How do I form the coils of rope onto belaying pins?

Don't try to form coils using the rigging line; it's much easier to attach the line to the belaying pin and cut it off, and then hang a pre-formed coil of rope over the pin.

Click for larger image. Start out by making a jig -- take a piece of scrap wood and wax it (so glue won't stick to it). Drive a row of pins into it, the distance A being the offset of the belaying pin from the edge of the rail, and B being the degree of "hang" required.

Wind the rope tightly around a pair of these pins. When you've got enough, paint the rope with a very dilute solution of white or yellow glue, or CA adhesive, to bond the coil into a solid mass. Once set, remove a pin to free the coil, and hang the coil in place over the belaying pin.
{John O. Kopf}

The coiling of rope is a very important subject although there are only two important considerations to get right. The first is that the rope should run free when it is "thrown" off the pin; the reason for this is that when you are at stations the pin-rail is "cleared" onto the deck in preparation for casting of, or pulling on the individual lines.

The second is that no part of the rope should touch the deck unless the pin-rail is only just clear of it (as you find in the bow area of older designs of ships and smaller vessels). This is to prevent damage to the rope and the deck, as the bottom of the loop spends most of its time swinging with the role of the ship. When there is not enough height it was normal to make the coils big enough to lie on the deck even when the ship was heeled right over on its ear.

School ships always coil to a regime while with ships in harbor - it is a matter of pride to have all the coils hanging uniformly. Another thing that is often forgotten are the purchases - aloft these contribute to a massive coil at the pin-rail when they have been hauled taught.
{drakescoxswain}

Coils on a ship model are an important detail, and an understanding of real coils on a real ship will greatly enhance your models realism. Coils are a convenient way of storing a line in such a way as to keep it out of the way and at the same time leave the line instantly at hand. Mariners coiled the lines into "Coils", "Flakes" or "Balantines" in order that they should be able to "run free" if they should need to be taken up quickly, and the proper form of a coil is dictated by practicality rather than aesthetics.

When you finish using a vacuum cleaner at home, do you find the cord is difficult to coil? if you habitually coil the machines cord in the same direction, the cord will be easier to handle. On a ship, coils in hawser-laid rope are always formed clockwise. A line habitually coiled counter-clockwise would tend to unlay the line since it would continually force the fibers in the rope to twist against the lay they were set in originally when they were set up at the rope walk. If you had a shroud-laid rope you would need to coil it counter clockwise, but all working lines on a ship are "hawser laid".

The typical coil is a length of line formed into successive loops (or bights) superimposed one upon the other with the result looking like a "stack of circles". every coil has two ends: a "working/standing" end and a "bitter" end. the bitter end is the actual end of the rope, the working end is the part that continues up into the rigging and performs its function aloft.

A coil on deck must have its bitter end on the bottom and its working end on top. If the line were to suddenly pay out and the coil was wrong-side up, the line would instantly snarl into knots, do you follow?

An earlier post bemoaned the fact that many ship models are equipped with running rigging formed into gasket coils hanging from the pins. a gasket coil is how you stow an extension cord: you form a coil, and then with the last few feet of cord you take frapping turns around the body of the coil. This is great for electrical cord, but the only time you gasket coil a line on a ship is when you are in port and you are de-rigging and striking them below deck. Gasket coils on a belaying pin are completely useless.

A coil on a pin is a line ready for action. a halyard or a downhaul can be cast off the pin and the coil will already be perfectly formed (bitter end on the bottom, working end on the top) for use in striking or setting a sail.

This is a long post, and thank you for sticking with me thus far. To sum up:

{Frank Hanavan}
I think you have slightly misunderstood Frank the line is indeed passed around the top and bottom of the pin in a figure eight giving the appearance of an X at the front of the pin, there are usually three full turns with the line passing around the top part of the pin last.

In twelve inch to the foot scale this is then the "standing part" to coil the surplus rope you stand holding the "standing part" with your right hand around 10 inches away from the pin-rail and coil the rest of the rope into it (this distance will increase when there is a lot of rope). It takes a bit of practise to get it right but after a while, you do not even think about it. Then you reach through the coil with your left hand and grasp the "standing part" with the back of your hand uppermost and your thumb towards the pin-rail about half way between the pin and your right hand. Lift the coil towards the pin and put the resulting loop in your left hand over the top of the pin smooth out any ugly bits and the job is finished.

When you are at sea as long as you can see clear air between the deck and the lowest part of the coil it is OK. (There are some very large coils when sail is set).

When in harbour the standard seems to be around 4 inches as this allows for deck cleaning.

I forgot to mention gasket hitches in my last posting but the are usually found on yards with a single "jack-stay" where the gaskets can be 20 ft + in length and they hang at the top of the sail when it is set.
{drakescoxswain}

Back?