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A sail tie may offer more comfort than parachord as a sextant lanyard. Wearing the sextant Robinhood style frees both hands for the sailor on deck. When in a secure observation position then the sextant lanyard can be transfered to the neck or wrist. Looping the sail tie through the sextant handle then finishing the paired ends off with a figure eight knot works pretty good.

Greg Rudzinski

From: Sean C
Date: 2016 Jun 3, 04:30 -0700

Bill,

You asked:

As I have not yet used my metal sextant afloat what do people recommend...I have heard a camera strap suggested.

I purchased a small "hank" of paracord from Amazon. (I highly recommend the seller Paracord 550 Mil-Spec.) You can get 55 feet for only $9.45 and it comes in a variety of colors. I cut about a three foot length and used a lighter to seal the ends. Then, I tied a double fisherman's knot in it to form a loop and attached it to the lower handle post of my Astra with a common cow hitch. (You know this one. It's the way you attach any lanyard. Just run one end of the loop around the post and back through itself.) I use another cow hitch to make a loop to go over my wrist.

The paracord sold by the seller I mentioned above has a break strength of either 600 or 800 lbs. (depending on which kind you get), so there's no danger of it ever breaking. It has a smooth mantle (the outside part which covers the kern, or inner strands), so it won't irritate your skin. As a bonus, the kern can be extracted in an emergency and used for a variety of tasks - from fishing line to sewing thread, and the mantle can still be used as a lanyard afterward. Paracord is really handy stuff to have around, anyway.

...Or you could just use a boot lace. That's what I use to make lanyards for my knives. I use a lanyard knot (appropriately) for those.

Cheers,

Sean C.

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