Having read all the yachting books and magazines I could lay my hands on over the last few years, including many now out of print, I have come upon many odd hints and gadgets. Many of these appear in more than one book and are of common knowledge, but now and again I have found an odd item unique to one book. I find such things fascinating, and it may be that others will too.

Most of the following ideas will be of no use to operators of racing dinghies, but such people may be faintly interested anyway. For those who sail in knockabout boats and small cruisers, however, these items may well be of use as well as interest.

Talurit splices are an unnecessary luxury, for example. In the days of the great clipper ships, the shrouds were not even spliced round the deadeyes — they were merely turned up and had three seizings per shroud, using annealed wire for the seizing, of course. I don’t advocate this, though, I merely point it out. There is an easy way to put an eye splice in plough steel wire, which I spotted in an American book on ocean racing.

Plough steel wire is fundamentally of seven strands, each strand having several small wires in it. To make an eye splice, separate the wire into two parts, one of three and one of four strands, and make each part 10 or 12 inches long (wire is very cheap so undo plenty for ease of work.) Then simply tie the two parts together in a simple thumb knot (right over left) and pull it half tight. If it marries together all is well, but if it won’t pull tight, undo it and re-tie the other way. Pull the knot to make the desired size of eye, and then, taking each tail in turn wrap it round (threading it through the eye) and laying it into the groove, until you are left with no more groove. Then unlay each tail into the seven individual strands, stop them along the wire, and seize them.

Try it — it’s simple and it works.