Rowing Lane Ropes

[tris.wenti]

Hi

I am setting up a 1km rowing course and just need some tips when setting it up. The lanes are only going to be in the water for a few days, so I have gone for a non stretch polyester sinking rope about 1.4km long for each lane. I have chatted to a few guys whom have layed temporary courses before and they rate it would be easiest to just run the lanes straight down the course from end to end of the dam (About 1.3km) with no anchorage points, ie just tie the rope to either end of the dam. Apparently if the rope has enough tension it should stay pretty straight.

So the main question I have is just really how to get the tension on the rope for each lane? I have been playing with a few ideas like using a pulley system vs a winch etc. I have a hand winch which should be strong enough to get the tension, however I only have one and need to lay a few lanes so how would I go about winching the lane and then securing it without loosing the tension of the rope once the winch is released?

Also any other tips or suggestions will be greatly appreciated.

Kind Regards

Tristan

[Bob S.]

Since this forum is mainly about indoor rowing, you would most likely get much better results posting to a forum that is primarily about rowing on the water. If you have already sone that, it probably doesn't hurt to have posted here as well.

Bob S.

[City view]

Many years ago raced on a welsh reservoir which had lane buoys on un anchored 2.2km wires. Fine till a good crosswind got up and middle of course was about 100m out of line. They re tensioned using a tractor. Tying off shouldn't be a problem. Put in anchor point and fix winch to it. Tie a loop into the rope short of your winch. Once you have winched to tension tie off another piece of rope between the loop and the anchor you have secured the winch to, then you can release the winch tension and move to the next lane.