Reading post on losing hatch covers lacking tethers, I looked over shock cord hardware in Google Images.
There’s a lot of crafty inventiveness there so maybe there’s a device for cinching spray skirt shock cord tighter or looser …with one hand behind your back ?
Is there hardware for cinching shock cord ?
Or ?
yes, there is
I have seen cinching toggles (kind of with a wheel) that would take bungee cord but I am not sure I would use it on a spray skirt.
I am curious to know why you wish for an adjustable tension on the bungee of your skirt.
variable
tensions with temperature, humidity, length of current immersion time, aging qualities of shock cord, mood, sea conditions, frequency of attacks by giant bats…the usual.
If the sea is up then the cord is too loose. Always.
probably a basic law of sea kayaking.
post the wheel if you have an image link.
And a possibility for a trick knot ?
skirt is
Kokotat Goretex on a Solstice Titan
Simpler hardware
– Last Updated: Oct-11-14 9:43 AM EST –
Wildwasser used to use a simple rigid plastic tube with long vee notches cut into either end. Left cord entered left side of tube and was caught in the notch coming out the right side of the tube and vice versa. No mechanicals that way. Tube length about 3"x3/8" ID.
I think I still have a cockpit cover with that cleat on it. If I still have it I'll shoot a picture later this AM.
'Course the other fix is to get a proper sized neoprene deck with sewn on bungee rand and skip the figuring the tension problem all together.
10/11/14 An interesting skirt option just walked into the Showroom. Well, actually I ordered these after seeing them at a trades show. The Seals Stretch Nylon. Sewn bungee rand but 4 way stretch waterproof nylon deck & tunnel. Taut deck like neoprene, light fabric & proper but not overdififcult round bungee rand for composite coamings as well as poly. $130.
I'll put some pics up on the blog today. hudsonriverpaddler.org
See you on the water,
Marshall
The River Connection, Inc.
Hyde Park, NY
www.the-river-connection.com
hudsonriverpaddler.org
Not the skirt itself…
I’ve seen people put a thin layer of foam around and underneath the coaming to get a snugger and more secure fit for the spray skirt.
toggle, not wheel
I realize that you said “single handed” so the wheel technically would only work to release and not tension.
An alternative would be this: http://www.google.com.au/imgres?imgurl=http%3A%2F%2Fp.globalsources.com%2FIMAGES%2FPDT%2FB1063486041%2FSingle-Hole-Cord-Lock.jpg&imgrefurl=http%3A%2F%2Fnunglai.manufacturer.globalsources.com%2Fsi%2F6008800027156%2Fpdtl%2FCord-lock%2F1063486041%2FSingle-Hole-Cord-Lock.htm&h=360&w=360&tbnid=Cr8NGEePWkEbaM%3A&zoom=1&docid=UM2FW8FVAJIVUM&ei=l8w3VN7NF4j58AWkhYCQCA&tbm=isch&ved=0CIYBEDMoXzBf&iact=rc&uact=3&dur=8042&page=4&start=83&ndsp=30
where being attached to the skirt you could use one hand to release the tension by squeezing the toggle or pulling on the shock cord to tension it.
There are a few rain jackets that use that technique to cinch the shock cord in the hem.
inner tube
A used boat I bought came with a bicycle inner tube (latex?) stretched tight under the coaming lip to provide more friction grab for the skirt. It does seem to help hold it while I put the skirt on and keep it from popping.
I agree with Marshall
Simpler is better. If the skirt is for one boat, why should you ever have to adjust it?
ace
– Last Updated: Oct-10-14 10:13 PM EST –
suggestions, will try.
The push button is a surprise. There are several spares in the box but never applied the design to skirt cord control.
Is there a small come-along design ? lever and rachet ?
http://goo.gl/oflXey
for belts. Search goes into old tools
Cord tension is variable, here. I have my popped cord stories in a short paddle time.
I had worked to get into the water with Orca off San Juan Island for one season then weeks the second installing electronics and..
day came clear and blue. A red cockaded woodpecker flew down the hill squalling , the bull Canadian eagle flew over Smallpox Bay over my path outward.freind seal bobbed at the entrance gesturing north.
I rested on a boil over a sea mount, SPRONG the cord popped.
As I struggled with the expletive deleted cord
PHHHOOOOOM ...the Orca pod was on the boil
,
as friend seal pointed.
One of the more humorous popped cord stories...
rand?
Not a cheap option, but an all neo skirt with a rand rather than bungee is pretty tough to pop – I’ve got one that sticks like crazy (though it’s a PITA to put on without help and requires a significant yank to pull off in a bail). One drawback could be that I don’t think Seals makes them large enough for the Titan. But maybe somebody else does.
Maybe you need new bungee – it does lose elasticity after a while. You can buy heavy duty marine grade bungee on line and run new through the skirt tunnel.
Goretex
breathes freely, cockpit stays cooler. Irreplaceable.
Cord was new. Variables in strength, skill, total adjustment of skirt/shoulder harness… work into the popping cord.
But I consider a tightened cord after looping the skirt into pace , as a first step to no popping off.
I’ll try patents.
new devices
Just spotted this new cinching widget on the Duluth Trading Co site:
http://women.duluthtrading.com/store/product/rope-cinch-2-pack-78529.aspx?kw=%27undefined&processor=content%27
Wonder if that would work on fat bungee cord?
it’s time to call B.S.
A gore-tex spray deck will not keep your cockpit considerably cooler. Unless your body is at room temperature.
better than the pushbutton ones
…which work great until the button breaks and the spring shoots out hitting you in the eye. Reportedly.
liability
issues prevent spray skirt makers from installing a delrin shock cord come-along.
Users would tighten and not wet exit then sue ?
Then I thought, MAYBE but a tight skirt would come off with a strong tug on the forward skirt grab loop.
Speculation as my experience is limited to tautness I CAN hook onto the coaming not beyond that…a tautness that does come off occasionally.
I do not know how functionally tight the shock cord can be.
Haven’t gone thru the Patents yet maybe when I have Ebola.