Lifeline Netting

by John & Judy Griffiths

This picture shows the details of the netting attachment - paracord laced through the netting and around the lifeline, also around stanchions - and the sinnet Judy made at the gates. Its a simple, double square knot sinnet made from 2 doubled lengths of 1/4" nylon braid, incorporating netting and lifelines. Cut the netting to length, trim cut diamonds so that the netting ends in a zig-zag of complete diamonds, then start the sinnet at the top of the netting, tie the sinnett lines to the top lifeline with two larks head knots, tie a square knot, passing one bight of the knot through the netting and continue tying square knots until you reach the next diamond down, pass one bight of the square knot through the netting and so on.

We used 1/4" nylon braid for the sinnet because we thought it would give some body to the end of the netting at the gate. It turns out we could have used lighter braid because the tension in the gate stretches the sinnet and the netting out just fine.

We thought we'd purchased enough netting (24 yards) to do the entire boat, stem to stern. Turns out that 72 feet wasn't enough, so we just have netting on the lifelines, nothing on the pulpits. The safety netting is 24 inch wide nylon knotted netting by Diamond Nets, $7.99 a yard from Defender. You can find instructions for tying square knot sinnets at http://www.elainecraft.com/ - Elaine calls them sennits.

John & Judy Griffiths
Pegasus #1353
lying La Paz, Baja California Sur