My Endeavour 32 has this arrangement. First time out in the boat, my son
jibbed as I was reaching into the cabin for something and nearly broke my
arm. My fault. Poor situational awareness with someone at the wheel who
had never steered a large sailboat before.

Nevertheless, I think it's still about the best arrangement for the
proportions of the boat. The cockpit is large so a traveler ahead of the
companionway would be too far forward for proper control of the boom. Mid
cockpit would just make the sheet more of a hazard. It would also prevent
me from singlehanding. As it is, I can stand ahead of the wheel handling
the jib sheets and easily reach the main sheet for jibing.

Having a dodger on the boat would be a problem. I took the dodger off
before I used it so I don't know for sure how the PO managed it. I imagine
it was folded up except under power or hard on the wind.

The main sheet is a good handhold getting in and out of the cabin when there
is a lot of motion.

The only good alternative I can think of for this boat would be a hard
dodger with a traveler on the aft side.

After that first incident, I've had no problems with the arrangement. We
sometimes sail with a very full boat and the sheet is well out of the way.

--
Roger Long