Hi all,

I have learned a lot from Forums and the CCA, with its wealth of experience, could have an excellent Forum. In the hopes of sharing some cruising/sailing thoughts and stimulating an occasional dialogue, I will throw some writing into the ring every now and again.

My best, Dick Stevenson, s/v Alchemy

A winter mast-up messenger line hack:

Removing one’s running rigging lines and replacing with messenger lines for the winter if your mast is left up is just wise.

I looked at my messenger lines waving in the breeze with some trepidation for years wondering how they would fare over a long and windy winter. And then, some random comment, led me to wrap the messenger lines multiple times spiral-like around whatever stay, shroud or rf foil was handy. This kept them well behaved, unlikely to chafe or to jump out of the sheave, etc. and much less likely to break with all the problems that follow from that.