erich wrote:
Tracking, there is usually tension in the upstream end, with lining, I find that the tension in the upstream end can vary a lot, as I play the canoe in and out of current and around obstructions. The trick is, to balance the tension between the ends, allowing the boat to ferry in/out. A strange bit of a game, sort of akin to working a marionette, though with the added complication of current. Too much tension(or too short a line) will pull the upstream end in to shore.
Well said!
I’m gonna have to jump in on this one with some of MHO.
Lining is like a running ballet, jumping from rock to rock, sometimes wading chest deep, getting ahead or falling behind as needed while playing rope out, coiling it back up, pulling the canoe in, pushing it out, reading the current where the boat is and where it will be in the next few seconds or a couple of minutes from now.
I like loonngg ropes. Whether they are called painters, lining ropes or whatever it doesn’t matter to me.
My present ones are 35+ feet and will be replaced for next season with longer ones. They are stored on the decks with the bungee set up as others have explained. They are never tied to the boat, they have a snap spliced into one end and; egads!, a loop spliced in the other! Not a cheap snap either but a real drop forged galvanized rigging snap.
When lining, sometimes the rope is taut, other times it is slack as when pushing the canoe out or when it is drifting into that special little bit of current to take it around a rock.
Why bring extra rope when these will double as a tarp ridge, canoe tie down and have rescued a few boats off a mid stream pin.
Anyways, that’s MHO.
Paul