what's the best way to fit firmly the lashings beteween hulls and beams?

[luis]

i'd want to know all methods used. in my former tiki 26 i put the ropes a couple of hours in water prior to fit them; now in the tiki 38 it's no so easy.
tks

[boatsmith]

What we do is have the hulls lined up, it is difficult to pull the beam to the hull with a lashing. Then we wrap around the beam and the lashing cleat with staset. This is a relatively low stretch polyester double braid line.
We get theses wraps reasonably tight but don't go to a lot of effort to really crank on them. Once these lines are on and knotted off we put frapping turns on. We use 4-6 mm Dynex or spectra line for this. This line is very low stretch and slippery. We tie off one end and take a couple of wraps and then tie a clove hitch about 6" from the end of a 3' stout stick. We then use this stick as a lever to really whale on the frapping turns. Then we hold that tension and get another wrap and repeat with the lever and then repeat and so on. During the process we will pound on the lashings with a rubber mallet to help take away any friction that might be preventing the line from moving freely. With this technique we have been able to secure or beams very tightly.

[Ron Hall]

My boat (Tiki 38) was out of the water for the initial lashings, so we had good access all around. I used ordinary double braid (unstretched) so we had to take the construction stretch out of the line. We did this by tieing the start of the lashing to the strake (per the plan sheet) and taking the first turn around the beam and hull attach point. We then wrapped the line several times around an eight foot long two by four and had two big guys lean on it, stretching the line. When we couldn't get anymore, we squeezed the two lines together with a pair of vise-grips, effectively locking the tension in place. We then took another turn, tensioned it with the two by four, and then repositioned the vise-grips to lock the new turn in place. We then repeated this process for all of the turns. I then tied the line off per the plan sheets (inevitably you lose some tension here) and then used the line to make the frapping turns. We wailed on these as described by Boatsmith (without the mallet) using the vise-grips to hold the tension on each turn as we fed the next one through. The lines going over the beam are bar tight, that is, they don't feel like line, they feel more like a solid material, and I don't think we have seen the beams move in 2 plus years of fairly hard sailing. I used an extra turn on the aft inside lashings. This lashing has just started to creak a little in heavy Chesapeake chop, so will probably retension the lashings when the boat is out this winter.

I think the suggestion to use a separate line for the frapping turns is great. We lost some tension using the per plans method because you can never really tie it off tightly enough as you can't pull directly down on the knot shown in the plans. You can however really pull down on the loop if you are just tieing half-hitches in the line, and using another line for the frapping turns.

I think we could probably do this on the water if we had to, but it's really easier ashore, particularly for the initial turns. It's important to get the initial turns around the beam and hull as tight as you can, but it's really the frapping turns that supply most of the tension. I think I would also use something besides ordinary double braid when I replace these lashings, but I'm not sure whether I would use prestretched double braid or some of the modern exotics. Certainly easier to start with if most of the construction stretch has been taken out of the line. Not sure the expense the exotics is worth it, nor do I know how well they hold up. Good luck; it took us the better part of two days to figure the procedure out and get everything on and really really tight.

Ron

[Ann and Neville Clement]

Using a slightly smaller thickness braid for the frapping turns works easier and just as well. Ann and Neev

[Dave Vinnicombe]

I have tightened my lashings in the water many times. I also managed to lift the aft beam and bond in rubber inner tube pads to take the beam compression from the dinghy. It never ceases to amaze me what can be done with a Wharram, its like a meccano set - wonderful.

What helps are wooden wedges (I kept the scarfing off cuts when joining stringers) these can be used for raising beams and to insert under the lashings to make space to pass the frappings through, mole grips or vice grips, to hold the last frapping turn tight whilst the next turn is being made, and 4;1 handy billies or vangs (I have 2 for the main and fore main to help with sail trim). To get the frappings tight I attached one end of the 4:1 to the frapping tail and the other end to the lashing of the next beam (or to the lashing strake if you have to), heave it tight and then use the mole grips to clamp the frapping tight before making the next turn.

This can be done single handed from a dinghy if you have to. Using line that has some stretch in it is a good idea as it can recover if there is a bit of movement.

Dave

[luis]

thanks for all replies :-)
rds

[boatsmith]

Hi Dave, That is a great way to tighten the frapping turns. I tried this technique yesterday and I think that this is much easier than levers. I find that it is easy to hold the tail tight while tying off the knot. Nice tip. David

[paul anderson]

Dave,what starter knot do you use for the lashings?

[boatsmith]

I prefer to use double braid polyester line for the lashing turns. This will stretch about 3-5%. For the frapping turns I like to use spectra . It is very low stretch and very slippery. I also will spray the lashings and frappings with dish soap to make it all more slippery. This enables me make the lashings very tight indeed.

[kim whitmyre]

Perhaps there are more complex knots, but it's hard to beat 2 round turns and a half-hitch, Paul. Another is a buntline hitch, though it will take needle-nose pliers to get it undone once it has been tightened in use.

[Bertrand FERCOT]

For our Tiki46 I've used the same method as with our previous Tiki30 in turning the rope around a lever . But if it was OK for the Tiki30, with the Tiki46 the efforts are greater and especially when sailing in bad weather with steep cross waves.

I change of method in using a rectangular piece of wood of about 60 x 30 x 900mm with a hole at 100mm from one end. I use a 10mm rope for the lashings and a 8 mm rope for the frapping turns. So after to have attach the frapping rope around the lashing turns, I proceed half turn by half turn : the rope is passed through the hole + 1 turn around the lever and the end of the lever  is apply on the lashing rope just below the frapping turns.

Now I can get a very great tension easier because the lever can't twist and I can concentrate all my effort on the tension. It's more easy to explain with pictures :

Bertrand

[luis]

Hi Bertrand, tks for your interesting comments on this issue. I see you are in canaries; your next plans are to sail towards SW, I suppose. Did you already decided whether more W than S or more S than W ;-)

Best

Luis

[Bertrand FERCOT]

Hi Luis. I think we'll stay until mid September around La Gomera which is for us the best place in Canaries to stay at anchor with the possibility to return in the very quiet and welcome harbour of Tazacorte (on La Palma) if necessary. After we want to visit a few islands of the Cap Verde archipelago before to cross toward the Martinique in November.

We appreciate very much this long stop here, we began to enjoy the sea people life and we try to learn to speak Spanish.

As Marie-Helene is not ready to sail threw south America channels we'll not heading to the Brazil (and one other obstacle : now the Brazil refuse to European boats to stay more than 3 months). Our plan now is to pass threw the Panama canal next February.

So in a few years when we'll sail back in Atlantic, perhaps by south America, I hope we'll can visit you.

Best wishes

Bertrand