Valley Deck Towline

For me, choosing between a waist mounted towline and a deck towline was an easy choice; having had a prolapsed disk in my lower back my past, there is no way I am letting my back take the strain when towing someone. It is much easier to let the boat do the work and take any sudden jolts.

With a recommended retail price of just over £70 the Valley Deck Towline may at first glance appear to be relatively expensive. But take a closer inspection and you will find it is a well designed, quality piece of kit. It has stainless steel fittings throughout, 15 meters of 8mm floating braided rope, with a heavy duty shock absorbing system and float. It mounts neatly to the rear deck and is within reach for when you need it.

DPP_0034 If you haven't already got one you will need a quick release cleat fitting to your boat. I had my bulls-eye and towing cleat fitted to my boat by Valley. Fitting the bag is simply a case of passing the "clean line" of the rope through the towing cleat, locking off the "clean line" in the quick release cleat and then attaching the bag containing the stored rope via Velcro fastenings to the boat.

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DPP_0023When the tow line is deployed, the bag is simply pulled off the Velcro attachments. The quick release system allows you to ditch the tow line in an emergency. Top Tip: When fitting your Velcro to your boat, round the ends of the Velcro with some scissors. Not only does it look neater, but it stops the Velcro corners from lifting off. Also make sure the surface of the boat is clean too! I heated the sticky side of the Velcro slightly too with a hair dryer, to help them adhere well.

DPP_0046Inside the bag, at the bag end of the towline, is a length of heavy duty shock absorbing line. DPP_0011The 15 meters towline is kept in a series of quick release daisy chain loops, so that it can be lengthened and shortened easily depending on your requirements and conditions. At the final quick release daisy chain loop is a stainless steel daisy chain hook to stop the whole 15 meters unravelingDPP_0037As you can see it is a very neat, well designed system.

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