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The
Spelean Whaletail is the earliest commercial whaletail in my collection.
It is cast from aluminum, and has a single safety gate.
The friction on a whaletail can be varied by changing the number
of bars in use; however, since the bar spacing is fixed, this
is not feasible at the top of a long dop where only the top bars
are in use (configuration #1). In addition, the bars cannot be
jammed together like they can on a rack, so that mode of stopping
is not available. On the other hand, the whaletail dissipates
heat better than a standard rack, is slightly faster to rig, and
is much stronger.
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Neil Montgomery described the Spelean whaletail in Nylon Highway #7, and included a drawing with dimensions. I converted the dimensions from millimeters to inches, and had this whaletail made. It is milled from 6061-T6 aluminum, so it is quite solid. I've used it caving a number of times, and it has worked well. (It also works for driving tent stakes.)
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©2007, Gary D. Storrick