Nautical Line Winding Fixture

[rgsparber]

Although I'm a rank novice when it comes to boating, I have learned that coiling woven lines will cause it to kink when unbundled. Proper winding of heavy lines is easily done with just your hands. But thin lines are harder to manage. I run out of hands. The fixture offered here solves the problem.

If you are interested, please see

https://rick.sparber.org/LineWindingFixture.pdf



Your comments are welcome. All of us are smarter than any one of us.


Thanks,

Rick

[mklotz]

A variant of your alternate winding direction method is the way roadies wrap cables so as to make them uncoil without tangling. I've adopted this technique and find it more to my liking than the contractor's typical chain-link approach because it produces a more compact final product.

For the benefit of folks not familiar with the roadie method, good demonstration videos are available here...

https://lifehacker.com/coil-your-ext...r-u-1706890537

[rgsparber]

A variant of your alternate winding direction method is the way roadies wrap cables so as to make them uncoil without tangling. I've adopted this technique and find it more to my liking than the contractor's typical chain-link approach because it produces a more compact final product.

For the benefit of folks not familiar with the roadie method, good demonstration videos are available here...

https://lifehacker.com/coil-your-ext...r-u-1706890537

Marv,

You prove my point. Consider coiling up a thin line where you want the overall length to be 3-inches.

Rick

[hemmjo]

Marv,

You prove my point. Consider coiling up a thin line where you want the overall length to be 3-inches.

Rick

Thin line can be easily wound between the little finger and the thumb. For larger line wrap between the open hand and the elbow. Always wrap in the figure 8 pattern to prevent twist.

[DIYer]

Thanks rgsparber! We've added your Nautical Line Winding Fixture to our Miscellaneous category,
as well as to your builder page: rgsparber's Homemade Tools. Your receipt:

Nautical Line Winding Fixture by rgsparber

tags: boat, fixture

[rgsparber]

Thin line can be easily wound between the little finger and the thumb. For larger line wrap between the open hand and the elbow. Always wrap in the figure 8 pattern to prevent twist.

hemmjo,

I tried your technique but used my pointer and thumb and it worked very well. I have updated the article.

Thanks!

Rick

[Toolmaker51]

With a few decades of boating [the big gray ones] and who knows how ma&ny cables wrapped, I'll add this; they have a distinction.
And that is Braid vs Twist. When Mr. Sparber posted about laying down long garden hose, that demonstrated 'faking down', a form of figure eight, but the ends aren't adjacent, they are stepped. That allows smooth deployment without tangle, because nothing intersects. Braid and twist both react correctly. Braid has very little tendency to kink because how it's made, the strands do intersect each other, equaling the binding natural in twist material. His fixture accomplishes compact faking that maintains shape for use because the bitter end taken through the upper end of the hank. It could even be passed or thrown a distance and remain compact.

Twisted material are made [laid] just as it sounds, whether stranded electrical wire & cords, wire rope, or line; twisted into lengths of merchandise. The effects are seen in different situations. Unspool some wire, connect some circuits, then try winding it back in place. The normal tendency is spool in one hand [stationary] and wrapping the wire - held tight enough for grip - around the spool; it's near unavoidable, your wrist imparts a new incorrect twist.
The remedy turns the spool, attaining wire in same twist as made.
If you wrap an extension cord [most do it clockwise only] you still induce twist; unless you 'feel' for the natural twist and release before it reaches the loop. Usually it will still birdnest if you hold one end and throw.
The electricians chain is barely half an answer. The multiple knots control tangle, if 100' of Shirley Temple trip hazards works in your environment. Using it, at least double up overall length [one half] beforehand.
Our own Mr. K's link offers simplest method for TWIST material like cords, by over-under aka the roadies method, which inverts the twist alternately.

[Paul Jones]

The figure 8 wind is how I set out all my water hoses. These unwind with no kinks no mater the temperature. My dad who was a ship captain taught me the technique based on how tug boats would coil their tow lines and never had any kinks when letting out their tow lines to the ships.

[Toolmaker51]

Yep. Nautical line handling is a set of techniques developed over centuries, lessening problems in one place that can multiply them quickly, very quickly.