I am fairly (very) new to trapezing and yesterday I was on the wire of a H16.(trapseat) I was fine when the wind was fairly light but when the wind picked up (56 km/h) I was slipping quite a bit and even bounced off the boat a few times. This bouncing action even caused what I'm sure looked like a spectacular capsize.



Does anyone have any tips for me? Any and all help will be much appreciated, especially by those who put their confidence in me.

Just keep practicing; it takes time to get your balance. Those waves can take the best off the boat...got to love it! O, wait until you miss your hook and go in; your crew will talk poorly about you.



David

This may be silly to suggest (since you probably already know it), but keep your knees unlocked (although some things I've read talk about keeping your forward leg locked and doing all the shock absorbing with your rear leg).



Also, if you have the sheet, try just holding it rather than cleating it in--you're going to need to do some rapid adjustments.



Best of luck!

John

Does your boat have any non-skid on the side rails. If not invest in either a carpet or neoprene rail kit

Thanks for the suggestions folks. Currently the jib-sheet is too short to come out on the wire with me. So I just dangle out there right now. We will add a non-slip surface to the trap-seats over the winter. I just noticed that I have some nice bruises from the capsize. But as they say in Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail "........its just a flesh wound."

Well i recently took a mate out who has never sailed before and he had the same problem but i had a non slip rale. I kept on trying to get him out on trapeze and yep he kept on falling back. When you go out on trapeze from crew bring the Jib Sheet (I know you have a short on but get a loger one) and hold on to that for support. This helped a fair bit but he still fell. The next time i got him out on wire i went out first and got him out so he could lean on me if he fell (its all practice). Keep trying you'll get it after a while.



If you are looking for a non slip product i would of suggested grip tape before i bought my boat. What you can do is go to a carpart store and ask for a strip which is like drip tape. The carprart will last longer, look better (if done right), feel better and best of all hold you better. I highly suggest the carpart but if you cant get any go for grip tape.



Well have fun and get out on wire as much as possible and just have fun.



cheers Jules