What is a handy billy? The answer depends on where you come from

Where is a handy billy when you need one? And just what is a handy billy anyway? Nikki Henderson goes down a Google rabbit hole

Close reaching at a fast 60° TWA I was working out how far forward the outboard jib lead needed to move before setting up something more permanent.

“Where is a handy billy when you need one?” I said to my crew mate, who looked at me with an incredulous expression that so reminded me of my friend’s four-year-old son, Axel. Axel was learning how to speak on the radio with his grandfather, Dennis.

“Roger!” Dennis responded on the handheld VHF.

“Why are you talking about Roger?” Axel replied, confused. “My name is Axel.”

My crew mate’s face: “Er… Nik… Who the hell is Billy?”

So, who is Billy? I thought the same thing. After diving deep on Google, it turns out billy has many forms. The US Navy’s billy is an engine-powered portable water pump to empty out sinking compartments on a ship.

Down Under, a ‘billycan’, commonly known as a ‘billy’ is a name for another piece of emergency equipment: a metal can used to boil water for tea and coffee.

In Canada’s Pacific Northwest, a handy billy is a wooden motorboat with an outboard motor under a housing (for a quieter ride).

Sea shanties such as ‘Rio Grande’ and ‘Heave Away, Me Johnnies’ (British slang – Johnny interchanges for Billy) identify sailors as ‘bullies’, which said out loud with a pirate twang could well be ‘billies’.

And when the Geordies up in north-east England call someone a ‘billy’, they are referring to any good friend or close companion. (Note to self: derivatives of weird sailor-speak lead you down very long rabbit holes.)

The handy billy I was referring to was the naval term for a quick-grab general purpose block and tackle system. It’s a purchase system made up of lines and blocks to give you a mechanical advantage when lifting or pulling heavy loads.

Combine it with a quick release shackle at each end and a cam-cleat to lock off the line, and you can use it almost anywhere on a boat to pull something heavy. The more turning points the line makes, the greater the load you can pull with the same effort.

For example, in a 3:1 purchase system, a load of 90kg (the average man) will require a pulling power of just 30kg (much more attainable) to lift.

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Moitessier fans might know the story of when his steel bowsprit on Joshua buckled sideways during his solo circumnavigation. He used a handy billy to bend it back into shape, and his fix stayed in place for the remainder of the voyage.

I like to think of the handy billy as a fancy tourniquet, the solution to a problem on board when there is no winch close by – a high-traffic piece of equipment that everyone should have ‘to-hand’, just like a multitool, a bucket, or a headtorch.

You won’t regret making or buying a handy billy. Use high spec line so that you can keep the rope slim, the blocks small, and the system lightweight. Remember the handy billy is all about convenience. Taper the splices well so they slide super smoothly on the blocks, and make sure the snap shackles on either end are big enough to clip onto most things. The handy billy has got to be versatile.

Need more convincing? There are plenty more uses, but here are half a dozen to give you the idea:

• Clip to headsail clew to temporarily remove the load off the sheets, perhaps to move a car or sort out a riding turn.
• Add a snatch block on one end and use it to divert the sheet leads or act as a barber-hauler.
• Hook one end onto lifejacket lifting strops and the other to a halyard to create a short-handed solution to recovering a crewmember out of the water.
• Attach it to the end of the boom or spinnaker pole and use it to lift large weights, such as a liferaft or outboard motor on and off the boat.
• Bulk up the number of pulleys and use it for precision placement of ultra-heavy things.
• A quick grab solution for deck level rigging failure such as a failed backstay hydraulic ram.

Come to think of it, all the derivatives could make sense when you consider the handy billy’s true identity: a sailor’s handiest companion on board! Some days it could rival a tea kettle in its frequency of use.

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