Cheeks wrote:Kevin at seven's set up of thick floating rope, maybe 1.5 inch diameter poly, tied to both ends at lengths of two feet or so, seemed like the safest set up i'd ever seen
While that may sound safe, it doesn't seem very useful.... Not long enough to grab and swim with/pendulum a boat to shore, too short to tie up to something unless it is basically in the river and very small around, and massive diameter rope that is hard to tie knots/hitches in.
The safety is largely in how you stow it.
Fair point, but let me play devil's advocate for a moment.
My belief is that rope in water is mostly bad. Not always, sometimes it can be a life saver. But I don't like putting rope into moving water unless I'm doing it under control, and I definitely don't want it in moving water without my knowledge.
Now, we utilize painters for different things, but there are many instances where once could grab the short end of a throw rope already attached to your boat - you do paddle with a throw rope, right? - or clipping the one on your PFD can accomplish what you need. The one time I don't want to screw around with that is when I flip, swim, and want to grab the rope to help swim my boat into shore. Then I definitely don't want thirty feet of rope to get gnarled in, I'll take 2-5 feet please! and thick so that it: a)is easier to hold without ripping apart my hands and b) is less likely to snare me.
I just keep a piece of rope tied through as a grab loop (works great when having an out-of-boat experience )
and keep a Biner w/ locking gate on my throwbag, quicker and easier than tying(sp?) off a line if I end up with my boat pinned or something..... just gotta take it off before fastballing it at a passing swimmer....make a bad swim worse...
was gonna post a picture of said grab loop but cant figure out how to resize the file so it will upload (ego deflates )..... just a 5/8" rope piece one on each end in a loop maybe 3-4" down from the deckplate.... downside is having to beach the boat to assist in rescue or scout or eat a sandwich....whatever
Grappling hook cannon you may be on to something......new prototype?
All joking aside I use very small loops that just hang from the ends like what you would tie painters too on a tripping boat for lining rapids with alot of gear.
I like a painter that's long enough that when I'm swimming I can hang on to it and push the boat far enough away to the side of me that I can see where I'm going. My boat and I have had some very pleasant swims together this way. I usually make my painters about a foot longer than the boat and have them on both ends secured by a tight bungee cord attached to the deck plate.
kinda like milkman my painters are about 9' i am 6'4" and canoe a mad river ME 15'3" so i can swim with it very well. the use of two jam cleats keeps the painters taught into the cockpit from the boat ends. in the cockpit is about 2' of both painter i tuck under the front bag. the cleats keep the ropes away from me but the painter can be popped out of the cleat in a flash by feel. anyone that has watched me take a dozen swims while side surfing can attest to the effectiveness of this system for my boat. i said for my boat. we all have varied craft and way we recover them. so let talk about paddle leashes ok? my ego i wicked big but can only hold its breath about a minute. my greateast fear is drowning so i whitewater paddle for thrills. when i want safe is on the roads so i drive a subaru.
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if its a flowin' i'm a goin' if its frozen i'm a dozin'
I don't use painters any more. My canoe has grab loops much like a kayak and I carry a throw bag. When I had painters I liked them thick enough to hold comfortably. I have actually seen a canoe get hung up in a rapid due to a loose painter. It was a pain to get it free, but a kayaker finally managed to paddle up to it and cut it loose.
Lots of good discussion amongst pretty much all of you, and i think a certain two parties took offense at each other were none was meant - as I used to comment far more than I have to now (and thank you all for that) sometimes things that are written are interpreted differently than intended.
After having had the experience of being stuck in an uncomfortable situation if I'm in an open boat I like the painter coiled and and secured at the bow and stern - if I swim and can't get to it that's my problem. Years ago it was required that boats in the WW Derby trail a 15 or 20' long painter in the water. We were 7/8 of the way through the 7 mile downriver race when the painter became lodged between two rocks upriver from us in the middle of a class III (ish) rapid. And of course at that point neither my father nor I carried a knife (he still doesn't). We didn't swim, but that easily cost us 1st place and was very, very annoying to deal with.
I don't use painters, but I do always have my flipline on me (4m tubular webbing tied into a loop and worn around the waits with a twist-lock biner) and I simply use it to attach my boat to shore.
TGG!
Everyone must believe in something. I believe I'll go canoeing - Henry David Thoreau
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hahaha
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)..... just a 5/8" rope piece one on each end in a loop maybe 3-4" down from the deckplate.... downside is having to beach the boat to assist in rescue or scout or eat a sandwich....whatever
Grappling hook cannon you may be on to something......new prototype? 
