Posted 8 years ago
nptor
(1 item)
Found this at garage sale it's 2 ft. long with marked string the teak triangle has lead plugs and a peg hole, when peg is inserted it lays horizontal and the peg pops out easy as if to retrieve vertical any one know what it is?
My first attempt posting here hope i did right.
Thanks
Ed
You did it right. But I have no idea what that is (it's not "old"). I'm going to guess about 50 wraps of the cord at 4 feet per wrap - so 200 feet? That's a long way down. I agree with your assessment of snapping the line to free the peg and retrieve it with the triangle vertical - really a clever design but WHY??? i.e., if it went down it should be able to come back up. I'm eager to see what some of the other denizens of this site have to say.
A "log line" for measuring speed through the water of a yacht or sailing vessel.
The triangular piece of weighted wood acted as a drogue. It pulled the knotted line which was timed (in days gone by a sand glass was used) according to the knots/length of line. When the end of the line was reached it pulled the peg out of the wood and allowed the drogue to be recovered.
The knots in the line are a standard distance. Normally about 45 feet. (I'd have to check my old Nav. text books on this.)
I have used a home made "log" at sea. Rope, bucket and a tripping line. More for fun than anything else but it did prove useful at the time.
Posts like this and the answers provided makes CW awesome.
thank you for your explanation now I can sleep :)
the knots are about 9ft 3in apart i suppose that translates to something nautical
Ed
Right on Racer4four!
Awesome post, awesome response's.