Now that I've added a spinnaker to my boat, I'm getting experienced with the joys of many yards of lines all over the deck. So I'm working on ideas for controlling the chaos. The obvious first step is to reduce the lengths of the lines to just what is needed. However.



For the halyard, I rigged the one-line system that sets the tack and head with one line - it works great! But the halyard is rather long once the sail is up, and we've already had a race or two blown by having to undo some severe rat's nests before the sail can be doused. With practice and procedure change this has been reduced, but...



I keep thinking of ways to implement some device that sucks up the halyard out of the way, and will pay it back to me un-knotted when it's time to douse. I was dreaming up all sorts of pulleys and shock-cords and things. And then...



I was looking through one of my recent issues of Sailing World, reading the article on the Javelin B, fantasizing about that wonderful day when I find out that the Easter Bunny really exists and I can buy a new boat. Low and behold, there's mention of a retractable dog leash being used to suck up the tail of the spin halyard!



Eureka! Can it really be that easy? So, my question to the world - can anybody give me any info on doing this? I'll take any hints before I run off to PetsMart for my latest marine experiment. Currently my halyard is 1/4", is that too thick? Any brands that seem to work better than others? At least in this case I can truly say that I'm not going to the boat store...