Mary,

I normally dont cleat the mainsheet on my H16, when I am sailing the course, but of late I have found myself doing that on long runs, espeacially when I have the sail set right; but I have the main sheet in hand just in case I need to release it.

The Skier
H16

If you want to keep your mast on a spinnaker cat... you cleat the mainsheet downwind and only drop the traveller when you have or look like you will nose dive and also if you are pinching to get over a mark etc...

Best way to sail blind is to go out at night, perferably with no moon light...... gives you a great feel of the boat and trim

Also is a killer rush in some breeze...... love it, love it

Steve,
You're right, of course, about the spinnaker boats. You can break a mast by releasing the mainsheet. But I also should have clarified that I was talking about sailing upwind and on close to beam reaches. Even on my Wave I don't cleat the main unless it is really light air. Maybe this habit is a carryover from my monohull dinghy days.

However, the main should always be cleated going downwind, spinnaker or not.

Your right, the puff's tend to look a lot darker than the surrounding water with the polorized lenses. I guess the light refraction is different when a Puff disturbs the surface of the water, when you are wearing polorized lenses.

Yes, I do. Your question makes me think that I shouldn't? Should I be looking at the sail instead, or what should I be focussed on?

You don't like cleating the mainsheet. What's wrong with cleating the mainsheet? I assume you don't object to cleating the traveler?

Jonathan

You should be looking where you are going, and giving sporadic glances up at your telltales. Whenever you look back, like at your mainsheet block system, you are not paying attention to your steering. I don't know why you would have to look at your blocks -- they are not going to tell you anything. Your sails tell you whether you need to ease or sheet, and your arm knows how to do the work. Sailing upwind or downwind, you rarely have to adjust the mainsheet anyway -- you set your sails and steer by them.

As far as why I don't like to cleat the mainsheet upwind, it's the way I was taught from the time I was a child. And I know Rick never used to cleat the mainsheet either in heavy air upwind. And, of course, you never cleat the main on a reach, because you have to play it constantly.

On my Wave, I have to really work at preventing it from cleating upwind, because it is hard to get the cleat set high enough. So I hold the sheet down with my foot so it won't accidentally get into the cleat.

I don't know, maybe I'm just a control freak.

Mary, I remember you saying something incredible like "we sailed for 15 years without a capsize". Most people I know, including myself, cleat their mainsheets on nearly all points of sail and capsize more like 15 times a year! I certainly have a tendency to capsize (but I'm still blaming that on my boat name "Flippen Fearless" ). Several of those were definitely because, for whatever reason, I couldn't get the mainsheet released in time. Then again, on that 6.0 with only 7:1 in any kind of stiff breeze is pretty darn tough to hang on to.

Yeah, Jake, I think it was when Rick got the Nacra 6.0 that he started having to cleat the main more -- especially since he was having a rotator cuff problem with his shoulder. Probably got that from raising the Nacra 6.0 mast!

By the way, it wasn't 15 years. We first capsized our Hobie 18 after we had it two or three years, and it happened in light air when we weren't even racing, just cruising leisurely around before the first start. Mainsheet was cleated, of course, because it was light air, no threat, and we were just relaxing. So one little gust of wind comes along from a different angle, and catches us off guard, and we're over. Surprise! And then, of course, we had a very hard time righting the boat, because there was only about 5 mph wind. It was all very embarrassing!

P.S. What's the deal with your disembodied head? Rather ethereal. It reminds me of the Wizard of Oz.

Yeah - Bonnie doesn't like my "Ernest P. Jones" head either. Dunno - I thought it was entertaining .

Speaking of . . . as skipper, I have always sailed with main in one hand and tiller in the other. Although I'd read of and seen those who hand the main to their crew, I'd never tried it. Well, after putting new carbo ratchamatics on my 6.0 this spring, I'd set the cleat angle too high for me to use while sheeted in hard. The first sail with the new blocks was just under 25 miles with just two tacks. On the final 6-mile reach, my arms were getting a bit tired and the winds had kicked up to 15 or so. Reluctantly, I handed the main over to my crew. As it turns out, it was great! The windward hull did not touch down once on the close reach and I was really able to keep my head out of the boat and drive. My crew played the main expertly. At one point I had to travel down a tad (and, yes, I looked at the cleat to do it), but otherwise I was able to stay fully extended on the wire, with head and eyes toward the water and approaching wind.

Out of curiousity, how many of you give the main to your crew?

Close reach to close hauled, having the crew handle the main works great. Firstly, the jib generally doesn't need adjustment anyway. Secondly, the crew has more leverage to pull with both arms and legs. Thirdly, it allows the skipper to get "out of the boat" and concentrate on piloting.
Plus, the way I drive, the tiller can be quite erratic while I'm adjusting the sail. Probably because I'm looking at the blocks!
Al

Kevin...

Although I sail solo alot on my H16 (with jib), when accompanied I frequently let my "crew" (i.e. passengers) take the main sheet or the tiller while we're sailing in one direction. I am not one who spends alot of time out on the wire or flying hulls (at least not intentionally). I sail with family members up and down the beach--sometimes with dolphin pods when they're out, around the island, and out to distant sandbars. While the waves are usually moderate to heavy, the wind speed and direction is usually quite consistant. Handing off some control of the boat gives me a break and makes my crew feel more involved.

Mark Owens
1976 H16 sail # 19857

Hey, now...I love Jake's tribute to Jim Varney.

welllll....at least I got her to register. That's good ... right?

I know you are just trying to gather information, but there is no way for people to specify what they mean about their vote without doing a separate post like this.

The most popular answer, and the one I used, is that it depends on the conditions. But that will mean different things to different people. For instance, we would cleat it in light air but try not to in heavy air. Maybe other people do it the other way around.

Rick always found that in heavy air when he is out on the trapeze, holding the mainsheet, uncleated, helps to keep you "glued" to the side of the boat, so it is serving almost as a sissy line.

I voted "No" to this one on behalf of Rick, because he would never let me handle the mainsheet. I don't blame him, because if I were on the helm, I wouldn't let him handle it, either. It's like I don't trust him with the TV remote, and he doesn't trust me with it.

It's hard to hand over the mainsheet to anybody that you do not trust completely, especially in buoy racing. For most people, tiller and mainsheet are the most important controls, and those two controls have to work in concert when you are on closed courses with lots of other boats around. It is a lot easier to have the crew handle the mainsheet in distance races.

Highly skilled teams that have been together a while, like the teams campaigning for the Olympics, have no problem with the crew handling the mainsheet in buoys racing. Most of us normal people don't have the luxury of having the same crew all the time and developing the skills and the mutual trust.

If I had to choose between letting a relatively inexperienced crew handle the mainsheet or the tiller, I would put him or her on the tiller, and I would keep the mainsheet.

P.S. I guess I should point out that the mainsail is a lot bigger than the rudders. The mainsail is the primary engine for the boat, and it is also the most important steering mechanism. You don't hand that over to just anyone. If the guy on the tiller needs to bear off to avoid another boat and the guy holding the mainsheet doesn't let it out, there is no way the rudders are going to win.

Even when my main is cleated, I keep it taught in my hand for that same reason.

With regard to sailing when the main has been handed over to crew, the empty hand feels like it's searching for something to hang on to.