It never ceases to amaze me over the years just how many sailors, even experienced racers, have not figured out this technique. My Dad must have taught me this when I was kid, since I don't recall ever not knowing it.
Another tip from my Dad that seems to be a shocker to others...how to best hand hold a loaded line:
To end up holding with the right hand, grab line with the left to take up slack. Now lift the right hand up under the taught line so that the line runs across the back of your wrist. Make a sort of karate chop motion to the right side & curl your right fingers around the top & under the line to grip it. You should now have the line firmly gripped & tightly held by your right hand using only four fingers...the thumb is free. The lazy side of the line is draped OVER TOP of your right wrist & still held in your left hand. Loop the lazy end UNDER your righthand thumb, passing it up between thumb & knuckle of the index finger.
This is much easier to do than to describe!
The result is that the load of the line is distributed across the back of your hand, just below the wrist. This does not create the crushing force that simply wrapping a loop around the hand does. Plus, you will discover it is extremely easy/quick to ease or dump the line just by opening your hand.
Enjoy the many hand-cramp free days ahead :-)
This has been a Public Service Announcement brought to you by Mike.
When possible we can get a pretty good determination if the crossing boat will pass ahead, behind or through us by watch how the other boat is moving relative to the background/horizon.
Tornado, we have always used a similar method but by measuring the angle of the other boat with our course. However, our method only works for straight course (i.e. non spin boats), whilst yours works in both cases, if the background is far enough. Thanks for the hint!
