johncar
24-04-2012, 05:47 PM
Just a gentle alert to check that your Dyneema, Spectra whatever Synthetic winch ropes eye splice has been done correctly and secure. Just came across a few this week that were supplied by a well known Aussie distributor that were incorrectly spliced resulting in the tail pulling straight out of the rope once a bit of tension applied and therefore letting go of the boat.
Pretty serious issue for us boaties who presume these things are done correctly.
If spliced correctly the tail of the eye splice should pass through the rope and then the rope should pass back through the tail, at least one full cycle, two even better and then the left over tail of say a good 150mm inserted and fed down the centre of the rope. This splice should not need any tape or heatshrink to hold it firm if done right, so if any heatshrink or similar on the rope be suspicious but it still may be OK.
To test your splice, if it is knotted over a hook, remove the hook, grip the rope with one hand just below the eye and and see if either end of the eye will pull out of the main rope.
If it does it needs to be respliced correctly. If nice and tight and either side wont budge it should be good.
If the rope is spliced through the hook (no knot) eye then just do the same to test it but it is probably Ok if done like this because without the knot, being spliced through the hook, it would have failed amlost immediately any tension was placed on it.
I have notified the distributor who seem to think they know what they are doing but I put it fairly strongly so I hope they got the message and are getting it sorted out .
Pretty serious issue for us boaties who presume these things are done correctly.
If spliced correctly the tail of the eye splice should pass through the rope and then the rope should pass back through the tail, at least one full cycle, two even better and then the left over tail of say a good 150mm inserted and fed down the centre of the rope. This splice should not need any tape or heatshrink to hold it firm if done right, so if any heatshrink or similar on the rope be suspicious but it still may be OK.
To test your splice, if it is knotted over a hook, remove the hook, grip the rope with one hand just below the eye and and see if either end of the eye will pull out of the main rope.
If it does it needs to be respliced correctly. If nice and tight and either side wont budge it should be good.
If the rope is spliced through the hook (no knot) eye then just do the same to test it but it is probably Ok if done like this because without the knot, being spliced through the hook, it would have failed amlost immediately any tension was placed on it.
I have notified the distributor who seem to think they know what they are doing but I put it fairly strongly so I hope they got the message and are getting it sorted out .