What a bear
Happy Sixth Day of Solstice,
Marlow rope, in my experience, tends to be absurdly difficult to splice, with no corresponding advantage. I have not handled the D2 yet, but from the description it sounds like it's meant for extremes (coated core for working well in clutches, heavy racing hype text), thus the tightness of the cover.
Let's start with getting the core out. Try bunching the cover by pulling the core from the end. Hold the bunch, and hammer on the hoped-for exit point with a wooden or plastic mallet. Now bend the exit point, flex the rope sharply, take a deep breath, and start nudging the cover yarns, starting, of course, an inch or so away from the exit point, and working inwards.
Next, the splice. If I were me, and there were a race tomorrow, I would definitely Brummel and bury, then run the cover as far home as possible. Until you can figure out where to exit the core and have this come out even, just exit at the regular place and very carefully keep cutting away at the cover end until you can milk all the slack out. Does that make sense? You should be able to get the cover to swallow at least some of the buried core tail. Get as much buried as you can, then whip the end of the cover down to the core.
Alternatively, you could strip the cover a ways back, then bury a foot of it into the core, ahead of the core splice tail, but this might, as you indicate, not be appreciated by the deck crew.
Fair leads,
Brion Toss
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