New stern line and bag system

For us NW boaters, a stern line is as necessary as an anchor in many anchorages. You simply cannot stay in many of the prettiest places in the Salish Sea without some way to prevent your stern from swinging. This is caused by some combination of the depth of water, slope of seabed or popularity of the spot. Sometimes all three.

The completed bag playing piano!

On Aeolus, we have always used a simple system that met the criteria of doing the job. But like many simple systems that do jobs, it left a lot to be desired. Or rather, it provided ample opportunity for improvement, which is one of my favorite things to do! We used a plastic 5 gallon bucket to hold about 150' of 3/8 3 strand yellow nylon line. This was enough line to reach shore everywhere, but often not enough to double back to the boat. This means we had to go to shore to release our stern line every time, which was sometimes annoying at O'dark thirty. The bucket was used for nothing else, and took up a fair amount of space in the lazarette. And coiling the 3 strand back into the bucket was a real PIA.

Mesh bottom for drainage and breathing. This mesh is fiber reinforced.

Over at Sailnet I posted a thread asking people what they used to store their stern lines. Opinions varied, and some clever ideas were presented. I heard enough people praise the bag approach that I gave it some thought and decided it was the best for us aboard Aeolus.

Taking some scrap sunbrella I have laying around from other canvas projects, I sewed up a bag with a mesh bottom for water to drain and for the line to dry. The bag has a diameter of 10" and is 22" high. This perfectly fits our new line of 250' of braided nylon. I then sewed a draw string into the top after putting a grommet into the lip.

Now she is ready to go and I can't wait to get her aboard.

250 feet of 3/8 nylon waiting for good use!

Some mentioned having the bitter end stick out a hole in the bottom of their bags. I've not gone that route, thinking that for us the majority of the time we will be using 200+ feet of the line and the bag will simply be stored for later use. If we stern tie in a place with close shores, we can always pull out enough line to double back and tie off on the cleat, leaving the bag and extra sitting in the cockpit. Whatever. Either of these seemed good options and I didn't like the idea of having the line through the bag because then the bag is perpetually out in the breeze getting blown and tossed around.

Grommet and draw string. I will put a toggle on the draw string next.