On Oct 27, 2016, at 10:49 AM, John Schinnerer <john@eco-living.net> wrote:
Thanks all for the feedback on this.
I expect I'll find a bulky knot in the fat pennant line when I lower the board...I'd be happy to just get it down to half an inch. As it is, with the trailer I have, the rear roller is behind the keel/CB when the boat is fully on the trailer. In shallow launching situations where the stern isn't deep enough to float off the bunks, the CB protrudes enough to catch on the roller and stop the boat sliding back off the bunks.
What is recommended or best options for pennant line replacement? It has some kind of one-color double braid on it now, pretty fat, 3/8 I would guess without going and measuring it.
Definitely interested in knots & usage. Not a lot of major references to the figure eight hitch, but I found a few. I know the "regular" figure eight well from climbing/mountaineering but hadn't heard of the hitch version. One video on figure eight hitch says "for light duty" and "not the most secure knot" but obviously it's worked for you David. It would be under tension all the time if used for the CB so in that case I think it would be pretty secure. If alternately slack and tight, I can see how it could slowly loosen itself in some situations.
It works for me particularly because Vectran holds a knot so well. I am not sure I would recommend it with any other line, although the original pendant probably had something like it—it was jammed so hard that I just cut it off. I thought that V-12 Vectran sounded like just the thing so i bought ten feet of it before I started work—enough extra to do some experimenting. Then I found out I couldn’t cut the @#$%% stuff. I used the suggestion seen elsewhere of 5/16 double braid with the core removed but didn’t like the stretchy, spongy feeling. Then I learned how to cut Vectran, played with it a bit, and settled on that. It’s remarkable stuff. Absolutely no stretch or creep, holds knots beautifully. Looks and feels a lot like cheap drugstore twine. If you’d like some entertainment, hand someone a piece and some scissors and ask them to cut it.