Lashing Lesson 3

Topic Progress:

Floor Lashing

Floor lashing provides you to make a platform to sit on that is off the ground or to make an elevated sleeping platform to get off the ground. This same technique can be used to secure logs together to form a raft. Let’s see how it is done. In the picture below you will see the completed project.

Start by laying the poles on top of the stringer poles of rafters like in the picture below.

Step 1: Begin the Lashing Process

A clove hitch is tied around the platform support. (Wrap the end around the standing part of the rope.) Make a bight in the running end and pass it over the first floor spar on the inside of the platform support.

  • Grab this bight and pass it underneath the platform support.
  • Next loop it over the first floor spar on the outside of the platform support.

Step 2: Continue and Complete the Lashing

Tighten both loops around the first floor spar by pulling the running end extending between the first and second floor spars on top of the platform floor.

  • Repeat this process for each floor spar until you reach the other end.
  • When you reach the other end, secure the running end of the rope to that end of the platform support with a tight clove hitch (not shown in the photos).

Step 3: Here’s the Process

Throughout the whole process, except when pulling the running end to tighten the loops around each floor spar (or securing the end of the rope to the platform support), you’re always working with a bight (bite) in the rope.

Step 4: Continuing the Process

The above photos illustrate this simple floor lashing process once you get it going. Reaching the “lashing destination” (arriving at the other end of the platform support and lashing on the final floor spar) is not illustrated, It’s simply a matter of finishing up by securing the running end to the platform support with a clove hitch.

The whole process can be done simultaneously on the other side, on the other platform support, or completed one platform support at a time.

Lashing – Level 3 Requirements:

Lash a raft using this technique, the raft needs to support you and float.

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