Down by the harbourside
A boat is fastened by a length of rope.
It was a perfect match,
Dreaming of escape,
Feeling almost detached.
Look beneath the waves -
The seabirds diving down into black water. – costelloIt’s the end of November. We’re here in central Wisconsin. How weird then to be woken up in the night by loud thunder and constant lighting? How much weirder when you had just watched the remake of War of the Worlds before turning in? Then to add to the moment, the barren branches scraping at the bedroom window fill you with the urge to get up and turn on a light. Funny, you’d think that urge would go away by the time you reach 40.

As I was putting the little snow gallery together I realized I had that “toggle shot” I’d been wanting to get. Why would I want a picture of my rear toggle you may well ask? Well, although it is true that not much out there could be more boring than a rear kayak toggle; (except maybe Canadian boilers) I wanted to write about it!

When teaching a basic kayak course, one of the things we always mention is to never put your fingers between the toggle loop when lifting the kayak. Good plan if you don’t want to risk breaking a finger. Another way you may use a toggle is to quickly tow a swimmer back to shore or over to their kayak. Now, I’m not sure I want someone dangling by a toggle, but it is an option there may be ocassions to do it. Personally I’d rather have them up on my nose where I can see them, but that’s a different post altogether. The point is, if the water is a bit bouncy the toggle is going to twist all over the place and again a finger through the loop is going to end up dislocated or broken. So a quick solution I learned from Sam Crowley, who is our areas Uber ACA IT; is to just cut the loop and re-tie it with a single bit of line. A very elegant solution.

This worked out fine and dandy until I went to put the rear tie-down on my boat. I suddenly couldn’t just put the hook through the loop and be off. I was stumped at first. This called for a another creative moment and you can see my answer in the picture. I just put a loop through one end, then ran it through the boat and then to the toggle. Now I can slip the loop down to attach the tie-down. You’d be amazed how long it took me to figure that one out. (Well, maybe you wouldn’t be.)

This little set up seems not to wear any more than a normal toggle. However, I do change my toggle ropes each spring and have on occasion changed them twice in a year. I check them often which is a good habit to get into. You should look for fraying where the rope rubs against the boat. They can just rot over time as well snap for seemingly no reason. Snapping an old toggle rope portends bad things for your boat. Only skip this maintenance check if;

A.) you’re itchin’ to learn fiberglass repair, ANDB.) your feet are out of the way.

-d

Comments are closed.