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I would have built
my own blocks for ALOHA originally, but I had no idea how to do that. I
figured that blocks were something that shouldn't be messed with. When
I saw the great article on handmade rope
stropped blocks in the Duckworths'
Magazine, I had to have some. Derek Waters' article has such good pictures
and ideas I will not detail what I have done.
I followed the article
directions very closely. About the only thing I did different was to use
aluminum for the sheave pin (since that was all I could find) and to make
my own thimbles
as described by David Goodchild. I'm not completely satisfied with the
way they turned out. It's very difficult to get both sides to bend similarly.
The Grommets were the hardest part. I made a grommet for the trailer attachment,
but using Brion Toss' method of securing the ends was quite a bit more
difficult, but make a more secure grommet.
The blocks themselves
were close to free. The mahogany was scrap, the UHMW was given to me by
the plastics shop, the rod and tube was only a couple of bucks. The rope
could have been quite cheap, but when I found this nice buff polyester
3-strand I bought enough to do the whole boat. Oh, well, so much for saving
money on building my own. Besides, didn't I already have those expensive
Harken blocks around somewhere? Ahh, but isn't tradition worth something? |
