On Fri, 21 Oct 2005 15:38:28 GMT, "Roger Long"
wrote:

Someone once suggested to me pretending like the freeboard was 1000
feet and then thinking how your would approach deckwork.

I'll admit to being rather casual on this point but I'm really
thinking about this.

My four-year-old is getting a regular indoctrination on the concept of
"one hand for the boat". We don't generally sail in rough enough
weather to demand jacklines, but I can rig them if necessary.

I installed preventers (as in big beefy one fixed on both sides with
lines back to the cockpit) on the boom this year, as one of the prime
ways sailors get knocked overboard around here is getting slapped in
an unexpected gybe.

The preventers act like "super vangs" and I use them instead of the
mainsheet to do main gybes in heavy air. There's a lot less noise and
fuss and possiblity of getting bonked.

R.