Practical Boat Owner - February 2016

by Dick Everitt

Original Boat Owner’s Sketchbook volumes 1 to 5 are now available to download from http://www.pbo.co.uk/sketchbook priced at £4.95

each. A limited number of printed volumes 3, 4 and 5 of the original Sketchbook series are still available from the PBO Editorial office

priced at £3.75 each, or all three for £10. Order yours by calling tel: 01202 440830 or email: [email protected]

PUZZLE SOLUTION: A, D, E

http://www.dickeveritt.com

I. When the mast is

down, it is a good idea

to photograph the

details at the top with

your camera phone.

Then if you have any

problems at sea, you

can explain what’s

needed to any younger

and lighter crewmen,

you are hoisting aloft!

A. A row of small nuts

can be threaded on to a

messenger line to form a

weight that can be pushed

over sheaves. One reader

uses the inner part of

the cable from an old

cable-driven log as a

heavy, flexible messenger.

Once the messenger line is dangling by the correct exit

point it has to be fished out somehow. If there’s room,

a wire hook can often be used.

D. Some people attach a length of wool to the messenger

and suck it out with a tube fixed to a vacuum cleaner.

E. If some of the weights on the end of the messenger

line are steel, a magnetic ‘wand’ can fish them out.

B. A bit of bike chain also

makes a ‘controllable’

weight to poke through

fiddly gaps. But first,

lower the weighted

messenger line down the

outside of the mast, to its

intended exit point, and

mark off its length. Then

lower that amount down

inside the mast. Heeling

the mast, so the weight

runs down one side, can

help it clear obstructions.

Reeving a new halyard through the mast can be very fiddly. It often entails a trip

to the top of the mast, so a weighted messenger line can be dropped down

inside it. Then it’s fished out at the bottom and attached to the new halyard

A

C

D

E

F

F. Or, you can squeeze in a cable tie,

which expands inside the mast.

G

C. My son managed to poke a line through a hanging

block from the deck. He used a nail and some weights on

a fishing line, held aloft in a tube taped to a coat hanger

on a very long bamboo pole. The weights must be heavier

than the ‘fall’ of the line, otherwise the whole lot drops

back out again. And you need a very steady hand and a

hell of a lot of luck!

H

I

G. If the mast is down, try a very strong magnet, or an electrician’s draw tape.

H. Sewn and taped joints should feed through small gaps quite easily, but

very thin messenger lines can jam down the side of sheaves.

B

Exit?

Reeving new halyards