Simple stern line reel mount

I thought I'd share my simple idea for mounting a stern tie reel. I installed this last winter but wanted to test it out this year in Desolation Sound before sharing. It works really well!

Since I don't use a stern tie all that often I wanted to keep the reel in the cockpit locker and be able to mount it quickly at the stern when needed. I also wanted to be able to spool the line back up on the reel quickly as spooling 400 ft can take some time. At the time I was in the process of removing the mid-ship cabin seat which I don't use and was in the way. The seat uses a single stainless pole instead of legs. I was about ready to toss the pole in my box of misc. parts in the garage when I walked past the stern flag pole mount. Hmmm...I wonder... with a few modifications I came up with this.



This design uses 400 feet of 1/4" poly line on the reel it came on from the store. I added a piece of 1" conduit to reduce the diameter of the hole in the reel to match the stainless pole. I added a couple of plastic sleeves as well to make for a tighter fit (can't remember where they came from). I shortened the shaft to the width of the reel and made a spinning handle out of a stainless bolt and copper pipe to make it easier to spin the line back up. Works great! Spools out cleanly and spools in really fast. Fits in my crab cooking pot in the starboard cockpit locker. The flag goes back in the mount when not being used by the stern tie mount.

Great idea. I do like what Jim Favors used the rear support of his cockpit canvas for his stern tie reel. I liked the angle using that support as a place to slide the stern tie reel on to. Nothing extra to carry.
D.D.

Yeah, I liked Jim's solution as well. Unfortunately my reel would not fit over the fitting on the bottom of the Bimini support without resting on the cockpit rail and I wasn't sure how easy it would be to spool up. Maybe he puts a spacer/bushing/plastic ring under his to allow it to spin freely. My spool has some metal nuts that may rub the cockpit stainless rail without a bushing. In any case, I thought another option was worth sharing. And I got to use a piece of that worthless midship seat to boot!

I actually carry my spool of line in the cockpit stern storage. I pull it out when needed and then run a line from one side of the bimini pole structure through the spool and then tie to the other side of the bimini structure. Hey, whatever works is good!

The spool I have is all plastic, no metal to rub against the rail. When I bought stern line at West Marine I asked them what they would do with the spool the line came on and they said throw it away so I asked them to throw it my way. Actually the idea of placing the stern line spool in the canvas support pole was Andrews or Jeff's with RT, I really can not take credit for the idea but it does work just fine for us.

Jim F

If you're looking for a plastic spool, find an electrical supply house. They usually have all kinds of sizes of empty plastic wire spools they just throw out.

Great idea. To-date we've not needed a stern tie but I love simple solutions like this. Particularly that addition of the handle for quickly spooling the line. Well done.

Good job Red Raven. I have seen a number of interesting and functional stern line reels. I happened across a solution when I was about to trash an old leaky garden hose reel. I fabricated an adapter to mount it to a down rigger mount. It mounts vertical so retrieval is easy and allows an easy level wind control so the line does not tangle when being deployed. It holds 400 feet of line. For the line I spent a fare amount of time looking at very expensive marine store lines that float and have high braking strengths, only to realize parts of our boat would part before the line. I happened upon 400 ft of line at Homedepot with a braking strength of 600 LBS. If I run the line to shore and back that's 1200 LBS of braking strength. If we reach that amount we are already in trouble as mentioned above. And the amazing thing it floats. Total expense $64.

Finally figured out how to attach a photo

Nice!

I copied Curt's design with a few modifications for our R25 Classic and it seems to have come out pretty well. I purchased a single 12" long stainless steel thick wall tubing with an OD of 1" from eBay. Then a plastic reel of 600 ft of 1/4" yellow polypropylene from E-Rigging.com. Then two Sea Dog 1" round rail base mounts from Amazon Finally, two large nylon washers and two 1/4" cap screws were picked up from Ace Hardware. I'll be adding a handle to the plastic reel as Curt did for easy line retrieval. To remove the reel I just take out the two cap screws on the flag mount and pull the whole assembly up and off. Storing the reel and tubing in the cave when not in use. See my photos album for pics and part numbers.
Thanks for the idea Curt!!

Nice job Al. Yours is fancier than mine. I like your idea of using the Seadog bases for securing it!

Curt

Dumb Question... what is a Stern Tie used for? Can't imagine what 400 ft of 1/4 in. line would do coming off the back of the boat.

Hi Phil:

Stern lines are used in places where the water drops off rather quickly from shore and at a severe angle. In these kinds of situations it is difficult to get a good set with your anchor, especially when the current and tides changes and turns your boat in the opposite direction. The stern line comes into play when one sets there bow anchor then runs a stern line up to shore to tie off of a rock or tree. By having the stern tied to shore your bow anchor is prevented from dislodging when the current and tides change because your boat does not shift away from shore. In addition a stern line is used when an anchorage is crowded, deep water or not. By stern tieing to shore in a crowded anchorage the anchorage area can handle more boats.

Jim

Thank You!

Do Y'all think a stern line should be a floating line?

Absolutely. We were in the Octopus Islands in Desolation Sound a couple of years ago with a stern tie. Even with a floating line some sightseers in a dinghy crossed our line. Fortunately they were going slow and the line was on the surface so no harm done other than a little embarrassment. A non-floating line could result in much further damage.

Curt

Most of the stern ties go around a tree or preset ring and back to the boat. That way, you just loose the one end of the line and reel it all in from the comfort of your boat.

Added a dedicated cleat on the transom for our stern line. Got tired of having to use the aft gunwale cleats because I wasn’t confident in their mounting strength. Transom cleat is used for stern line with the dinghy in the water of course! Much stronger mounting location on the transom than used by the aft gunwale cleats. May also use the new transom cleat for dock lines if needed.

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