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Figure 3-22 shows the knack of working the fid in
making an eye splice. Lay out your line along the deck
with the end to your right. Bend the line back until the
eye is the desired size, and shove the fid through the
standing part at the correct spot to raise the top strand.
With your right hand shove the fid through, away from
you, holding the line with your left hand. Grab the
raised strand with your left finger and thumb, and hold
it up while you pull out the fid. Lay the fid down, pick
up the proper strand in the end, and tuck it through the
raised strand from outboard toward you.
Your first round of tucks must be taken in proper
order to avoid getting fouled up. Separate the strands in
the end and hold them up as indicated in view 1 in
figure 3-23. The middle strand (facing you) always
tucks first. Be sure to keep the right-hand strand, shown
in view 2, on the side of the line that is toward you. Tuck
that one next, over the strand you just tucked the other
one under, and under the strand just below it, shown in
view 3.
Now turn the whole thing over. In view 4, you can
see that you now have only one strand from the end left
untucked, and only one strand in the standing part that
does not already have a strand under it. Do not forget to
tuck the last strand from outboard toward you.
The first round of tucks is the key to making perfect
eye splices; the rest is easy. Simply tuck each strand
from the end over the strand of the standing part that it
is now above, and under the next strand below that one,
until you tuck each strand twice more besides the
original tuck Three tucks to each strand in all is enough
for natural fiber rope. Four or five tucks are needed for
synthetic fiber, especially the more slippery nylon.
SHORT SPLICE
Lines are short spliced together when a slight
enlargement of the diameter of the line is of no
importance. Slings are made of pieces of line, with their
own ends short spliced together.
The only trick to short splicing is in seizing the ends
together (fig. 3-24) so each strand in one end lies along
a corresponding strand in the other end. After unlaying
the strands, you simply butt the two ends against each
other until you see that they are interlaced correctly.
With large lines you now must put on a temporary
seizing where they join to keep them from suddenly
coming apart. It is better to do that with small lines, too,
until you get the hang of holding them together while
you tuck.
Once your seizing is on, tuck over and under the
same way you finish off an eye splice. Three tucks on
each side of the seizing are sufficient.
SAILMAKER’S SPLICE FOR
FOUR-STRAND ROPE
An eye splice consists of three main component, the
eye, individual strands, and the standing part of the
rope. The eyes in mooring lines are normally 6 to 10 feet
Figure 3-24.–Seizing lines for splicing.
3-17
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