REELS
KITTED-UP
MGE Ratchet Reel
Designed and manufactured here in the UK , the chunky-looking MGE Ratchet Reel differs from the majority of reels as its clever design allows for left or righthanded use . Rather than a conventional thumb-operated lever , the reel has a rotating control mechanism located in the centre of the backplate ’ s handle . Twisting it provides access in turn to four individual modes : clockwise ratchet , anti-clockwise ratchet , free-running and full lock . Although it could actually squeeze into my drysuit pocket , it felt more comfortable attached to my BCD and when the time came to use it , I simply attached the SMB clip , depressed the control and off it went . The 50m of 2mm polyester line has an impressive 90kg breaking strain ; thanks to plenty of extra capacity around the spool , there ’ s little danger of overspill when reeling in the line . It may not have a particularly ‘ state-of-theart ’ look to it , but for ease of use it really stood out for me .
Osprey Wreck – Line Reel
Designated as a line-laying device to mark locations and routes by manufacturer Beaver rather than as a means to deploy a surface marker buoy , the Osprey is a substantial-looking reel with a goodsized handle . Eighty metres is a lot of line and as a result the spool itself measures approximately 100mm in diameter by 75mm deep to accommodate it . Although the spring-loaded thumb lever appeared a little lightweight , its operation was nevertheless excellent when depressed to allow the heavyduty , 80kg breaking strain line to unravel . I was impressed with the smoothness of the device . Rewinding in ratchet mode was quite effortless , while locking was immediate when releasing the lever . A stainless-steel retaining clip is fitted directly to the handle for ease of clipping on and off . My only criticism would be that I found the rewind knob a little on the small side for a reel of this size .
CongeReel
Despite containing 65 metres of line , Lumb ’ s UK-manufactured CongeReel is surprisingly compact ( 15cmx13cmx5 ’ 5cm ) with a tough plastic spool ( 9cm diameter x 5cm deep ) affixed to its backplate via stainless steel hardware . The slightly curved handle sits comfortably in the hand with a standardstyle thumb lever used to release the tightly-wound yellow floating line during line-laying or when sending a buoy to the surface . I found the ratchet and locking mechanism to be very effective and was particularly enamoured with the large , spring-loaded knob which made short work of winding back the line . This process was also assisted by the stainless-steel line guide , which in turn allowed an even distribution around the spool itself . I actually liberated a heavily-encrusted Moray reel ( the CongeReel ’ s smaller sibling ) from its almost-final resting place on a little-dived wreck a couple of years back . It took a hammer and chisel to clean it off , but once stripped down and rebuilt - with the original components - it functioned as if it were brand new .
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