Riggers  Bag

'Round about the end of my first year with the Christopher-Jin I found myself with various lengths and sizes of rope.  When I buy rope my rule is to add 10ft to whatever length you think you need.  So that's why I have all these 2, 3, 5, and 7ft left-over's.  Now, at the price of line you hate to throw any of that away...and that's where the Riggers Bag comes in handy.

Mine came from the Dosson Maritime Museum on Belle Isle on the Detroit River.  Ms. Mumphy bought it for me when she, my daughter, Nasty Nate, and I went there for a visit.  It's a nice blue canvas bag with a few pockets and handles about 12x18 inches.  I took the net bag from a bundle of my daughter's tennis balls and coiled up all the left-over rope and stuffed them inside.  The net bag keeps the rope visible but together.  Then I took My riggers knife, the 4x3 block of plywood, my lighter and the roll of masking tape and put all these items in the Riggers Bag.

I also keep a few sizes of bungee cord and some nylon hook ends that I found at Sailrite.

Now whenever it comes to rigging up something new, I've got everything I need right at hand in my Riggers Bag.  The thing is, even if you don't have a long enough piece of rope, given the variety in my Riggers Bag, I at least know what size to buy.