‘Rigging’ an anchor buoy.
The procedure I ended up with, after several failed attempts, was as follows;
Take a length of cord and tie the end around itself with a simple overhand knot to make a lasso. Adjust the size of the loop to fit around the buoy. Cut the cord to at least three times the length of the buoy. (The cord I used was 0.25mm).
Take another length of cord and tie the end of it, again using a simple overhand knot, to the middle of the loop of your lasso. Cut it to a similar length as the first piece.
Apply some PVA glue to the knots, and allow it to dry. (The knot on the first cord that formed the lasso is the one you don’t want to slip.
You can now place your loop over the buoy with a length of cord running along each side. Hold the two cords together where they leave the end of the buoy:
Slip the loop off the buoy keeping hold of the cords.
Now change your grip to hold the sections of cord that were running along the buoy rather than those leaving it. Take one of the free ends and bend it back on itself to form a small loop. Now take the other free end and bend that back on itself, but take it to the opposite side from the first one.
Gather the cords together and you should now be holding what will become the base of a double loop:
Seize round the base of the double loop you’ve created. The actual position of the seizing isn’t critical.
This is what you should have created:
Now put the lasso back over the buoy and adjust the position of your seizing until it’s close up to the end of the buoy.
The easiest way to do this is to slide the seizing slightly too near to the lasso so that it wont reach quite reach over the end of the buoy. Now hold the cords between the lasso and the seizing tightly against the buoy and ease the seizing away until it drops over the end of the buoy.
Put a suitable size drill bit or something similar through the double loop you created and pull each of the free ends through the seizing to tighten the loops,
Note: The two lines that will be attached to the buoy are different sizes, that going to the anchor being the larger of the two. It doesn’t matter which you do first but I used a 0.8mm drill first for a 0.5mm line to the anchor.
This shows the first line pulled tight:
After pulling the second line tight as well, you now need to feed the two loose ends through your lasso and then position it over the buoy:
The next step takes a bit of care, positioning the seizing and the four cords at the end of the buoy. Once the seizing’s in position apply some PVA to the loop and seizing (if you use superglue/CA, don’t glue your drill in place!) and let it set.
At this point, you’re on the home straight. Just lead the free ends up the buoy and tie them midway between the start positions….
…and then trim off the loose ends:
The other half is done the same way, but it’s a little easier to start with because it will stay in position once you thread the lines under the first lasso section. However you can’t remove it completely to make the seizing, so make the ends a bit longer to give yourself working room.
The next picture shows the new section in position with the first cord (on the right) correctly threaded under the first half of the rigging.
Unfortunately it also shows the needle on the second cord threaded under the top lasso. It will eventually end up there, but it should first pass under the bottom lasso in the same way as the one on the right.
I spotted the mistake later, before it was a problem, but not in time to re-take the photo!
The next picture shows the final stages with just the two ends to be made off. (The drill at this end was 0.6mm).
The final two pictures show the completed buoy.
I can only attach 15 pictures so the final picture will have to go in the next post!