Thoughts on using, stowing and deploying towlines and on making your own boat mounted tow system.
Making a Boat Mounted Tow Line
A simple, effective
tow line.
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Traditional UK thinking seems to favour using braided, floating line such as is used for river rescue throw-bags and incorporating some form of shock absorber, usually in the form of a length of bungee cord – however, some of the proprietary lines are being made of ¼ in (6mm) floating polypropylene rope which has an inbuilt stretch factor, and, as mentioned earlier, the Aussies mention using 3mm cord.
You’ll also need a tow hook of some form and your line should ideally also incorporate a float at the hook end, as the line flotation won’t be enough to support its weight if it’s dropped in the water. Knoydart (and others) sell suitable floats.
I recycled an old throw-bag line when making the line shown below.
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General layout –The orange sleeve’s purpose is to act as a “line marker” to make it easier to see in the water. The line is shown daisy chained here for stowing in a bag. |
Detail - showing the bungee inserted into the line, the U clips used to secure it and the heat shrink sleeve. Note line coiled round the bungee. The knot stops the float moving. |
Towing hook – a large karabiner taken from a “cows-tail” on a river ba – the notch has been removed to prevent it catching on deck or toggle lines when being unhooked. |
On the line shown, the bungee cord which acts as a shock absorber has been inserted into the core of the line and secured with stainless U clips, the joint is then covered neatly with “heat shrink” plastic sleeving intended to be used for whipping synthetic ropes. Both were obtained from a chandler.
The line wraps round the bungee, purely for neatness, and it’s important to make sure the line will tension before the bungee stretches to its limit. I don’t recommend cutting the line and tying the bungee into it as that creates the risk of the bungee breaking or knots coming undone.
I daisy-chain the line only to make packing in a bag easier – I’m aiming for “one action” deployment and have found (to my cost – see later) that having to unclip a krab to clear the daisy-chain can cause problems - it’s one more thing to have to do and might not be practical in an emergency.
On the subject of hooks, I've chosen the large alloy krab specifically to give me something big to grab, rather than the smaller stainless steel hooks normally used as I found them too fiddly. The downside of using an alloy krab is that it does require maintenance when used in salt water so if you go this route, I'd urge you to check and lubricate it frequently. I found that by a combination of rinsing it after use (I hose the boat down as a matter of course) and using Waxoyle on the hinge that it is still fine two years after being fitted.
This particular line shown is just over 7 meters – that was dictated by the length of available rope when I made it and as it was originally just mounted down the side of the boat, that also constrained the length. Longer would be better – perhaps 15 meters.
(NOTE: Since the article was originally written, I've replaced the tow line illustrated with 20 mtrs of stretchy 5 mm floating line from Knoydart. It seems to have sufficient inherent elasticity not to need a bungee insert so I'm presently experimenting to see how it works minus bungee. So far, it seems effective. As the line is now so long, it is daisy-chained in the bag, and the chain is secured. Wanting to avoid hooks, krabs or pegs, I'm now using a clove-hitch on the last loop of the chain. This is positioned so that I can undo it from the cockpit).
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