Tying up Spinnaker Dousing Line

[Drew Harper]

How are you rigging your kite to the halyard/douser? How far do you tie the knot for the lower douse point?

There seems to be a wide array of ideas here.

[John Porter]

12 inches.  Idea is just to space the two large patches so they don't bunch in the snuffer.

JP

[Lee Shuckerow]

How are you rigging your kite to the halyard/douser? How far do you tie the knot for the lower douse point?

There seems to be a wide array of ideas here.

we are currently using a pigtail of 12-18 inches with eyes spliced in both ends. We then just tie a bowline in the retrieval line onto an eye.

[Dan Tucker]

Depends on where the retrieval patches are on the kite. The idea is to have the knot as far away as possible from the upper patch, while still getting the head of the kite into the launcher tube.

On our Q kite, it was about 6"-8". The new Hyde upper patch is higher, so our halyard was too short! Needed an extension on the retrieval end, which put a knot too far away from the upper patch, leaving about 12" of the head flapping around above deck!

Gotta buy a new halyard before the next regatta. What's the good, non-hockling line to use?

[Ben Steinberg]

6mm paraloc marlin.  Hockle free ish and super light when its hanging from the tabs, also easy on the hands.  DONT use 4mm, it slides through cleats and feels like fishing line. 

[Dan Tucker]

Okey Dokey. Thanks Ben.