Hiking handles

[Paul White]

Sitting on the floats increases your effective weight by 17% but getting back onto the tramp from there can be difficult if you lack the strength to pull yourself up using your legs.

The problem for some people is to have the confidence that they can get back onto the tramp once they’ve dropped down onto the float. Firstly, you must be able to get your feet under the hiking straps when sitting on the float – if you can’t, consider adding another hiking strap outside the original to suit your leg length.

You can use the wire of the stay to give yourself a handhold but it’s pretty slippery – a lurch upward from the sitting position can do it if you have enough strength in your stomach muscles but the easy solution is to add a handhold to the stay which you can use to pull yourself up.

You can make it easy by adding a handle to the the shroud at a height that makes it possible to pull yourself up so you can use your legs to pull yourself inboard. You can get new shrouds made with a trapeze handle added to them at the right height but there are a number of DIY solutions too.

1. Pipe handhold
   After measuring the highest height of your hand when holding onto the shroud from the ama while sitting on it, thread a length of pipe down the shroud to that length (you can always trim some off to adjust if it’s too high).
   Then cut a tennis ball in two and slice from the centre to the outer edge. Use this slice to slide the half ball onto the shroud above the pipe. Glue the slice together using a contact adhesive and support with tape underneath.
   
2. Trapeze handle #1
   Thread a line through a trapeze handle from a trapeze boat. Tie a stop knot to prevent the handle from coming off the line. Tie the other end of the line to the shroud using a Prussik knot.
3. 
4. Trapeze handle #2
   Cut a trapeze handle in half vertically. Thread a swage stop onto the shroud to the required height. Put the two halves of the handle together on the shroud above the stop and glue them together with a contact adhesive. Tape up to support while curing. When cured, slide the handle down to rest on the swage stop.
   
5. DIY trapeze handle
   Cut a 15cm length of hard plastic pipe and thread a bowline through it with enough slack so you can get your hand in the loop. Tie the other end of the line to the shroud using a Prussik knot.
   

• This topic was modified 3 years, 10 months ago by Paul White.

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