Continuous confoundment

So I did the "continuous controls" thing. 

It was A LOT harder than I thought. In fact I think the first control line I did on the boat (the kicker, I think) took around two hours - mainly as I could not pull one end of the rope through the other - it kept slipping out of the fid. 😠 But I am getting ahead of myself.

There are plenty of videos online from the guys at Rooster (see here), English Braids (see here) and Marlow Ropes (see here) and I think I watched all of them before I started.

I also had the essentials: a "pull fid"

and some continuous control line which is a special type of control line that has all the strength in the outer sleeve of the rope - the core of the rope is just filler. Many ropes have the strength in the core, so make sure you have the right rope.

I won't go into how to do the splice - watching the videos are the best way to learn. But I did want to say this: it matters which control line you buy.

I bought some 4mm and 5mm Marlow continuous control line. Marlow make excellent rope so I assumed this would be fine. But whenever I tried to pull the line through it jammed and dropped out of the fid and I had to start again. This is why it took so long.

A few weeks later I was at the sailing club admiring Clive Eplett's new Merlin Rocket which he was sailing with Rebecca Videlo. They are both terrific sailors, so you can get some good advice just by chatting to them. I noticed the array of continuous controls all over the Merlin and told my sad story of how long it took to do just three controls on my Solo.

"You are probably using Marlow", they told me. They explained that English Braids and Rooster control lines have a more open weave which allows mere mortals like myself to splice them. Should of bought some of that, they said.

Hmm, lesson learned. I would point out though that Marlow seem to be the only ones that make 4mm and 5mm continuous control line and I like the thicker 5mm line - more to get hold of. The others only seem to do 4mm ⛵

PS Clive has written a really good book for club sailors called "Club Sailor - From Back to Front" available here and all good bookstores.