Rope stoppers

I have never used a "rope stopper" device on any sheet. Just bend on a double overhand knot or if you want to impress your friends with your nautical knowledge an Oysterman's stopper knot is pretty sexy.

I 3D printed rope stoppers for my foam dinghy sheet. The sheet just goes through steel rings and the stopper keeps it from pulling all the way through the ring when you capsize or drop the sheet. It was just a half sphere with a hole in the middle, and I used a stopper knot to keep the sheet from going through the stopper.

If it is helpful I could post them on thingiverse.

Murray's sells these for a few bucks - they can be used in clever ways but they are really not needed imho

they are about as painful as a lego to stand on, and pretty uncomfortable to sit on, and will knock you over if you get your knee on one during a duck and tack ...

also when used a part of a downhaul system they will explode/implode with enough force - i had one explode on me under load and i smelled it and saw "smoke" (was probably plastic dust) and was waiting for my mast to come down - i had no idea what the hell just went "bang" - after a few minutes i realized it was just my downhaul and laughed

They are not needed if you can tie (and later untie) a knot - save your money and learn a few knots - ymmv

There are a few places where I've found those balls handy, mainly on my trapeze adjusters because putting your fingers around one is a lot nicer than trying to grab a rope/knot, especially right up at the cleat. And I'll probably replace the big wooden dowels on the SC19's rudder lines with them. But that's about it.

Here is my rope stopper in action:

If you look at about the 1:00 mark you will see him drop the sheet on a gybe. the stopper keeps the sheet from unthreading totally. Then he turns upwind to recapture it.

In my limited cat experience I don't see any use for them otherwise.

a figure 8 knot about a foot from the end, then another at the very end works well on my hobie sheeves. the lines are not undersized for any of the sheeves so it works well.

waiex191 wrote: Here is my rope stopper in action:

If you look at about the 1:00 mark you will see him drop the sheet on a gybe. the stopper keeps the sheet from unthreading totally. Then he turns upwind to recapture it.

Sure, makes total sense there, because that ring on the boom is so big. If there were a small block there instead you could probably just get away with a knot rather than the stopper, but what-ever.

Edited by jonathan162 on Aug 18, 2021 - 05:12 PM.