"Roger Long" wrote in message
...
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.


My mainsheet is forward of the dodger, above the companion way on my Sabre.
I can reach my jib sheets from behind the wheel. (I don't typically use the
locking winches when I'm single-handing, as they're more trouble then
they're worth.)

I typically keep the mainsheet on one loop around its cleat with one loop
around its winch, then aft to me (drape it over part of the binacle). One
flip of my wrist and it's off its cleat for a jibe. If necessary, I can pull
the aft part of the boom to center pretty easily.

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