TIE DOWNS & SAIL TIES. "YOU KNOW YOU NEED THEM."

Do we have a deal for you! We've been dealing with a rope company for years that makes "small stuff" for us. They take all their excess fiber and braid some pretty exotic nylon and polyester line for us. We cut it in various lengths and blow it out to you guys for pennies on the dollar as sort of a good will gesture. On a recent trip on my little sloop I used our tie downs to lash my rubber boat to it's chocks, lash my outboard motor to my stern rail, lash two fuel tanks to my back stay turnbuckle, lash my fishing poles, boat hook and gaff to my forward grab rails, lash my main halyard to the boom goose neck, pull my Delta anchor up tight on my bow roller, as a safety line on my boarding ladder, a safety line on my outboard motor, secure my Honda generator to a bulkhead, secure my port potty to a bulkhead and probably a few other uses I can't remember. As you all know, tie downs come in handy.

Also, sometime ago we stole 35 spools of first quality nylon one inch webbing. We've been cutting it into six foot lengths and practically giving it away at ninety five cents a tie. I take a lot of pride in properly furling my sails. I usually have a bowline in one end of the sail tie. After I circle the sail and boom I thread the other end through the eye of the bowline and now have some real leverage to snug the sail neatly on the boom. I don't think the old saying, "you can always tell a sailor by the cut of his jib" is correct. In my mind, "you can always tell a sailor by how neatly he furls his sails" is a bit more on target.