Where's my reefing line gone?

[Misterbreeze]

I think I know the answer to this but I'm hoping someone has a better one.
Trying to swop the 1st & 2nd reefing lines & refasten them to the sail at the mast end of my Zspars boom one of them has vanished inside. It can't have gone far but I can't see a way of getting to it without drilling the rivets out and taking the end cap off. Any cunning tricks that are easier?

 

[vyv_cox]

No, the end cap has to come off. Well worth changing to Rivnuts in case it happens again. The cap is under compression so the fastenings only stop it falling off when not in use.

 

[ash2020]

I think I know the answer to this but I'm hoping someone has a better one.
Trying to swop the 1st & 2nd reefing lines & refasten them to the sail at the mast end of my Zspars boom one of them has vanished inside. It can't have gone far but I can't see a way of getting to it without drilling the rivets out and taking the end cap off. Any cunning tricks that are easier?

I don't know if you've got room to get one of these down the hole, I've got one and the end is a bit less than 12mm diameter. Claw picker

 

[davidej]

Take the boom off and stand it against your house so you can reach the top from a window. Drop a nut (or similar) attached to whipping twine down and retrieve it at the bottom

Then use the twine as a mouse.

Worked for me!

 

[Wakatere]

Electricians cable access rods did it for me, in conjunction with a bit of bent wire to make them ride above the sheaves, and a mousing line with a loop in the end lightly taped to the end of the rods so that when it peered over the top of the sheave (at the gooseneck end) I could capture it with a wire hook and pull it off.

Does that make sense?

 

[MontyMariner]

Take the boom off and stand it against your house so you can reach the top from a window. Drop a nut (or similar) attached to whipping twine down and retrieve it at the bottom

Then use the twine as a mouse.

Worked for me!

With the boom in situ I managed to feed a tape measure (minus the L on the end) around the angles of the cam cleat and down the boom, then pulled it back with a 6mm mousing line attached.
The biggest problem was passing the steel tape up over and round the sheave.

 

[Misterbreeze]

Thanks for all the options. Having been back and had a better look I think the end cap has to come off, access through the holes is too small and routeing the line correctly over the sheaves without tangling with other lines will be near impossible. Annoying though it is I've needed to sort the reefing out for a while as the action is quite stiff so at least this gives me the opportunity to have a better look at it.

 

[Misterbreeze]

Well that was a blessing in disguise......having removed the end cap I could see that the existing lines and outhaul were wrapped round each other, whoever fitted them had somehow got them tangled. Once removed I washed them (nice and soft and bendy now) and standing on the garage roof lowered them all back down the boom & fed them round the sheaves. The action is beautiful now - one of those all too rare jobs that was both easier than expected and immensely satisfying!