Years ago on the old cruising list, there was a thread, "What works and what doesn't - great subject" which went on and on, seemingly for weeks. It became a conglomeration of posts on various subjects by people who had bought and used various equipment and/or rigged something a certain way, and it had worked well (or not) for them. If someone said they used a 66 lb Bruce in the Tortugas and it held their 40 ft boat in force 10 for 3 days nobody argued that a Claw would have been better. It was simply posts stating what had worked, and not a lot of speculating whether dacron was better than nylon; no story-telling about the dire consequences of what would happen if you did or didn't do thus-and-so, or other trivia. I'd like to suggest that we stop second-guessing the experiences posted here based on things that work and all the speculating about what might work better. I have never seen any of these subjects brought to fruition and reported on. If listees think they know a better way, I'd sure like to see them build it and then report on how it worked. John "Seahorse"