What is this?

JDK

New Member
Newbie sailor here. This site has been very helpful to me so far in getting into the world of sailing and learning about my new boat, so thanks in advance.

This could be a stupid question, but I have not been able to figure out what this object does on my newly purchased 1992 Capri 14.2. It's a plastic tube with a short line tied to one end. When I stepped the mast the first time I noticed this thing was in the mast slot and in the way of installing the gooseneck of the boom. I slid it up and out of the way, placed the boom, and then fed the luff slides in below it. So it ended up at the top of the mast. Is it suppose to be there like a spacer of some kind between the head of the main sail and the mast sheave? There were a lot of custom modifications to my boat so I'm wondering if this is another invention from the tinkerer I bought it from. It's about 12" long.
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I think I get it. When you lower the sail I suppose it keeps the slugs from falling out. Could be handy.
 
3/8" would work. It's somewhere between 3/8" and 7/16" measured with my calipers. It came in very handy this weekend while beaching and taking people on short rides. It's basically the length between the 1st slug and the gooseneck. You have to lift the boom up to the bottom of the wide opening in the slot to get the thing in there.
 

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