Arwen's meanderings

Hi everyone and welcome to my dinghy cruising blog about my John Welsford designed 'navigator' named Arwen. Built over three years, Arwen was launched in August 2007. She is a standing lug yawl 14' 6" in length. This blog records our dinghy cruising voyages together around the coastal waters of SW England.
Arwen has an associated YouTube channel so visit www.YouTube.com/c/plymouthwelshboy to find our most recent cruises and click subscribe.
On this blog you will find posts about dinghy cruising locations, accounts of our voyages, maintenance tips and 'How to's' ranging from rigging standing lug sails and building galley boxes to using 'anchor buddies' and creating 'pilotage notes'. I hope you find something that inspires you to get out on the water in your boat. Drop us a comment and happy sailing.
Steve and Arwen

Thursday 12 April 2018

Dinghy cruising: re-boarding a dinghy 2 - installing re-boarding straps

I took a leaf out of Joel Bergen's approach on his navigator and installed boarding loops; I also installed righting lines as well.


The approach was simple enough. The green webbing is a 20 inch loop which is attached to two stainless steel eye bolts under the side deck behind the coaming. The eye bolts were attached to two neighbouring bulkhead ribs. I drilled through the rib and added extra 10mm ply blocks either side to strengthen the rib. The eye bolt went through rib and both blocks and was secured with nuts. The webbing was whipped at each end and then secured to the eyes with bowlines. Each loop is stored in the plastic wallet on the coaming. 


After righting from a capsize, the theory is that I can reach over and pull the loop out. It will go over the coaming and side deck and hang just below the hull bottom. I put a foot in the loop and there should be enough leverage to get me up and over the side, back into the boat. 

The rope is 12mm diameter braid. With big knots every 8 - 10 inches - for cold hands! It is about 14 feet long and each one (port and starboard sides) is attached by a bowline to another stainless steel eye through a bulkhead rib with strengthening blocks.  They store behind the coaming under the side deck. The idea is when Arwen lies on her side after a capsize, I can reach into the submerged cockpit, find the rope, throw it up over the higher side, swim around and use it to pull myself up onto the centreboard whilst at same time start to pull the boat back upright.

Well that's the theory. As always, theory and practice don't always match up. 

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

Great Plan! Regards, @BushcraftCanoeist

steve said...

Thanks bushcraft canoeist.