Rope bags

From CanyonWiki

[edit] Life Jacket Design

Rope bags are a little more complicated than throw bags, but still pretty straight forward.

There are a number of ways to design a rope bag. This one is sort of the "life-jacket" design. Strips of closed cell foam pad are used to provide support. These keep the bag open when standing independently and also float your rope. We used two of these on recent trips through Das Boot and Imlay. Both worked very well. In fact, they float like nobody's business. We even used then as bodyboards to paddle across a couple of deep pools. The size shown fit my 10mm X 60 meter rope well. I made a second with 8 closed cell strips instead of 10, which fit my 8mm x 200 foot Imlay rope nicely. You can make it larger or smaller as you need.

[edit] You will need

Heavy duty nylon pack cloth 36 x 42
Cheap closed cell foam pad (although I don't like supporting the globalization of Walmart, they had exactly what I wanted for $5)
Strong mesh
1 inch flat webbing
8 grommets
Nylon parachute cord
Toggle for parachute cord
Very strong thread

[edit] Instructions

Cut the closed cell in 2 x 17 inch strips.
Sew nylon pack cloth as shown in Figure 1.
Sew webbing in place as shown in Figure 1.
- It is useful to leave spaces along the webbing daisy-chain style. This will help you tie the bag onto your pack.
Slip the foam strips into the slots.
Sew the lateral ends together to get a tube.
Find a plate or bowl in the house that just fits into the tube so you get a sense of the circumference. Cut the mesh a little larger than this using the plate as a pattern.
Sew the mesh in place as shown in Figure 2.
- Roll the nylon over the mesh and secure it to improve strength and protect the ends of the fabric.
Sew in a loop of webbing at the bottom to tie in the end of the rope.
Turn the whole thing right-side-out.
Tack down the ends of the webbing to get loop handles.
Add a flange to close off the bag as shown in Figure 3.
- The flange can be either from the nylon pack cloth or from mesh.
- If you tack the flange down flat it will lay nicely when turned inside out for easier rope coiling into the bag.
Use an even number of grommets (I like 8) to secure the flange
Run the parachute cord through the grommets and secure with toggle.