The present invention relates to a device for managing the ropes of a sailing boat. More specifically, according to the invention, only those parts of the ropes that are not in actual use are managed.

In sailing boats, many ropes are used to control the rigging. The ropes must be long, so that sufficient adjustment margin can be achieved with them. However, the free ends of tightened ropes are a problem, as they tend to become entangled with themselves and with other ropes. This is particularly emphasized in modern boats, in which many ropes are concentrated in the same place, so that they will be ready at hand and, in addition, the same winches can be used alternately for several ropes.

Ropes can be stored in a heap on the bottom of the boat, but they will then easily become entangled, which will cause difficulties or danger when operating the sails. This entangling of the ropes is further aggravated by the rocking of the boat and also by the crew.s need to walk over this heap.

A traditional way is also to coil and secure each rope separately, but this is laborious, and there is not always time to do this. A newer way is to install special hooks or rope bags, but this too demands coiling. On the other hand, it is often difficult to place sufficiently many rope bags. Similarly, an attempt to place more than one rope in the same bag will easily lead to them becoming entangled with each other.

In very large sailing vessels, electrically or hydraulically operated winches are generally used, on the drums of which a grooved is also formed for storing the entire rope. However, such winches are large, heavy, and expensive.

The present invention is intended to achieve an improvement in the problems described above and thus a device, with the aid of which ropes can be managed without the dangers that often threaten solutions according to the prior art.

The aforementioned and other advantages and benefits of the present invention are achieved by means of a device, the characteristic features of which are described in the accompanying claims.

Briefly, the said device comprises a separate bag for each rope, in such a way that the desired bag can be opened and closed when necessary and, in addition, brought to such a location that its operation is easy and flexible. The bag intended for each rope is preferably set to be able to be moved on rails or by sliding, in such a way that the mouth of any bag whatever can be opened and the mouths of the other bags closed. According to the invention, the mouth of the bag currently being used can be placed in essentially the same location under the winch, irrespective of which bag this happens to be. Because the free end of each rope is always in its own bag, it is easy to know which bag should be opened at which time.

The new solution disclosed is especially advantageous when used in connection with a self-tailing or other type of winch that grips the rope. The rope will then run automatically straight from the winch into the bag.

If the rope bags are sufficiently wide and deep relative to the thickness and stiffness of the rope, the ropes will coil on the bottoms of the bags with the aid of gravity, even though they may be to some extent stiffened by salt. The rope bags can be a separate accessory to be attached to the boat or an accessory of the winch.

If the rope bags cannot be situated directly behind/under the winch, a chute guiding the rope can be constructed between it and the winch and bags. The same chute can be used for each rope in turn.

In the following, one schematic embodiment of the invention is described with reference to the accompanying drawing, Fig. 1 , which shows a simplified drawing of a device according to the invention.

A sliding-rail mechanism 5, one example type of which could be an arrangement of two horizontal rod-like protrusions, is constructed on the vertical wall of the cockpit 2 of a boat, the deck of which is marked generally with the reference number 1. A shown, the outer ends of the sliding rails 5 can, if desired, be joined to form generally a U-shaped handle. In this situation, it should be stated that many basic solutions suitable for this purpose are to be found in the various fields of technology- Rope bags, the outermost of which is marked with the reference number 6, are suspended from the rods/rails 5. In this example case, there are five bags hanging from the sliding rails. At the moment shown in the figure, the rope 8, running from the direction of the stem of the boat, is being used and runs through the winch clutch and winch to the centre rope bag, which is marked with the reference number 7. The mouth of bag 7 is opened in order to guide the rope into it, but the mouths of the other bags, which are not being used at this moment, are closed.

The general principle is that space is made for the bag that is currently going to be used by moving the adjacent bags slightly farther away and opening the mouth of the said bag to receive the rope. Any system that is, as such, known is used for suspending the bags on the sliding rails/rods 5. One suitable system is to attached rings to the upper edge of the bag, through which the rods or sliding rails run. The rings can be, for example, plastic rings, which slide well on the rods/rails. They can be attached to the bag permanently or detachably. In order to service the bag, for example, to spray it with fresh water to remove salt, it can be detached from the rod/rail either together with the rings, or else detached from the rings.

The figure also shown a second rope 9, which is not in use at precisely the moment of depiction, but which is secured to the winch clutch 3. Its extreme end, or most of it, is in the bag reserved for it, which is shown closed in the figure. For reasons of clarity, the other ropes are not shown in the figure, but in this embodiment these are preferably three, in such a way that the total number of ropes equals the number of rope bags, i.e. five.

As stated, the bags should be large enough for the rope to coil of the bottom as it drops into the bag from its mouth. The size means both the width and the depth of the bag. The depth is selected in such a way that the necessary amount of rope at the time can coil in the bag, and that it can drop down to the bottom of the bag by gravity.

Because in a sailing boat conditions are always damp, the material of the bag must be selected so that water, and especially even salt water, will not damage the bag. Similarly, it is advisable for water that has entered the bag to be able to run out of it. For this purpose, drain holes can be made in the bottom of the bag, or the bag can be made from a material, through which water can exit, such as a mesh-like material.

The bag.s suspension rings or similar are at least two, but especially four, in which case the rings will be preferably in common with the adjacent bags. In this way, the bag being opened will also be assisted to stay open for the rope to coil into it.

The invention can be adapted in many ways, while still remaining within the scope of the protection of the embodiments described above and the accompanying Claims.