Relocating Jacklines

Although some of this is pretty specific to Drew's PDQ 32, this tip on Sail Delmarva could apply to any boat:  Tripping hazards are what send people overboard - they should be eliminated if possible...

Formerly the jack lines terminated at the forward beam; simple and strong, but cause a tripping hazard. After far to long a wait, after a suggestion by my daughter, we relocated them to the edge of the tram, where combined with a small back-up plate and the natural strength of the hull flange and trampoline track, there is a natural strong point.

The aft end is still anchored to the hard top railings, the spliced end of the dockline cow-hitched around a center point attachment, spreading the load.

The forward end is lashed (many passes of parachute cord adding up to a 5500-pound line) to a 316 SS bolt hanger. The chafe gear is for UV protection.

Less of a trip problem, equal access, easy to re-tension.

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Why rope instead of webbing, as is the conventional wisdom? Though I've discussed this before...

• UV. We leave them rigged 365 because we believe night comes every day, the water is cold in the winter, single-handers need to stay on the boat, and thunderstorms give little warning.
• Under foot? We don't worry about stepping on them because they do not run on the deck.
• Stretch. We like the stretch of nylon dock line because we have a cat and used long tethers. If we were a mono-hull we would use something lower (but not zero) stretch.

And we use 2-arm tethers. One about 72" and the other about 30". Fit them to YOUR boat.