Thoughts on using, stowing and deploying towlines and on making your own boat mounted tow system.
Modified Deck Mounted Bag
My modified Knoydart tow-line bag.
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For reasons outlined earlier, I wanted a tow line which could be deployed with only “one action”, so I decided that two modifications were necessary to the system as originally designed:
- The bag needed to face for’ard to make opening the flap
easier and also to make restowing more straightforward after use if it had
to be packed at sea.
- The tow-hook had to be much more readily released from some form of retaining system – just having it loose in the bag was an option, but I found that when the flap was opened it tended to fall out under its own weight which left me having to recover it before I could use it – not the best thing to have to do in big seas.
I reversed the mounting position of the bag - that means that the opening is more ergonomic in that it faces for’ard. That meant however that there was now nowhere for the line to exit cleanly from the bag to the cam cleat unless I remounted it or shifted the Velcro on the deck. In any event, doing that detracted from the ergonomics of having the opening angled slightly and made the tow hook a bit less easy to grab.
To resolve that I made a suitable hole in the flap to allow the line to pass through the bag – a brass eyelet finished it off nicely and the line runs cleanly thro on release, leaving the bag on the deck. The closed end already has a hole, originally intended to be by the cam cleat.
This set up also means I can easily shorten the line if necessary just by pulling it through the bag and cleat.
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By sewing some Velcro to the grab handle and the
flap so that the tow-hook is secure under the loop which opens the
flap, I now have a system that holds the tow hook securely on the
flap but allows “one action” deployment as grabbing the hook and pulling
it toward me (a natural, logical action) now releases the hook, opens
the bag and deploys the line. |
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Two strips of self-adhesive Velcro on the deck secure the
modified Knoydart tow-line bag. Picture also shows the bulls eye and
deck cleat. |
The line passes thro the bag, through an eyelet in the flap
and then through the cleat. |
The line is then taken over the bag and stuffed inside. |
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Once the line is stowed, the hook is secured under the grab handle - velcro has been sewn to the flap and the handle to hold it closed. Grabbing the hook and pulling releases it from the handle, opens the bag and allows the line to stream clear. Objective met! One action now deploys the line. |
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Restowing at sea after the line has been used is quite a bit easier as the packing action is more logical when seated in the boat. It’s easier to push backwards, away from you to pack the line into the bag than it is to try and pull towards you into a bag with its opening facing away from you.
Using the bag system rather than mounting the line down the side of the boat also allows a longer line – 15 to 20 meters seems to be a common suggestion and would certainly allow much more flexibility in big swells as the 7 meter line I originally used really only gave about 5 meters separation between the boats and that probably isn’t enough.
As mentioned earlier, that line has now been replaced with 20 meters of floating line and that seems to give me more options. It's daisy chained in the bag with a clove-hitch used to secure the end of the chain in preference to a clip. Chained, it's about 10 meters, and that's more than adequate for most tows. I've also dispensed with the shock absorber as the line itself is inherently stretchy and certainly has enough give in it to compensate for shock loading. It was provided by Knoydart off a spool incidentally.
Shortening in use is easy, I release the clove hitch and let the chain clear itself - then it's just pulled through the cam cleat - adding length to a short line isn’t an option so my view is that it's better to have a longer line than a short one!
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