Thursday, January 20, 2011

The Lashomatic Video

I took this video a few years ago.  Quality is so so, but it gets a few points across.  The main point is that the lashing of hull stringers to ribs does not need to be odious or tedious.  The key is to have a good lashing pattern and to have one hand inside the boat and one outside the boat.  If you watch closely, you will see that this particular lashing pattern is quite simple.  What makes is simple is that the string is constantly moves in a counterclockwise direction.  Sometimes it backs up on itself to cinch the previous turn down but the overall motion is consistently counterclockwise. There is no magic to the counterclockwise part.  You could just as well do this lashing clockwise, especially if you are left-handed.
The other thing that makes this lashing fast is that you have one hand inside the boat and one hand outside the boat.  That way you just pass the string back and forth between hands.  The only thing that goes back and forth is the string.  The hands stay in place, and that's what makes this lashing fast. How fast?  Under one minute. The camera I had at the time, a Canon G2 would cut out after thirty seconds of video.  That's all it would do.  Back then memory was more scarce.
What gets cut out at the end of the video because of the thirty second time constraint is the tying off of the string.  Three half hitches and it's done. You throw your hands in the air when you're done like in calf roping and the clock stops.
One thing about this lashing pattern is that it's not particularly immobilizing, but that doesn't really matter.  The point of the lashing is just to hold the parts in place until you get the skin on.  Once the skin is on, it provides the pressure to keep the stringers from moving around.  And if you want really immobile lashings, just paint your handiwork with water based varnish when you're all done.  That stuff is like glue and will make for more immobile lashings than more fancy and more cumbersome lashing patterns.

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