How to make an equipment line?

Hi,

I'm about to make my first equipment line. I mean a rope to which I could hang my SM tanks and other equipment after surfacing in order to make the crawl into a RHIB easier. The concept seems simple, but I haven't seen one in operation yet. Is there something to consider? How long should it be? Does it need a float or should it better sink? What is the ingenious way to attach it to the boat? What about the attachment points for the gear? Should I make just some loops in the line or attach some D-rings or what? Thanks for your wisdom!

These are called Jon lines, which also shares the same name for hook lines used to fasten yourself to the anchor line during Deco & Stops.
Two different pieces of equipment, slightly different applications, but generally are used for fastening equipment.


A single piece of rope is best, letting it drape more or less, an inch under the water at the middle point.
As you add gear, the loop will rise out of the water. Less drape = less gear you're able to loop into it.

You should attach it to the bow and stern, how you do so depends on how your boat is set up. We use a dock line and hitch it around the dock cleats. If you don't know your hitches and boat knots, now's the time to learn.
If need be we can take in or throw out excess depending on how much gear we have or how much slack we need in the water.

To secure gear, wrap a double loop around the tank valve and let tension keep it in. For BC's just clip a shoulder strap in.

For your RHIB, you could just tie a line onto a bolt snap and loop that rigging on the inflatable's side rigging and when time comes just loop and clip off that line to your tank valve.

Keep in mind that the Jon line should be out of the water and secured before you get your boat underway, otherwise there's really no other safety concerns for adding one to your boat.

Many thanks, g1138, not least for telling the correct English name for it. Now I found also an old thread about it. This part was not fully clear to me:

"A single piece of rope is best, letting it drape more or less, an inch under the water at the middle point.
As you add gear, the loop will rise out of the water. Less drape = less gear you're able to loop into it."

Are both ends of the rope attached to the boat?

Thanks!

Yes both ends are attached to the boat. You tie one end near the bow (front) and the other near the stern (back). Throw the middle into the water and this creates your Jon line that you attach equipment to.

If you have too long a line, you can use a Cleat Hitch to keep slack in the boat without having to measure and cut. This makes it more versatile.

The Jon line will be along the side of the boat. You can even have two separate ones on either side if you have a large team in the water.

It also works great for divers to pull themselves along the side of the boat if they surface at the bow and have to go against current to the dive platform on the stern.

Ok, now it's clear! Thanks again!

That's not how we do it here. Each person has his own gear line. Multiple rings every few feet starting at about 10 feet plus a reasonable amount for freeboard. Total underwater is at least 20 feet, and the end is weighted so that it hangs straight down even in a current. We start unclipping things at our 20 foot stop. By the time we are ready to climb back in the boat, all other gear, scooters and tanks have been clipped off. Some guys haul in their line between dives and gear up again on board while others splash in for a second dive and descend on their line, clipping things off as they go.

We reserve the term Jon line for the short line we use to hold on to the upline in a current or crowd.

Note that the jon line suggestion from the bow to the stern don't work as well for small boat and big waves where approaching anything tied to the side of a boat from bow to stern can get you smacked, because the bow will be bucking and throwing around gear. You may have to live with that risk depending on whether the boat is manned when you are diving or not.

Using a system that goes under water works on the way out to some degree but not so much on the way back in pretty much any real amount of current or waves.

There is also an entire sidemount forum that might give other ideas:

Sidemount Diving

It's in the tech forum, so you might need to ask permission to join.

kwinter:

the end is weighted so that it hangs straight down even in a current. .

Click to expand...

The rest of that post is good info, but I am always wonder about how strong the current is if a line hangs vertical in it. I can only assume a vertical hang on a drop line if it has a stabilizer to the anchor line, and then its just better to go with a long tag line running from the anchor line to well behind the boat, which is the only place I would clip off gear in a current.

We just used nylon rope and tied boltsnaps to the ends. Then we doubled the line over and passed the boltsnaps through the loop, around the rail (not an option for a RIB). We made sure the lines were short enough that they couldn't reach the prop. That gives you a very simple gear line that can be removed once all the gear has gotten back in the boat.

Not off a boat but into sinkholes, but we just use a piece of rope (maybe 1/4inch) with some loops tied in it. One end is tied to a tree or suitable object, the other end is tossed in the water. Gear gets clipped to the loops on entry and exit.

Short ones for a little gear. Longer ones for a lot of gear.

I use a line with two bolt snaps about 3' apart and a D-ring on top, all underwater so nothing bangs against the boat. Weight belt clips to the bottom, tanks to the middle, camera or tools on the D-ring. Attaching everything to one spot makes it much more difficult to drag stuff onboard. The weight belt on the bottom stabilizes everything. I have D-rings on my belt and harness.