I finally have time again for projects and one that I have had sitting for a while was my safety tether. I looked at grabbing some for a long trip last summer and they were crazy expensive.... I mean around $100-$200 for clips and nylon webbing. I don't know about you, but that's just crazy in my book. If I can trust my own splicing to hold my boat at anchor in a 30 knot blow on an open river, I think I'd trust my sewing machine and it's sail thread. Plus, why not make a cool custom tether that fits me?
Well, I did just that. Components wise, I bought my webbing from
Strapworks (I like their site, and if they want to pay me to advertise for them, I'd do it! [but they don't]), using 1" tubular polyester, which is stronger and more abrasion resistant than nylon, and 3/8" elastic. I also bought fancy ribbon on webbing for the quick release handles, 1ft each. I bought a lot... like 9ft of webbing in both colors (I built a pair of tethers) and 12ft of elastic. Then I found some climbing carabiners that had a permanent webbing loop, they are called "quick draws". I picked mine up from an english company and amazon and were $12-$14 shipped for each set (DMM is the manufacturer). I also saw a different brand at REI yesterday for $16, so they are easy enough to come by. Lastly, I picked up two quick release clip with rings on Ebay in an auction for $6 shipped, and I think they may have been used to airdrop tanks... but I'm ok with overkill. The total for supplies for two tethers came to just under $50.
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| 5ft and 3ft hook |
The original design was to have 2 independent tethers coming off the central quick release clip, that would hook into your harness. This is what most of the 2-hook tethers have. I decided against that once I got everything situated, because I didn't want to be whacked with the second tether or have to have 2 hooked up all the time. So instead, I placed one hook at about 3ft and one at about 5ft. The 3ft tether is what I would use on the foredeck and the 5ft lets me go from the cockpit to the foredeck without ever being disconnected. I saw a video of folks testing tethers and decided shorter was better. The length will keep my on the boat even if I fall, not dragging in the water, which looks like a safe bet to me.
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| Red with Jolly Roger |
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| Pink "Smoke" and Paw Prints |
As far as sewing is concerned, I just made sure to have 3 vertical and 3 horizontal zigzags securing every hook minimum. I also put some fun patterns in after the fact... because I could. First, I pulled the elastic through the webbing using a marker with the elastic trapped on one end in the cap. Then, I secured the elastic with a 2" zigzag stitch down the center, after pulling it tight so as to have it fully extended when initially sewn. Finally, I sewed both clips at their desired length and cleaned up with the quick release. And that was about it, it took less then 30 mins a piece for each tether and the weakest part is the webbing, which is rated to 1800lbs... and I don't expect to survive anything that does that to my body anyway, so I'd say we are good to go.
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| Feeding the elastic |
As a side note now that I've completed the project, I think that using regular 1" polyester webbing without elastic is well worth it... the stretch vs non-stretch is less that 4" over the 5 foot length of my finished product (though the wobbly webbing does look cool).
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| Not too stretchy, but it looks cool |
