Mouse lines have failed. How do i get the ropes back through the mast?

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Konsortium

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Hi, I had put new, and what i thought were robust mouselines on nearly all the mast ropes. These include the Genoa halyard and the spinnacker pole uphaul and downhaul. Now i have a web of mouse lines at the base of my mast but no ropes. I still have two ropes to the top of the mast and intend to dig out the bosuns chair and get myselp pulled up the mast. Are there any techniques to make life easier, or do you simply dangle the ropes down and us up a lot of time and patience?
 
any idea why the mouse lines have failed ?

If they have done it once, and you don't identify and change the cause, they will do it again, and again...
 
They if very fine can jump the sheave and jamb , snapping when you pull ,


Or chaffing , but your old halyards would have shown signs of that .

No easy way , but if theres two of you feeding at top and pulling at bottom will lessen snagging
 
bert49uk said:
Bin there, done that, you need to send down another mouse line with a small weight on bottom
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matthew99 said:
Old bicycle chain in single length, i.e. not in a loop worked fine for me last time

Hope this helps
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Konsortium said:
Hi, I had put new, and what i thought were robust mouselines on nearly all the mast ropes. These include the Genoa halyard and the spinnacker pole uphaul and downhaul. Now i have a web of mouse lines at the base of my mast but no ropes. I still have two ropes to the top of the mast and intend to dig out the bosuns chair and get myselp pulled up the mast. Are there any techniques to make life easier, or do you simply dangle the ropes down and us up a lot of time and patience?
Click to expand...

I have used an electrician's "Fish Tape" for just this job. Similar to a very thick mono filament fishing line but with a weighted end. Fishing line with clip on lead weights would be an alternative and probably cheaper.

Alternatively you can use one of the masthead halyards to carry a line up to the uphaul and downhaul entry boxes which if screwed in can be removed harder job if they are rivetted. Just hook the line out and rethread through sheave box. Check the lines are not twisted around the halyard before use.
 
Being a newbie, i thought if i pulled the mouselines tight, they wouldn't move. Instead, it just made each corner act like a saw! Next time, i'll leave them baggy and replace the ropes far more quickly!

I just have to put it down to experiance!

Thank you.
 
Ive also been there done that,
last time I used about 30 steel nuts threaded onto a line and lowered down from the truck, these were successfully fished out of the slot using a strong magnet.
If you cant heel the boat over the right way to control which side of the mast the line goes down, a magnet might also help in this.

Plank
 
I have a steel band of sprung steel with a brass rounded bob on the end. I think it was originally sold as a mouse to get electric cables through walls floors etc. Its about 30m long and winds up on a steel frame like a large tape measure. Used it on a WAyfarer mast but never needed to use it on big boat.

When replacing running rigging on big boat I sew the new line to the old one end to end then tape over joint to reduce risk of kinking.

Its good policy to ask on here before starting to do any new job eg for me I fitted new seacocks this year and the advice I received before starting them was invaluable.
 
matthew99 said:
Old bicycle chain in single length, i.e. not in a loop worked fine for me last time...
Click to expand...

Nice idea, if you have some bicycle chain.

Otherwise, thread half a dozen or more M6 nuts on the line, then tie the last one on with the doubled line tied in an overhand loop knot ...

Is that what I mean? The everyday knot for trying a loop at the end of a bit of string.
 
I've not lost halyards like this, touch wood, but for similar jobs I've used a short length of small chain (from the reel in B&Q) on the end of a fish tape or string. The chain first acts as a weight, and then you can insert a magnet on a stick to pull it out at the other end.

Pete
 
I've only had to do this once and used nuts on fine line as mentioned earlier. Retrieving the line through the small hole at the lower end was the biggest problem but it turned out to have a fairly simple solution. I found some stiff plastic tape from a packing case and pushed a loop into the lower hole and held it in place with some duct tape on the outside bits. I was able to expand the loop to fill most of the mast interior. Just a matter of marking the correct length so that I knew when I'd dropped the weights far enough down to reach through the loop. Pretty simple matter to pull the loop out again and retrieve the line. I expect a long cable tie would also have worked.
 
>Hi, I had put new, and what i thought were robust mouselines on nearly all the mast ropes. These include the Genoa halyard and the spinnacker pole uphaul and downhaul. Now i have a web of mouse lines at the base of my mast but no ropes.

That implies that when you are not sailing you pull the halyards out and leave mouse line in place. I only sewed mouse lines to halyards when I removed a chafed halyard and replace it with a new one, mouse lines are not meant to be left in the mast. Just tighten the halyards to stop them slatting and chaffing.
 
KellysEye said:
That implies that when you are not sailing you pull the halyards out and leave mouse line in place.
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I imagine he swaps over when the boat is laid up for winter, not for every trip! Seems sensible to me, to prevent chafe and dirt accumulation over winter - I should have done it myself really. (Didn't occur to me because I'm used to dismantling the whole rig for varnishing anyway, on our old boat.)

I guess for winter lines it would be best to use rope almost as large as the normal halyard, but in cheap polyprop etc, rather than the thin cord used for a temporary job.

Pete
 
prv said:
I imagine he swaps over when the boat is laid up for winter, not for every trip! Seems sensible to me, to prevent chafe and dirt accumulation over winter - I should have done it myself really. (Didn't occur to me because I'm used to dismantling the whole rig for varnishing anyway, on our old boat.)

I guess for winter lines it would be best to use rope almost as large as the normal halyard, but in cheap polyprop etc, rather than the thin cord used for a temporary job.

Pete
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A rigger advised me to take the standing rigging off during winter (when I don't sail) so that you can wash them and also avoid half a years UV degradation. They therefore last twice as long.
 
I suspect the UV damage will be a lot less over the winter months than the summer ones!

That said I having been cleaning running rigging which had been rigged for 9 years without being removed and it was absolutely filthy.

Edit I rigged temporary mousing lines last Sunday. Hopefully they will still be in place when I go down to thread the new ropes this weekend.
 
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tie a big knot in the ropes and tie a cheap line to it ( to retrieve it later ) pull it up to the top until the knot stops it then put the ropes that pop out the bottom of mast in a bag and tie it up no sun will get at the ropes in the mast or bag and not re treading to do in the spring
 
I've used nuts threaded on the mouse, another thing that sometimes works is to use thick plastic coated 'garden wire' as the mouse. This is good if the mast is horizontal at the time., as you can push it.
Be careful about the lines crossing over, you can get a lot of friction. I find getting the existing lines tight and heeling the boat so the mouse slides down one side mostly works.
Good Luck!
 
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