"Duncan Heenan" wrote in message
...

"Stefan Lloyd" wrote in message
...
Sorry but I think your hands will give you trouble. Sailing involves a
lot
of pulling as hard as you can on ropes. You need to be able to grip
hard,
or wrap the rope around your hand and pull.

I can't agree with the last bit. Wrapping a rope around your hand is risky
and should not be done. You must
always be able to let go in an emergency.
If the rope pulls back your hand can become trapped in a block or similar
and give you a serious injury. Don't do it, or if you do, don't complain
when you get hurt.

I don't know about "risky". Depends on the boat, surely? Frequently done it
in dinghies, sometimes in the keelboat (33') but never on anything bigger,
when tensions are higher. Also, personally, I don't just wrap the line round
my hand but as it comes out of the bottom of my fist I pass it across the
top of the wrist and under the thumb so that it comes out forwards. Works
for me - increases the grip I have on the line compared to just holding it,
without trying to hold two passes of the line, but YMMV.