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On Fri, 24 Apr 2009 14:00:30 -0700, "Capt. JG"
wrote:

"cavelamb" wrote in message
news:EpSdnSdoleRXlW_UnZ2dnUVZ_hOdnZ2d@earthlink. com...
Capt. JG wrote:
Do any of use labels for items like mainsheet, traveller, etc.? I find
that when I'm teaching it's easier for beginning students to get a clew
if they can read what's in front of them. I've been using my old
Brother
P-touch, but the labels fade pretty quickly. Suggestions welcome.

Jonathan


On my new boat, the jib sheets are the same color - and so is the main
sheet!

D wanted me to replace them all with different colored ones like we had
on
the 18 so she could quickly find the right line.

While labels and colors may be helpful at first, I wonder if, in the
end,
the
practice is more restrictive than helpful.



I think you're right that in the end labels are more restrictive if one
relies on them... sometimes labels are wrong. :-)

I think colored lines are worth doing... it reinforces the right thing,
but
again, they need to be confirmed to actually mean something.

My first serious boat as a teenager was a very beat up Fying Dutchman.
Flying Dutchmans had so many lines, some folks described them as being
spaghetti factories. Since I was a broke teenager, all my lines were
the same color. It was the only color clothesline comes in. We quickly
learned to look where a line was headed to know what it was for.
Labels would have slowed the learning process, and things can happen
fast enough on a boat such as that, that you don't have time for
reading labels anyway.



Fortunately, my boat doesn't have a spaghetti wire of lines. I think it's
helpful, at least initially, for students to not be confused. This is
especially useful when I take charters with inexperienced but willing
people. In any case, I'm looking for a solution if you know of one...


--
"j" ganz @@
www.sailnow.com