The Offshore Voyaging Reference Site

Jacklines: Materials, Fabrication and Installation

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Up to this point in this Crew Overboard Prevention Online Book we have sorted out where jacklines should be installed (on the centreline of the boat) and how they should be used (continuous attachment).

Now I’m going to look at what materials we used to make our jacklines on Morgan’s Cloud, how we installed them, and the reasons behind those decisions.


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Dick Stevenson

Hi John,
A really nice piece of work!
I find it incredibly sad that Hathaway, Reiser & Raymond has closed their doors. They were impressively innovative over their years of providing rigging/sailing advice and expertise to East Coast sailors and always willing to help figure out great solutions to the kinds of problems we all bump into regularly.
One of their products/designs (recently well reviewed in Practical Sailor) is the Galerider Drogue, an alternative to the AAC preferred Jordan Series Drogue. Those looking for the Galerider can still find it being made by Seafarer Canvas and Interiors who has bought/taken over some of HRR’s business.
My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy

Drew Frye

The Galerider is perhaps the best choice for emergency steering–very smooth, not too much drag. I jammed a rudder by hitting a submerged log two years ago, which prompted researching drogues. I encourage even coastal sailor to read-up on emergency steering with a drogue. We tend to think of it in terms of blue water sailing, but there are a lot more logs to hit near the coast!

The PS heavy weather testing was trimmed for space. Within that, a topic that I would like to see more people try is two drogues in series. I did considerable testing with Seabrake/Galerider combo, and a Delta Drogue/Galerider combo, though other combinations could work just as well. It seems to have many of the advantages of a JSD (higher drag, and the drogues are stabilized against pulling out of steep waves, the Achilles heel of all single drogues), with greater flexibility (single drogue can be used for steering and more moderate conditions) and easier recovery. The rode between the two will typically be 100-150 feet, so that they are not in the same wave. Very stable–I tested them up to 12 knots.

Dick Stevenson

Hi John,
Since the devil is certainly in the details, I have wondered what degree of strength deterioration occurs when a webbing loop is forced around a tight corner such as happens when a loop is lashed. The forces are across the width of the webbing and when this connection comes under load, would make for differential loading of the individual yarns (and may differentially load the stitching as well). The picture you include (with the tape measure) is under little load and clearly shows the outer edges taking the brunt of the little load shown: when load increases, the outer yarns look like they will take the full load while the middle portion just goes along for the ride. For a while and for this reason, I dead ended webbing (stitched loop) to a D shackle where the webbing loop went against the straight part of the D shackle rather than the curved. This did not last long as I disliked adding D shackles to the overall system.
My solution was to run small diameter high modulus line down the interior of my tubular webbing and to dead end it with 2 round turns and a long series of half hitches. This worked on a number of levels: no real worry about rolling underfoot as the line is in webbing and further, mine is a centerline system (center mast to the pointy end, quasi centerline mast to dodger), interior HM line is protected from UV, and no worry about stitching. There are still question marks and I will be reviewing things when I return to Alchemy in the light of your thoughts and suggestions.
Thanks for your thoughts, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy

Dick Stevenson

Hi John,
Agree about the load sharing and your other points. It just makes me a little nervous to see things that I depend on scrunched together as happens when the radius is small. Something to keep an eye on and add more lashing as you suggest. Dick

Noel Grant

Great article and really important research I don’t see anywhere being done anywhere else and why you guys are the only subscription service I continue to pay for. We sure get our monies worth.