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Many years ago sailing in a boat that wasn't mine, we were looking for
something to cast upon the waters, which would float as the boat passed it
to allow its passage to be timed.

The owner had put aboard a package of white sliced bread, that pappy
tasteless stuff. It was perfect for the job. As a devotee of the real
crusty loaf, I regarded the use we put to that white-sliced loaf as
entirely appropriate.

Owners of a Walker log need to know a trick or to when launching or
retrieving the spinner. When travelling fast, the line spins quickly, and
strongly. As soon as you start to gather the line in when retrieving it, it
tries to twist itself up into knots.

The trick is this. Al soon as you have unhooked the line from the head unit
(which is on the taffrail or on the counter), don't try to bring that free
end aboard. Instead, pass it round a stanchion, and chuck it out astern
again. Then, as the spinner end of the line comes in, hand over hand, its
twists are transferred to the trailing free end of line, which is free to
untwist. Having got the spinner aboard, then pull in the other end of line,
without twists.

Similarly when launching the spinner, first hook the line to the head unit,
then, keeping the spinner aboard, let a bight of that line trail in the
water until it's all out. Then release the spinner, and it will pull out
that bight of line before the tension comes on and starts it spinning.

George.

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contact George Huxtable by email at george@huxtable.u-net.com, by phone at
01865 820222 (from outside UK, +44 1865 820222), or by mail at 1 Sandy
Lane, Southmoor, Abingdon, Oxon OX13 5HX, UK.
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