Mousing Line

[andsarkit]

I used to use 6 mm polypropylene but its life was very short. After a couple of years fibres began to break off, spraying the boat with blue coloured debris.

Not the horrible hairy blue stuff but this braided rope which lasts quite well.

 

[oldbloke]

Having had the jumping off a sheave nightmare, unless I need to change a halyard I shakle an old rope to the end and pull it up almost to the sheave. Then I unthread the tail from all the sheaves etc, wash it in a bucket by the foot of the mast then coil it and store it in and old bag hung on the mast. Keeps them clean and they don't go green and they don't get stuck up the mast

 

[Mistroma]

One year I made the mistake of using mousing lines as thin as this builders line and one of them jumped off the sheeve and jammed, so had to go up the mast to free it, I now never use any line thinner than 4mm, but have never had any problems with paracord.

I went up the mast on a friend's boat this year to drop a line inside and pull up a new halyard. He supplied very thin line with a load of nuts to weight it down. He did manage to fish it out at the bottom but of course it jumped off the sheave when pulling it back up again. I was still up the mast and able to sort it out by balancing the line on a screwdriver blade and pushing it far enough back to clear the back of the sheave and line it up with the groove. It was a real pain.

I'm glad I bought an large amount of 4mm stuff many years ago. I never had problems with it jamming but it did almost wear through on the spinnaker halyard after 2 years as it was rubbing against a sharp edge. It was replaced it with a new piece and I slid a 2 foot length of very thin plastic tubing over it near the correct place. I held it with tape initially and stitched both ends once the position was perfect. No sign of any damage since 2018 and that includes Covid related layoup from autumn 2019- spring 2022. It is well worth considering a piece of very thin tubing over part of the messenger to stop wear.

 

[LONG_KEELER]

Ropes seem to pick up most of the dirt when touching the deck, i.e. ropes led back to the jammers. If a length of line is taken under them and then round the boom lifting them clear helps during wintertime.