Chicken lines...how to use them?

I have a Nacra Infusion that has come with chicken lines. A line with shock cord take up that originates in the rear beam and terminates on the stern of the boat.

My understanding is that they are used to help stabilize the crew or help hold them at the rear of the boat when reaching.

My question is to what do I attach the chicken line to and how is it attached?

You put jam cleats on your harness spreader bar.

Thanks for the response.

So I install 2 jam cleats on the spreader bar and just pick up the line and drop it into the cleat to hold me back in the boat?? My harness has a tube would I just drill into it and fasten the cleats along the bar with pop rivets??

Do crews use foot straps as well as the chicken lines or is it usually one or the other.

I see it as a good deal less hassle to install straps on the boat, its also what I'm used to on an ancient classic rigged Tornado.

I have searched endlessly for a jam cleat screws from the side. To date, I have yet to find one. I took my spreader bar to a machine shop and had them weld a stainless steel plate to the bar that the cleat could mount to. That works just fine. Another option is to tie S hooks on the chicken line. With some fancy rigging you can make them easily adjustable. Just be sure the S hook is hooked to the dogbone, not any part of the crew so in event of a capsize, the crew won't be left hanging (literally)

I have a CL258 and a CL259 riveted onto my harness bar either side of the hook.

http://www.clamcleat.com/cleats/cleat_details.asp?theid2=79

What happens when you are cleated in and you pitchpole?

Thanks BoK

This is the sort of detail I was looking for. I would need a port & starboard cleat and I would rivet them to the spreader bar.

What about foot straps? are they used a lot or not so much?

Thanks man.....I have been looking all over for those!

Most often this results in lots of pain.

You are much less likely to pitchpole if the crew is locked in on the chicken line. You'll find that the boat will stuff and recover in all but the worst situations.

I have chicken lines on my boat. I do not like the idea of attaching my crew to the boat. If anything happens I want to know they can get away from the boat.

I use hooks, tied to the transom and bungeed into the crossbar, which only attach to the trapeze handle. If the crew needs to leave the boat it is no harder than if there was no hook on the handle.

It has been uses a couple of times when the bow was buried deep. Eileen, my crew, fell against the side of the boat but did not go forward too far. With the lifevest on she was not even close to being hurt. When I asked her if she was okay, she said "JUST GET GOING! I will get back up!" and she did without losing more than about 3 boat lengths on the nearest competitor.

Mine are not adjustable. If they are needed then crew will always have to be far back.

Dan

What kind of hooks do you use Dan?

http://www.ronstan.com.au/marine5/product.asp?ProdNo=RF50

If you hook the hook on the dog bone, if you go over, the dog bone unhooks from the tarpeze hook.

We have never cart wheeled when hooked in the chicken line, unless a hook straightened or line snapped. Have gone over sideways a couple of times though and it has been nice not to be left hanging there (for my crew)

I used to use that hook but now use this one:
WICHARD
Stainless-Steel Snap Hooks

Tornado Alive has a picture that is close to how I set mine up. I do not use a block to pull it into the crossbar. I splice the bungee into the chicken line at the point that I want to be furthest inside. If you have a large enough hole in the end of the crossbar you can tie it so that the hook will lay right inside the hole. I use a small line that will hang out to retrieve when needed. This is the way to keep it from hooking a line inadvertently.

Dan DeLave

how do you splice it into the line? You wouldnt have a pic would you. I should be at Wine and Roses in a few weeks. Will be racing Sunday. I could peek at it then I guess. I dont know if you F18 guys will be able to convince us that its a good idea to race against you this time though. We looked pretty silly last year. But we had a great time! I would like to talk to you guys more this year and get a closer look at your boat setup. You going to W&R

I touched on this in the original post of this thread but had no response to it. Does anyone use foot straps to achieve the same result as the chicken lines.

Here is a video that looks like they use foot straps instead. Is anyone doing this?
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_U9cjQRoso

My experience is that in a hard stuff the foot strap is hard to hold onto with your foot. You also run the risk of a twisted/broken ankle or a hyperextended leg. The foot strap is nice in a bouy race where you are running a mile or so downwind and the waves are only a foot or so. Generally in that type of situation there will probably be a gybe or two in there as well in which case the chicken line becomes more cumbersom than it is worth for such a short run. In the big waves or when running for a long time such as in a distance race there is no substitute for a chicken line. During the GT we used both as waves tend to try and knock your feet out from under you.

We have both on the boat. Footstrap is fine in small conditions. Usually only use the chicken line if the conditions get pretty sporty, like 5 foot swells and more than 18 knots of breeze. Other that that it is just footstraps.

We will be at the Wine and Roses regatta so you will be able to see it then.

I had the first set with the bungee spliced into the line, but just at the end. It only went in about 1 inch then I sewed some thread around it to keep it in. I just looked at the one I have now. It is just pushed through the line and a small knot on the other side to keep it placed. Reason this happened was to make adjustments so it was just right. I would move the bungee out and back to make sure the hook just went into the crossbar and not too far in. After I was done I thought it was just fine and left it that way.

By the way my footstraps are in the same place as the video. The only time you are not in them is if the wind is lighter, in which the swells would not be so big anyway, and you just do not need them.

I do not know what you mean by sailing with the F-18s. You have one right? If not then you will be sailing in the Portsmouth fleet.

Dan

Foot strap is good for the skipper on the bear away. Not neccessary for the crew. When the wind picked up, my crew would put his back foot on the transom and front foot on. or just in front of the foot strap (As I have pictured above). This helped get the body weight a little bit further aft.

use a prusik knot that way you can move it.