Harry Murphey wrote:
But there is just one small detail .....The last name is spelled .... Murphey
Sorry for the mispelling Harry
Truly.....the continuous trapeze bungee mod is one of the best mods (and easiest) I've made to my boat! Before the mod my trapeze bungee's were stretched to the hilt while trapezing from the wings but now with the amount of available bungee after the mod, there is plenty of excess for those times that you or the crew do a "trip around the bow" without having to worry about snapping the bungee.
Here is my best description of the mod that will hopefully make it a little clearer.
Buy 8 small bullet blocks (about $7 or $8 a piece), several feet of 1/8" spectra line and approximately 50 or 60 ft of 1/8" or 3/16" bungee (because of the amount of extra bungee you will have available while trapezing (after the mod), you don't need the thicker 1/4" bungee that is typically used on a standard setup).
Remove the old trapeze bungees. Using the 1/8" line, tie a bullet block to the forward and one to the aft padeyes that are mounted under the deck lip where your old bungees used to terminate near the stern of the boat and a few feet back from the bow. There are several different methods to tie them to the padeyes, do whatever works best for you. I personally folded my piece of line (for each block) in half and then did a "lasso" around the block attachment point to attach the line to the block. I then ran one of the tail ends of the line through the padeye and then tied the two ends together with a sheep shank knot (square knot will work). Attach a block to all 4 padeyes in this way. Try to use the least amount of line as possible to keep the blocks close to the padeyes.
This leaves 4 remaining blocks which will attach at the 4 holes (2 on each hull) drilled through your deck lips where your old bungee previously exited from. The point here is to have these four blocks mounted on the outside of the hull, one block for each hole. As Mr. Murphey stated, probably the best way to do this is with one continuous line which I will do my best here to describe...
Keeping the two holes in your deck lip in mind, imagine if you took a short piece of line and tied the ends together to form one continuous loop. Now take the loop and from underneath the deck lip, force one end out through one of the holes in the lip and the other end of the looped line through the other deck lip hole. You now have one loop sticking out of each hole both connected together neatly under the deck lip. Now if you buy the type of bullet blocks that have removable hubs, you can mount the blocks to these loops and you're done. If your blocks don't have removable hubs, you need to pass the line through the block attachment points and the deck lip holes before you tie the ends together.
You will want to keep these blocks as close to the deck as possible so use the least amount of line as possible.Now that your blocks are setup properly, all you have to do is string your bungee cord. Each hull will have one continous bungee instead of the orginal two. The ends of each bungee will terminate at each trapeze handle return rope (connected to the trapeze return rope just as they were before). Connect one end of the bungee to the forward trapeze return rope then run the other end through the forward bullet block mounted at the deck lip holes. Continue with the end of the bungee up to the forward bullet block mounted on the forward padeye then all the way back to the very rear bullet block mounted at the aft padeye. Now come back to the center of the boat and thread the bungee through the aft bullet block mounted on the rear deck lip hole and then finally out to the aft trapeze return rope. Adjust the tension of the bungee so that there is just enough tension to keep the cord from sagging under your deck lip while the trapeze's are not being used (you will have to tighten them up a bit after the first few uses).
Now you have one continous bungee that runs the whole distance between the forward and aft padeye mounted bullet blocks and back to each trapeze giving you mega amounts of available cord to stretch out if needed. Unless both you AND your crew take a "trip around the bow", your chances of snapping the bungee are very slim as opposed to the stock setup. The use of the bullet blocks will prevent the chafe the cords normally incur with the stock setup as well and should last for several years.
Hope this helps!
Tom H. (not to be confused with Tom M.)
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