"DSK" wrote in message
. ..

The tail of the spinnaker halyard.

Bart, you may be showing your age (and mine) here. This was failry
common about 40 years ago, and I don't recall seeing anybody do it for
about 20. The idea was to shake the tangle out and control the speed of
the douse.

Fresh Breezes
Doug King

My skipper would SCREAM that you were slowing the boat down if you did
anything like that. Times change, I guess.
John Cairns