How to Pull a Wire Rope Through a Pipe Guide

Pulling wire rope through the anchor's hawsepipe requires a fish tape.

Some boats use a hawsepipe---a narrow nautical pipe guide for wire rope---to keep the anchor cable from fouling the deck. A hawsepipe must be narrow so water can't splash up through it in heavy seas. Because it is so narrow, you'll have a hard time pushing new anchor cable through it. Instead, you'll have to pull the wire rope through, while your boat is in dock. Grab a few tools and head for the pier. You can finish the job while standing next to your boat.

Things You'll Need

• Electrician's fish tape
• 20 feet of 3/8-inch polypropylene line
• Duct tape

Instructions

1. Push an electrician's fish tape---the thin metal tape used to "fish" wires through household walls, available at any hardware store---up through the opening of the hawsepipe on the side of the bow (the front) of your boat where your anchor will be stationed. Have an assistant waiting on deck.

2. Tell your assistant to attach one end of a 20-foot length of 3/8-inch polypropylene line to the fish tape with duct tape. Pull the fish tape back down the hawsepipe, bringing one end of the polypropylene line with it.

3. Tell the assistant to attach the other end of the 3/8-inch line to the wire rope. Have your assistant wrap duct tape over the knot.

4. Pull the 3/8-inch rope and the wire rope through the hawsepipe. Remove the duct tape and untie the 3/8-inch rope.

Tips & Warnings

• The polypropylene line will grip the wire rope because its small size means it will be trapped in the lay of the wire rope. The duct tape eases the passage of the rope through the pipe without fear of the pipe slipping the knot.