only ended up teaching myself new swear words! The instructions are convoluted and besides it’s not clear what you’re even trying to do. Even having done it now I’m not sure what I did!

Well with Sue’s help we spent 4 hours and finally succeeded in making a loop. We needed to do this because we desperately wanted to replace the shackle on the main halyard and didn’t want a big old nasty bowline up there. I think we did pretty well. There is this hardest part of the whole process where you are trying to stuff a fid with the core stuffed in the end of it back inside the cover where there is already core. Right. Or as our English friends say, Wryyyght.

VERY tight fit and slow going at that point. It’s kind of amazing at the end you just milk the outer cover down toward the loop and all your work magically disappears leaving just the loop. I was actually going for a slightly smaller loop but this is as far as we could milk it.








So, THANKS JEFF!













Other gains made today...we've made our dingy official by painting the name on the side. This is a tedius process. You outline the letters using stencils and then fill them in by hand. We took the dingy to the beach side of a little island in the lagoon and got 'er done. . . .no problem except for losing my balance and spilling the paint onto the dingy tube. ARGGGGGG! Looks good from no closer than 10 meters!