Practical Boat Owner – May 2018

Practical Boat Owner t http://www.pbo.co.uk 85

Stephen Carter sews reefi ng line joins for mousing

R

eefi ng lines get a lot of

abuse and I’ve

recently had to change

mine. Although the primary

reason was to lengthen them

to bring them back to the

cockpit, they were tired and

beginning to fray.

Losing them inside the boom

fi lled me with dread and I

always felt that simply taping

the new line to the end of the

old one was too risky.

So now, I use this foolproof

Stephen Carter

is a qualifi ed

engineer and

accountant in the

aerospace

industry. He

began sailing in the early 1980s

and has recently returned to it

after a dry spell of 30 years. He

keeps a Beneteau First 32 in

Port Solent and cruises the

Solent and northern France.

method (illustrated above)

which works for halyards too:

TOP TIP Ensure that the ends

of both old and new lines aren’t

too much wider than the lines

themselves – which often

happens when they are heat

sealed. If they are too thick,

simply heat the ends and

squash them down by rolling or

squashing on a hard surface or

a pair of grips. Avoid using your

fi ngers on melted rope!

Sew the two ends together – six or so double threads will do – but leave a slight gap between ropes

Tape the join if you want as belt and braces,

though it’s probably not necessary

Make sure the

new line is

kink-free and

start pulling it

through from

the end of the

boom, helping

it round the

sheave at the

gooseneck

Pull the new line through then pull over the sheave Tie off at the destination

Green/Blue) or combined
white LEDs operate at 12V
with a mains adaptor and
colour change unit. They
were priced at a very
reasonable £10. If not in Lidl
very similar ‘colour changing’
luminaires are available
online – if you don’t want the
red option it is even simpler.
I pondered installing the
colour change unit but
decided that I’d rather keep it
simple and have just red or
white, rather than accidentally
end up with blue light or a
disco when trying to just turn
the galley light on for an
urgent cup of tea!
The four luminaires each
have four wires; one 12V
positive, and three more
which, when connected to
ground, light up each or all of
the red, green, and blue
LEDs. For white I simply
needed to connect all of
them to ground, for red the
red circuit only.
To do this simply with a
basic three-position switch
(White-Off-Red), I used a
diode to isolate the red circuit
from the green and blue.
After testing, I also put a 150
Ohm resistor in series on the
red side to reduce the red
lights a little and preserve
night vision.
These components are
easily available from
electronics suppliers and
cost little. I soldered the
resistor and diode together,
insulated them and then
used heat-shrink and a glue
gun to bind them to the side
of the switch, the body of
which will be hidden in the
depth of the deckhead over
the galley.
I was concerned about
voltage drop over the diode,
but this did not in fact pose a
problem with the output.

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There are currently 69
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visit http://www.hackspace.org.uk

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

TOP TIP

The same

technique can be

used for halyards,

but avoid using

tape as it restricts

the bending ability

of the join.