Knot For Securing Bow Leash To Paddle Loom?

Surf kayak, gotta have some kind of leash in order to win the hearts and minds
of the people (who otherwise might bet mowed down by a kayak washing in on the
white water).


Requirements:
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1) Minimal risk of entanglement. User wants tb connected to the boat - but
on the user's terms...

2) Shock absorption. When the boat goes over the falls and the user has bailed
out off the back of the wave, they don't want the paddle yanked out of their
hands any more often than necessary.

3) Reliability. Amazing how stuff comes undone after a few trips through
the rinse cycle.
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I've been through a few iterations so far - addressing the entanglement problem
by running the line through a pool noodle for most of it's length, leaving only
a couple feet free at the paddle end. Some Velcro on the deck and the end
of the pool noodle keeps it from flopping around while paddling.

For line, I've tried
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1) El-cheapo cotton-core stuff from Home Depot. Wasn't stretchy enough, so
I spliced in a foot of bungee. Seemed to work ok, but I didn't like the
splicing part - seemed tb a needless potential point of failure.

2) 3/8" nylon braid. Stretchy enough without bungee, but seems too thin.
There's also a wrap-and-amputate factor on that last couple of feet vis-a-vis
the hands and fingers. The nylon also furs from contact with the Velcro.
Put some heat shrink tubing over the line to fix the furring and *thought*
I had also address the wrist/hand wrapping issue... but the heat shrink
didn't hold up in use.
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Lacking donation of somebody's retired climbing rope, I think a heaver version
of the nylon braid - like 11 mm - will get around the wrapping issue and add
even more shock absorption.

Which brings us to... attaching the line to the loom of the paddle.

My first cut was some seatbelt webbing and Velcro. The webbing wraps around the
loom and velcros to itself with a third layer of hook on top. I've got a
couple of o-rings taped in place on the loom so the webbing/attachment stays
centered and doesn't get pulled to one end or the other under stress.

But I don't really like the webbing approach. Seems needlessly complicated and
Velcro's holding ability degrades with use. Another potential point of failure.

So, I'm back to some kind of knot.

Something that can be tied tight and will stay tight enough that it will stay
centered and not slip over the o-rings.

So far I see:
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- Axle Hitch http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Axle_Hitch

- Constrictor Hitch http://www.realknots.com/knots/constric.htm

- Boa Knot http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boa_knot
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There seem tb many more candidates.

But which is the right one?

Anybody actually doing this (securing a line to a paddle and not having it come
loose under use/abuse)?
--
PeteCresswell

(PeteCresswell) wrote:
>
> Anybody actually doing this (securing a line to a paddle and not having it come
> loose under use/abuse)?
> --
>

Pete: Keep it simple.

If you want a loop that slides, I'd suggest a bowline. If you want
something that sits tight, I'd use a clove hitch and cast off the
running end with a few halfhitches.

--riverman