Re: [Paddlewise] Self Tethering with tow belt

Nick asks:

>Doug Lloyd,
>
>It sounds to me like you use the tow belt to attatch a personal tether
>to yourself.  Is this the case?
>Can you describe the tether system that works best for you in detail?
>What sort of quick release belt do you wear?
>How long is the tether?  Is the tether made of webbing?  How do you
>attatch what kind of clip or carabiner to the webbing?
>How and where do you clip the carabiner to the boat?
>How is the tether joined to the belt?
>How does it all work in practice?

Nick, et al:
Nothing elaborate, nothing radical or creative. I just used stuff from
around the kayak retailer. I have a Lotus PFD with the standard lower chest
tow belt that threads through in behind the pockets and around back then
forwards again with a quick release infront. I have two "D" rings on the
back. One ring has a short river tow, yellow web line that coils into a
pouch. I use it for towing people's boats in moving water and clipping onto
wayward paddles, dead BCU paddlers <G>, and such, with the caribeaner on
the end. This caribeeanerer is normally clipped to the front pocket strap
when not in use. And, when I want to tether myself for whatever reason, I
clip this same caribneneeerer on the end of the short tow line to my deck
line. Should I come out of the boat, the line is long enough as it uncoils,
to allow manoverability. As I mentioned in a previous post, my old rope
tether was just too non-tangle proof and hard to access from behind the
cockpit. This short tow is a Lotus product, but is not meant for towing
heavy loads, but has prooved strong enough.

Now, as far as the other "D" ring, it hold a North Water product that is
essentially a heavy guage bungy cord covered with an accordianed tubular
web strap. The "D" ring is sewn right into the end of the line. On the
other end of the line, is a caribbbeaner. Under no tension, the entire
arrangement is about 24 inches. This is just the right size to wrap around
and connect to the front PFD pocket strap, right where the shorty tow
carribeanner is. As the two carriibenners are different units, I can tell
at a glance which line I'm grabbing by the caribner chosen. I am going to
make a modification to the PFD however, as a problem happens when I open
the pocket to get out a power bar, the carnarabineers fall to the deck.  As
you are guessing, 24 inches isn't very long for anything. Well, what I use
now for long tows is a 50 foot line in a throw bag (Canadian law requires a
50' heaving line) The bag has a loop at one end, and yep, a carinener at
the other. The bag is kept in a net bag on the front dech for thowing at my
good buddies and pals, the Canadian Coast Guard :-). When I do need it for
a long tow line, I unclip the caribner with the short bungy line, clip it
to the throw bag's loop, then clip the throw bag's crabiner to the victim
of circumstances' kayak, and paddle away, The bungy gives some shock
absorbtion. I can also tie off the 50' line at a shorter length, depending
upon need. Drawbacks to these modifications I made. Well, there is a fair
bit of stuff hanging behind me and to the side, which inhibits sprayskirt
reattachment, and I look like a SarTech come wall-climber come Sylvestor
Stallon meets Inspector Gadjet, but at least I'm ready for some S&M with
Deb <G>.

My previous tow rope was a Lotus product, 50' line, built into a pouch that
hung at the side of the PFD. It always felt a bit bulky at my side. It did
not tie off well at different lenghts, and I had to run it at full length
to get the benefits of shock absorption. This is the line I used to tow
Andrew in the full gale off the Storm Islands for 6 or 7 hours. I would
have like a bit shorter tow, especially with his incapacitation. BTW, I did
not have any problems with the rudder/tow line tangle problem whilst
underway. I have a home made flag pole on the back deck, and it helped the
line to ride over the rudder mostly. (You can see what my back deck looks
like in the latest issue of Sea Kayaker Magazine. The article on making the
paddle float rescue work, shows a color picture, taken by paddlewiser wise
guy Kirby Stevens, of me facing backwards, where you can see the flag
pole). The tow off the Storm Islands was probably one of the more rougher,
dramatic ones in the history of this sport, no exaggeration. Despite some
flaws with the Lotus system I used at the time, I must say that having
state of the art gear makes a huge difference to life and limb, as it were.
Don't ever underevaluate the importance of good gear, no matter what anyone
may say to you. And customizing gear or making your own equivalent for your
particular needs is an option more paddlers should explore.

Now, where is my dictionary, lets see, cariben...

BC'in Ya
Doug Lloyd     
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