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Dressing the Wheel

In my own experience, such knowledge as I possess was acquired with difficulty, involving the expenditure of considerable time and effort that was often hard to justify. But in the final analysis, the pleasures that I have derived from the practice of these skills more than compensate for the endeavour. - from 'The Arts of the Sailor- knotting, splicing, and ropework' by Hervey Garrett Smith




This is one of those jobs that I think only the unemployed would tackle. Nothing like spending a day on decoration. Now I'm sure that some great, big maintenance item that I've forgotten will come back to bite me as soon as we take off again next week. This picture of Toots reminded me of our friends old steering wheel, and that I've been needing to cover ours. It has a couple of purposes besides just looking cool. On those freezing cold days, which we hope to see as few of as possible, even wearing gloves doesn't cut the chill from holding on to that frozen piece of metal. And while I know that it won't really keep me from getting shocked, there is at least some illusion of safety from not clutching directly onto the wheel when I'm soaking wet in a lightening storm.




For better or worse, one of my traits is that I research almost everything before I start anything. So I was a little surprised that I didn't find much on the internet when I
googled for wrapping a wheel, macrame covering, or anything similar. Maybe the next guy will find this, and begin by being informed that our 30 inch diameter wheel needed almost 200 feet of 5/32 nylon cord to completely wrap. Hopefully he won't have to make a second trip to the store for more line and make 4 splices out of 50' lengths like this foolish underestimator had to do.



The French Hitching that I used was just a basic series of half-hitches wrapped around the wheel and each one snugged up tightly. Not a job for well manicured hands.

Comments

  1. Captain ClydeJune 4, 2009 at 8:26 AM

    damn, it's almost as if you have nothing to do! I stopped at St James City last night. If you ever get there it's at the south tip of Pine Island and you can dinghy up a canal, Monroe Canal, till it ends. At the end is a cool bar. The Ragged Ass Saloon. Dollar drafts all the time.

    I'll make it to Punta Gorda and my new dock behind a fellow's fourplex today. 7 weeks out, good time with a few incidents as you know.

    ReplyDelete
  2. AnonymousJune 4, 2009 at 3:11 PM

    "Do not be too timid and squeamish about your actions. All life is an experiment." -

    -- Ralph Waldo Emerson
    Please send me a copy of your to do list. Might make a difference between arriving Monday or Tuesday

    ReplyDelete

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