Tuesday, August 24, 2010

The Rope Coil Aesthetic

Inspired by some other's rope coiling I turned my hand to it at Fowey..... and it did indeed look rather nice against the wood deck.

Updated: thanks to a bit of O' Docker magic the shadow line has vanished!

12 comments:

O Docker said...

Here, we call them Flemish coils, but I wonder if they use that term in Flemland.

Baydog said...

Wasn't Flemland once Dutch Wonderland?

kat said...

Beautiful!:) I think you should enlarge this pic and frame it!

Chris Partridge said...

How long did it stay that way?

JP said...

Kat: thanks - been wondering about that shadow though - worth photoshopping out?

Chris: until we left for the race the next day. I think it was quite good timing as we were inspected for "smartest boat" or what ever it was just after. Didn't win of course, we might look old but the hull most definitely isn't.

O'Docker and Baydog: I'm surprised there hasn't been a comment with lots of double entendres about Dutch coils and Swedish somethings ;)

Anonymous said...

at school they were called cheeses - its a hangover from the time when ropes used to rot - and a cheesed rope dries quickly

dylan winter said...

Did not mean to be anonymous

its Dylan from Keep Turning left

Baydog said...

And String cheese gets eaten quickly, in my house anyway.

Tillerman said...

Flemish Coils may well have originated in Flemland. Still, Flemish Coils languished in relative obscurity for years and would probably remain there today had they not been perfected by an enterprising and dedicated San Francisco sailor and then brought to the world's attention by a passionate San Francisco writer.

Baydog said...

Professional Flemish Coils actually got their start in Southwestern Pennsylvania, in 1892, an area that has produced some of the greatest rope-coilers in history. Joe Namath, Joe Montana, Dan Marino, Jim Kelly, Johnny Unitas, and George Blanda are a few that come to mind.

The first ever organized college rope-coiling contest was held between Rutgers and Princeton in 1869, where Rutgers won, 6-4. As reported, the contest was “replete with surprise, strategy, prodigies of determination, and physical prowess”.

I imagine that Rutgers could coil the crap out of Princeton these days. But it's only a contest.

Kat said...

I think I'd keep the shadow as it gives depth and helps to create a little asymmetry. It's a lovely image!

JP said...

Interesting choice!

It is of course more "real" and authentic than one which has been photo-shopped.