Mr. Squirrel, and others, just remembered -- I bought a bunch of bungees
in a box, small sized but fairly strong, recently at Home Depot.  they
sound like exactly what you were looking for with the original query.

On Wed, Sep 9, 2009 at 10:54 AM , David Beierl wrote:

> At 11:24 AM 9/9/2009, Rocket J Squirrel wrote:
>> Thanks, all -- As usual, a bunch of excellent suggestions. With these
>> great ideas I think it's gonna be pretty easy to wrangle these poles
>> now.
>
> If the surplus store doesn't have it or it's not high quality, West
> Marine, probably Hamilton Marine sells excellent attractive stuff in
> several sizes.  I used some, particularly 3/8" on Scamp I in
> permanent high-stretch applications down below and it lasted
> beautifully.  Probably wouldn't last as well on deck, can't remember
> actual experience if any.  Stressed rubber and sunlight generally
> speaking don't play well together.
>
> d