Messenger Line Tangles?

February 7, 2008   

After spending way too much time untangling messenger line I decided what was needed was a cassette that would house the line and allow me to go up the mast and drop a tag line down inside the rig easily. The result was a search for industrial chalk lines that took me to Amazon.com where I buy Keson G150 Giant Chalk boxes. The cassettes will hold up to 150 feet of tagline. What I do is remove the chalk line and replace it with dacron tagline from Svends. I then go to the local bike shop and get some used bike chain. I cut sections about 8 inches long and I can tie this to the tagline. To stop the bike chain from wrapping around spreader bars in the rig take some electrical shrink wrap and shrink wrap the bike chain. The result is a long thin weight that will allow you to swiftly drop a new tagline into the rig from the masthead. The chain is flexible enough to bend into the rig over the halyard sheaves. When you want to coil it up you just open up the handle and with 3 to 1 ratio it is cleanly housed in the box with no tangles.

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