Carl,

I hear ya about the side skipping, athough I've never done it in 50 knots. Wow, that must have been a very humbling ride!

[color:"green"]> Safety lines and types --
we should write more on these ideas and systems set up[/color]

I've seen the pics of Team Lexus Nexus' tethers on Jim's web pages. (BTW, I found his pages on boat preparation for the Worrell 1000 to be very illustrative through the liberal use of good quality photos.) The bungee inside of webbing seems like it would work well, both for taking up some of the slack, and, perhaps more importantly, for absorbing the shock of a departing sailor.