lashings

[Raymond O'Neill]

Hallo  We  have some work to do,the lashings need attention,they are eight years old so do we just tighten them or replace them also anyone know where to get lanolin in UK.  best wishes to all Ray

[andy solywoda]

Ahoy Capn Raymond,

     The lashings should be replaced at least as often as running rigging and 8 years is a good amount of time.  U/V protection is a good idea for them.  I had lashings fail that were on the port side and more exposed to U/V.  They were about 10 years old.  Much easier to replace lashings than to replace dismasting damage.

[Raymond O'Neill]

Thanks Andy I'll buy the rope in so it can be done first opportunity. Do you think lanolin is of any help to reduce friction on the beam lashing? regards Ray

[andy solywoda]

I was referring to lashings used in rigging and I do not have lashed beams, but many here have experience with them. 

[Randall S Anselmo]

Hi Ray,

We put our Tiki 26 together and take her apart each season, so we do a lot of beam lashing. I agree with Andy that they should be replaced periodically, but I don't know that there's much existing science to suggest a particular schedule. By doing ours annually, it provides an opportunity to carefully inspect the line and replace as needed. It doesn't take a huge amount of time or effort to lash a beam, and they are really important, so I think renewing/replacing them is good value. 

As for lanolin, I have a concern. In theory, lashings RELY on friction to do their job, which is to hold things together statically. If they are lubricated, I would worry that they might be more likely to loosen. James Wharram contends that lashing is superior to metal fastenings as there is some "give" at stress points, but my understanding is that the "give" is provided by stretch in the line, rather than movement of the line. I have been tempted to use "high-tech" line in my primary lashings for strength, but because of the ultra-low stretch I wonder if it would create stress points similar to metal fastenings. Even so, I doubt that high-tech line would fatigue silently and fail catastrophically like steel. I do use high-tech line for the frappings, but use braided nylon as specified by Wharram for the primary lashings to provide the stretch.

I'm no expert, but these are some thoughts I have on the situation that may provide some counterpoint for your own thinking.

Cheers,

Randall

[Raymond O'Neill]

HI Andy & Randall thanks for the replies,   its good to hear that its not to difficult to lash a beam do you beach the boat to take it apart or lift it out. As i did't build my boat much of this is new to me but I see from the plans that you can tighten lashing while afloat,  I guess it's a bit more difficult unless the water is shallow and still. Again thanks to you both for the feedback.

regards Ray

[Randall S Anselmo]

Since your boat is already put together, you can just go around and do them one at a time while it's afloat. I usually assemble my boat beached, standing in shallow water, which is easiest, but I have also done some lashings from a dinghy. If you look at the photos on my page, there are some examples of how we do our frapping using a 4:1 tackle to tighten them.

Randall

[paul anderson]

Andy your thoughts are valued.